http://scrappingwithbuffie.blogspot.com/
I’ve started a new blog (because one blog just isn’t enough) that will be dedicated to my paper crafting.
In my head I call it “my business blog” and I call this one my “useless blog“. Now someone needs to go sign up to follow it…
it’s very lonely in the business blog!
(it's pink so you'll love it there!)
There is a link in "my links" on the left side of this blog.

Happy New Year!

It’s a COLD and sunny day today. Last night we had a crazy snow storm that under normal circumstance I would have loved. But I was at my Mother’s house yesterday and by the time I left for the long drive over the Big River, thru Albuquerque and across the mountains the roads were BAD. I-40 east of the city was snow packed and very slippery. You couldn’t see the lines in the road so there was no way of telling if you were in a lane, or even on the road for that matter. It was snowing rather hard and the wind was blowing. I had both girls with me, Lauren was helping me by watching for the lines in the road, and Savanna worried in the back seat (because that’s what Savanna does). Once we got off the interstate things got worse. Of course there had been no snow plows in Edgewood so you really couldn’t see the road. As we inched our way down Dinkle road Lauren noticed foot prints on the side of the road that went on for a number of miles. We debated if it was human or dog, and came to the conclusion that it must be human…. Or dog. But what man or beast would be out on a night like this? As we came upon our street we saw a man walking. I tried to stop to see if he needed help, but I slid past him. As he came up on my truck I asked if he was OK, and he said, “yes, my car wouldn’t start and I needed to go to Walmart.” I told him that it was still a long way, and he said, “no I’m almost there”. Ummmm it’s like another 3 miles I informed him, and told him that if he wanted to ride in the back of my truck I’d take him the rest of the way. So he jumped in the bed of my truck and away we went. It was then that I felt the urge to lecture my girls on the dangers of picking up strangers on the side of the road. And I assured them that if it wasn’t for the pick up truck and him being able to ride in the back I NEVER would have done this, and that I was in complete control of the situation…. I could keep an eye on him, and if I felt like we were in danger I would simply slam on my breaks and he would fly out of the back of the truck bed (never mind that we would be in the ditch right next to him).
I pulled up to Walmart and he jumped out and thanked us. I might add that NO ONE was at Walmart due to the storm so he wouldn’t have to wait in line to check out. There was a big part of me that wanted to go in and follow him around the store to see just what it was that he needed so bad to walk in a blizzard miles to get. Another part of me wanted to go back and find the foot prints and follow them back to see how far he really had walked, but I was sure that the snow and wind would have covered them by now…. And really I just wanted to get home, so that’s what we did.

Christmas Caviar

Scott received a gift basket from work this year. It was full of all sorts of goodies, and not so goodie goodies. To Lauren’s delight it had a jar of caviar. She’s never had caviar before, but really wanted to try it. She wanted to break it open on Christmas morning so she could share it with her cousins. MMMMM

Yipppppeeeeee….. A new Christmas laptop!

Scott knew how much I was missing my dead laptop, and how I was really struggling with our slow ten year old desk top computer. So on Christmas Eve he surprised me with a new laptop. And it really was a surprise! I hadn’t asked for one, knowing that “in these hard economic times” it wasn’t a reasonable request, and that I could just make due with the super slow computer for now. So I asked for birdhouses (which Scott has made me before, and I knew he had wood to make more) and something to play my ipod in the kitchen. I got the birdhouses, the ipod player, AND then he pulls out one more box, and it was a shinny new laptop!!!!! What a wonderful surprise, and truly appreciated. Now I can (with ease) load and edit pictures, buy music on itunes, and load audio books on my ipod, lay in bed and play solitaire, keep up with my blog and Close To My Heart website. Yip…. I’m a wantabe computer nerd….. A happy, new laptop owning computer nerd!

Christmas morning was full of our traditional family activities. Rebbie and the girls showed up early. Rebbie was hopped up on cold medication and Krispy Kream doughnuts. She was worse then the kids when it came to waiting to open the gifts….. She kept coming at me like a spider monkey! Once Nana, Pops and Nano showed up the gift exchanging began. Now that the girls are older we like to take our time opening gifts. We go around the room and everyone takes turns opening a gift. This way we can see what everyone is getting and from whom. I like this so much better then the way it use to be when it was a free for all Christmas gift frenzy. I never knew what my girls got, or who it came from. Now I know, and everyone gets a chance to enjoy their giving as well as being able to be thankful for the receiving.

Then we move on to Scotts yummy dinner. His favorite thing to make on Christmas is prim rib. We also have ham, homemade mac and cheese, cheesy potatoes (Nana’s special dish) cream spinach and artichoke (Lauren’s specialty) and posole stew (thanks to Rebbie). After we all have our fill we break out the birthday cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus. This year I made Jesus a chocolate covered cherry cake.

One of the days highlights was Rebbie “trying” to teach me to knit. Ugh…. She makes it look so easy, and we all received wonderful knitted gifts from her (gloves, socks, mittens)…. Trust me, it’s not easy, and there will be no knitted gifts from me under the tree next year!

All in all Christmas was wonderful, full of family, fun, and traditions we all hold dear. The one big part missing was Rebbie’s eldest daughter Kristen. She and her new husband John stayed at home in Virginia and started their own family traditions. We missed them dearly, but understand their desire to enjoy their first Christmas in their own home. AND with the snow storms that covered most of the country there is a good chance they would have spent Christmas in an airport if they had tried to come. (I’m glad they were home safe and sound).

Pre Christmas frenzy

Why oh why does it have to be this way?


Last week is still a blur for me. Savanna's science fair project was due, along with a project for her Spanish class. She had a choir concert, and school parties. Justin had a choir concert, and the annual Madrigal dinner. It was my last week of work until after the New Year, so I had to finish up my work, and help tie up loose ends here and there. Scott and I had a dinner to attend, and he left for El Paso for a company Christmas party over the weekend.
We started the week with Lauren's wisdom teeth removal and ended the week with knee surgery for Justin. And I had a sinus infection thru it all.

This week is much better, Lauren is recovered, Savanna is relaxing at home (and not yet bored), my shopping is mostly done, gifts are wrapped and Scott is home. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Now we can just pause and remember the gift of the season, and what Christmas is really all about.
My goal this week: To fill my heart with the baby Jesus, and give thanks for the gift of salvation He was born to bring to us. I hope each of you take the time to just sit in calm silence and reflect on the greatest gift of all.

Out of control blogging

I felt the need to over blog today.

1. Because I had a snow day today, and some extra time on my hands.
2. I had my pictures put on a CD so I could get them on my computer.
(Laptop is still dead.)
C. I feel behind... and there is lots of "stuff" going on here.

We've had a few nice snow storms (my favorite) and I went to Advent Fest at Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp last weekend with my sister and Lisa. We met up with our dear friend Roberta (from Denver). We had a nice, relaxing, fun time, and even got to battle our way home thru a snow storm in Colorado.





Lauren is taking finals this week at NMSU. So far she thinks it going well, but her two hardest ones are still to come. She'll be home this weekend for a month... in which time she'll be getting her wisdom teeth ripped out! She's so happy about that... HA

Gabby the Labradoodle impersonator.

It's a really long story, so I wont go into it... but Gabby isn't a labradoodle, she's a Kuvasz aka fierce guard dog. We still love her just as much as when she was a labradoodle, but now the way we teach her to behave is total different. We are in our 5th week of obedience training, and while she's at doggy school she's top of her class. But once we get home she's CRAZY. Scott has to run with her 4 miles each day, or she's bouncing off the walls. She is unbelievably smart, and loves to watch TV... her favorite show is Dogs 101, but she'll watch just about anything.
While in AZ they must have shaved her, because now she's growing in this fluffy, curly, thick coat of fur. She has loved the snow storms we've had over the past couple of weeks, and I have to bribe her to come in from the cold. Just the opposite of Jester the Greyhound who flat out refuses to go out on the frozen tundra.
If you want to read more about this rare breed visit this web site.
http://www.kuvasz.org/

Bad Blogger

It seems I have fallen back into my bad blogging habit, of not blogging. I have to wonder why no one is ridiculing me for being a bad blogger…. Then I remembered that no one reads my blog on a regular basis, so it’s doubtful that anyone has noticed.

The past six weeks have been overly stressful in the Nelson house. Savanna started middle school, and we got Lauren settled away at college. Then it all came tumbling down. Savanna started to throw up one morning, and it didn’t stop for two weeks. Then we added in some constipation and diarrhea to the yacking. After countless visits to the Dr. blood drawn twice, three stool samples (wrong test on the first one, and they lost the second one).We even started taking her to a counselor. Finally we got in to see the Pediatric GI Specialist. They could tell right away that she had blockages in her intestines, and what they said is like irritable bowel syndrome.
He put her on medications and she’s back to her normal self. We are going to continue with the counselor for a little while because we think this is linked to stress and anxiety. She goes back to the GI in December for a follow up.

Thru all of this we broke down and bribed her with a puppy. Any puppy she wanted, if she would just go to school for two weeks (in my mind, after two weeks we would have broken the spell and she would be fine) The only exception to the rule was: If they found something medically wrong with her, she could pass go and collect her puppy right away. Well both things have happened. She has a medical diagnoses, and has gone to school for two weeks with no problem. After much research on Savanna’s part (and online breed testing) she discovered that her best breeds are, labs, poodles, and or spaniels. Because of our connection with Greyhound Rescue I really wanted to rescue a dog… either from a group or a shelter. So the hunt began…. And we found Gabby, a one year old cream colored labradoodle (lab/standard poodle) who was found as a stray in Phoenix, AZ. She’s been in a foster home, and looks like just the sweetest dog in the world. The Poodle Rescue of AZ normally wont adopt out of state, but they made an exception for us due to our experience with Greyhound rescue, AND the shinny referral Judy (GCNM founder) gave us. Then all the poodles started to fall into a row. My dear friend Erin’s mother in law just happened to be in Phoenix and on her way home. She picked Gabby up for us, and they are now in Holbrook, AZ (about 4 hours away). There will be pictures to come.

But for now I will post some pictures of birds that were in my yard yesterday morning. We had Scrub Jays take over! I’ve been feeding them peanuts for weeks now, and at the most have had 3 or 4 at one time. Yesterday Scott looked out and there were dozens of them. Also a woodpecker in the pond. I got some pictures of him when he was drying off. Then a Thrasher came into the yard to eat peanuts too. It was a busy bird morning.

Back to School week

There are things I LOVE about back to school. I love the smell of new school supplies, all the new socks and undies that fill the laundry basket, and the excitement of seeing old friends again.
BUT I DO NOT like back to school if it includes taking one of your children 4.5 hours away, and leaving them there. She had the shinny new school supplies, new undies (no new socks because it's far to hot in Las Cruses for socks), new bedding, new towels, and a new pet fish named Crimson (NMSU school color).

So this year, back to school was:
a new school for Savanna. Edgewood Middle School.
And a new school for Lauren. New Mexico State University.

So far Savanna is doing great (today's her 3rd day back at school) and seems to have adjusted well to all the freedoms that middle school has to offer. Her biggest worries have been, what to wear, and how does her hair look?...?....

Lauren's step was much larger. She has a roommate (she's never shared a room in her life), she has unlimited freedom, and she's far far far away from home.
Thankfully a TON of kids from Moriarty High School, AKA Mo Town are also going to NMSU, with a number of them living in the same dorm as Lauren. Her best friend Annamae is right next door, her other BFF Madeline is across the court yard, and one of her show choir peeps lives right below her.
She will start classes on Thursday, and until then she will be busy getting use to the heat, and making new friends.

As for me..... I'm just feeling old, tired and poor from all the back to school frenzy. I need a nap!


In this slide show you will see pictures of Lauren's last night home. We had a camp fire and made smores.

Bishops Castle

Around 11:00 this morning we headed out with the girls to Bishops Castle. It was really crowded, but we went up to the big room where Savanna and I waited while Lauren and Scott went up to the towers. Then as we were thinking about leaving we ran into our camping buddies. So we stayed and Lauren, Savanna & Scott climbed around some more, and went up even higher then they did before (peer pressure). I stayed with my feet on the ground with Tommy and Patty and looked up to watch everyone else risking their life's.

After the Castle we went to Westcliff to get ice cream. There is an ice cream shop there that my friend Helen and I loved to go to when we were at family camp at Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp. But when we got there and I saw the closed sign in the window my heart sank. Thankfully Billie noticed a store up the street that had ice cream.... so all was good again.
MMMMMM ice cream!

Colorado City, CO

We are spending a long weekend in CO with our friends at the KOA. Scott, the girls and I traveled up here Friday morning. We met our friends from Fort Collins, Denver, CO Springs and TX. Also new friends Larry and Billie from KS.
Larry has been cooking for us all weekend. MMMMMMMM Thanks Larry!
Larry Godby set up this unofficial campout for us. The campground grouped us all together so it's almost like a mini Excel rally.
Last night some unexpected folks from OK pulled up in their Excel... so in true Excel family style we feed them the ton of food we had left over. (it was nice of the campground to park them near us)

This morning I'm sitting here at my table, drinking tea, blogging, and watching Mac, Tommy, and Larry (from KS) sitting in the sun (hope they have sunscreen on) drinking coffee and telling stories. I think Larry and Tommy were out walking their dogs and ended up at Mac's picnic table.

Today, Scott and I are going to take the girls to Bishops Castle. Pictures to come.

Backyard Smackdown

I'll never understand the little mind of the hummingbird.
How can such small, beautiful, innocent looking birds be so mean?
I've had a love of the hummingbird since I was young. Nano and Papa always had a feeder on their back porch in the summers, and I can remember my grandfather complaining about the Rufous hummer. As I recall they had a book about a Rufous (wonder where that book is now? I'll have to ask Nano)

I can also remember my great grandmother (Big Nana) coming to visit from PA and she'd sit on the back porch holding onto her wig, she was just sure they'd swoop down and carry it off with their pointy bills.

I've been feeding the hummingbirds here for years, and each year I have added a new feeder or two in my efforts to keep the peace. I currently have 8 feeders out. In theory that should be a spot for 30 birds to sit and drink to their content. But in reality, it's just given the Rufous that many spots to protect as his own.

Last year I had two Rufous hummers fighting with each other and that gave the other hummers a shot at a drink as the two little red birds chased each other around the yard. But so far this year I just have one and he's busy keeping up with all "his" feeders.

This weeks backyard birds

I had a good bird week. Savanna spotted the yellow headed blackbird from the window and came to get me so I could see it. (She loves watching the birds too) It sat on our fence for a long time and let me take a few pictures of it. The Meadowlark has also started coming to the feeders in the yard. For months I've been stalking (or he's been stalking me) this bird. I could always hear him, but not see him. Now he's making at least one visit to my yard each day.
I had also never seen a hummingbird in the bird bath, but this morning I had one in there splashing around... I'm guessing she must have had sticky feet.

Missing Noah

I had to have my sweet cat Noah put down yesterday. He had what seemed to be a tumor in his bladder. He was unable to go to the bathroom. The vet emptied his bladder and tried some Homeopathic treatments, but nothing was working, and he was going downhill fast. I hated him being in such pain, so needed to do what seemed like the best thing for him.

We will all miss his sweet spirit.

Tosh

We had a very sweet foster dog this week..... Tosh. I just had him for the week while his foster family was on vacation. He is going to his forever home this weekend.

Backyard Bird Watching

I've taken up the sport of backyard bird watching.
For Christmas I asked for "bird watching stuff". I got a beautiful copper feeder, a book Birds Of New Mexico... that is the BEST bird watching book, and Binoculars.
Now most everyday I go out to my porch around 6:00 AM with my cup of tea, and sit and wait to see what will fly into the yard.

Is it winter yet?

It's been a long day.
It really started yesterday. I had my MRI on my spine and neck yesterday afternoon. After the dozens of MRI's I've had over the last 3 years (all on my brain) my neurologist wanted me to have an MRI on my spine. She was thinking that with the MS symptoms I suffer from that my problems may stem more from nerve damage in the spine then in the brain. I really didn't give it much thought, and didn't think I'd talk to my neurologist about it until my next appointment with her in the fall.
Today I went in to see my MS nurse. I'm switching to a new drug, and today was my first shot. They of course have to monitor you for sometime after the injection to make sure your body doesn't freak out. I also needed to have some baseline blood tests done. Well, apparently sometime between 2:00 yesterday afternoon and 8:30 this morning, my MRI results were sent to my Dr. AND showed up in my "chart" (charts are all on the computer now) so the nurse looked at them, and wasn't to happy about it. So she scrambled off to find my Neurologist. It seems that I have two new lesions in my spine (high in my neck) that are showing signs of progression. So the conclusion is, that I'm in the very starts of a new attack of MS. I really haven't been feeling THAT bad. Just run down, fatigued, dizzy, and numb. Nothing new, just worse then normal. I was just blaming it on the heat (stupid summer) and hadn't given it much thought, other then to wonder, when will winter be here?!?!

Cast of Characters

I was up until 11:30 last night trying to make a slideshow of my "cast of characters". As most of you know... THAT is WAY past my bedtime. I was getting so fustrated with photobucket. So I gave up and went to sleep..... dreaming of slideshows for my blog. This morning I had much better luck and below you can see the fruit of my late night labors.

The Cast of Characters are the people who I deal with most everyday. This way you can put a face with the names as you follow along in my most exciting bloged life.

Bringing life back to the blog

Hello, my name is Buffie
And I'm a bad blogger


I think I was to boring to be a blogger before. But now we have lots of changes on our horizon, so my life might be on the edge of exciting. Or at least I might have something to say from time to time. Please feel free to use harassment when needed if I seem to drop the blog ball again.