Sydney's antics

Our darling dog is quite a Houdini. She is very psychotic and has terrible separation anxiety. She stays in the house with us while we are home or for very short periods of time. Because Sydney has the anxiety, she destroys things when we are not around. After trying several methods of containment, we finally found that a cheap radio underground fence would work................or so we thought. Wednesday, I get a call from mama, who lives across the busy road from us, telling me that Sydney was at her house. We couldn't figure out how she got down there, but were happy she didn't get hit. Thursday, Andy, my brother, gets to mama's and finds Sydney there again.......we were glad again but very upset that she escaped again. Gary really investigated her fence and collar and couldn't figure out what was wrong. He put up string all over the yard and flags hoping that would be a visible barrier for Sydney. He fiddled with her collar & fence settings and decided to go buy a stubborn dog collar. After buying that, he found out that the old collar had gotten reset somehow to only beep and not shock. Nonetheless, we'll be putting the stubborn collar on her until she gets used to it again and stays home!

December.....

Well, I have finally gotten the house decorated. Cameron and I (mainly) got the decorations out the Saturday after Thanksgiving, as usual. We got the tree up and most of the boxes down from the attic. Cameron got the tree up and I put the lights on, then he got started on decorating the tree. I placed all my Santa's on the hope chest where they live during the season. It's easy to reminise while putting on the decorations. Louise, Gary's mom, used to give him and his sisters ornaments every year. Those go on the tree with the Chrismons that she has made. CJ and Cameron have their special ornaments, ones they have made or ones that they have been given. Gary and I made ornaments with the scroll saw the first year we were married and painted them together. The wreath on the kitchen door is decorated with Santas also. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, I woke up with a horrible crick in my neck and my left shoulder was out also. After finding an emergency chiropractor, on Tuesday, I wasn't much better. She mentioned that I had bad scholiosis and suggested I get xrays to monitor it. I was able to get in with my chiropractor Wed and Fri and found a massage therapist that could see me on Friday. Whew, what a week. It took days after that to get back to feeling better. I was on the phone a lot at work the previous Monday and I think that had a great deal to do with my neck being out of alignment. The boss said I could order a headset and it is on the way.
I think I am finished buying everyone's presents, but I have to check. Because of my neck & shoulder being out of whack, I have not wrapped anything yet, so the tree looks a little funny with nothing underneath it. I do have to make Andy's, my brother, lasagne. That's his Christmas present every year.
Gary happened upon a Hoosier (kitchen cabinet which is a baking center, with shelves and a flour sifter) at a job he was working at. I have always wanted one. Mama has one and both my grandmas had one. At first the lady said she thought her daughters wanted it, but after Thanksgiving, neither of them did so she let Gary know it was available and she only wanted $100 for it. Because of my neck & shoulder problems, I couldn't go see it, but Gary took pictures of it. It was exactly what I wanted. He finally got someone to help him get it loaded and brought it home last Thursday. Gary got to looking at the tag still on it and Googled the name. He found out that what we got was a genuine Hoosier, made by one of the 5 companies in the early 20th century. Ours came from Elwood Indiana and was sold in Henderson NC. What a bargain! Without getting it appraised, it's hard to tell what our (MY) cabinet is actually worth, but I am thrilled nonetheless.