Hi, Readers. I am active in Habitat for Humanity Grays Harbor, our local Habitat group. It is so important for people to have a decent home! I have started a Habitat Fundraising Group called Knitters, Quilters, & Doll-ers for Haiti Habitat:
http://secure.habitat.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=340274&lis=1&kntae340274=487D371E595B4B539E52FD340B8333FC&team=3634157

If you'd like to help me raise enough $ for one house in Haiti ($2000-3000), go to the link above and donate what you can. Please pass this on; maybe we can build two houses!

Dogs are back to normal

Grace has recovered from her hernia surgery and Poki, our soon-to-be-adopted pup, has had hardware removed from one leg (one to go) and been spayed. Both are doing well. We visited Poki yesterday again; she should be able to go home with us in a couple more weeks. She's a very sweet dog and our other two seem to like her fine.

Grace is home!

Grace is home and sleeping now. She is pretty good to stay quiet when she needs to. Poor pup, she just had back surgery in August. Now she will have a scar on the topside and the underside. Actually, the topside back surgery scar can't be easily seen now, but it sure could at first. See pic. She is now one expensive doggy!!

I guess I was wrong! and My Dogs

Toys are still being dropped! Perhaps until New Year's Eve? Here are the latest places: Seattle, WA, USA; Winslow, Maine USA; Stockton, Ca, USA; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
Our dog Grace is in the hospital today for teeth cleaning, hernia repair, microchip, and toenail trimming. As long as she's "out," might as well get everything possible done!! I hate leaving my babies at the vet, but sometimes it has to be done.(sigh)
In a few weeks, our dachshund population will grow to three; we are adopting another female mini who was hit by a car and had her two hind legs broken. She is still recuperating in foster care and will have another surgery to remove the external metal brace from one leg, and to be spayed. I will ask them to put a microchip in at the same time, too. Her name is Poki, short for Pokahantas, and both Wiener and Grace liked her when we took them for a visit last week. I'd like to visit her again this week, but with Grace having surgery today, and DH having surgery tomorrow (and having to return for Xrays on Wednesday), the only day we could visit would be Thursday, New Year's Eve, and I think Poki is visiting foster mom's relatives with her that day. So it looks as if we'll have to wait until next week.

Done with World Wide Christmas 09 Toy Drop...........

...........but not with this year's toy drops, of course. There is another six days of 2009, so I'll do at least one more, before the curtain drops on this year, 2009. The "aught decade" is leaving us, friends, and the teens are coming--well, the PREteens, I guess---have to have three years of preteens before we reach the teens. I hope the preteens are better than our last three aughts!! Can we just toss those last three aughts away??!! No, guess not: people have been born (our Ellie), married, graduated, etc. these last three years, so we HAVE to keep them, even though they have been very unkind to us (the years have, that is, NOT the people!).
I am having to postpone celebrating my mom's 93 birthday with her next Wednesday, as DH is having a medical procedure on Tuesday, and Grace, our doxie, is having surgery on Monday. Not a good week for us to leave town! I'm hoping we can go see Mom the following week, and that I can do a few toy drops at her senior apartment building--I will get Mom to help me--I think she'll enjoy that.
It is cold here in the NW this Christmas Day; cold enough that any wind at all makes it pretty uncomfortable outside. I'm sure it is a lot colder where lots of folks are and many have snow to deal with, too, which we don't. So I'm not REALLY complaining, just "whining a little." That's a family joke: when my husband got off the bus after his first day of kindergarten, his mother asked him if he'd cried. "No, but I whined a little," he replied. He was only four and had ridden the bus to school all by himself, because his mom had no car and a toddler, and new baby to take care of.

The 8 O Clock Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

The 8 O Clock Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Last Day for Toy Society Christmas Drop 09

Here are the latest drop locations: Oss, The Netherlands; Plymouth Devon, UK; Windsor, NSW, Australia; Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina; Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia; Blacktown, NSW, Australia ; Sydney, NSW, Australia; Las Cruces, NM, USA; Benthuizen, The Netherlands; Oosterheem (Zoetermeer, The Netherlands); Ljubljana, Slovenia,Europe; Brigham City, UT, USA); newnan, ga, USA; Costa Teguise, Lanzarote, Canary Islands; Piscataway, NJ USA; Eureka, CA USA; Perth, Western Australia, Australia.

Last year 105 toys were dropped for Christmas 08; we are up around 175 so far this year. Wouldn't it be nice if a last sprint carried us to 200? I have a couple more to drop today.