Roxy.

I learned today that my dear friend Ashley had to put her dog Roxy to sleep on Friday. This is heart breaking news for me. She'd been battling cancer for the last few months, and finally it got the best of her.

Roxy was the sweetest, craziest dog I think I've ever known. I'd known her her whole life, and she was always a bundle of energy. She never grew into her legs, and when she stood on her hind feet, she was easily as tall as me. Whenever I went to visit Ashley, I was greeted at the door with lunges and kisses. I found it easiest to just sit on the floor and take the "abuse" for a few minutes. I often ended up with a bruise or two, but it was because of her love for company, so it was easy to excuse the pure brute strength she put into each and every greeting. She will be missed.

This is a picture I took of Roxy (left) and Chandler on October 7, 2007.

Our week.

I've been bad and not posting. I apologize. I have been updating pictures on my picture site, though. That's something I guess. Anyway. Nid and I went to town yesterday. It was good to get out. We went to a museum, which had an actual fossil of a dinosaur that was found here in this county. That was cool. We also walked through Castle Gardens. We were going to go to the site of Leicester Castle, but it was gated off. It's a shame because I hear it's one heck of a mound of dirt. Yep, there is no castle anymore. If you click HERE you can see as close as we got to it. Just up that hill is the famous mound. Hopefully we'll get back there to see it at some point. We mostly walked around some places I hadn't been before. We spent some time wandering around Leicester Market and got a few things as the shops. Of course we had to have lunch at Burger King, which is always a nice little bit of America in the middle of Leicester. The weather was funny, though. It was lovely and cool, but it kept sprinkling. Every time it started to rain, Nid put his coat on. And within 30 seconds it stopped again. It was a really funny trend we had going there. Lets see... I can't think of anything else about yesterday right off. I took a bunch of pictures, and they are on my pictures site.

So, yesterday we got some DRAINO... well, in America we'd call it Draino. Here, they don't have drains. They have PLUGHOLES. This is what I got:

Is that not great? We were cleaning out the closet under the stairs today. I REALLY should've done a before and after of this project, but alas, I did not think of it till it was empty. Oh well. I found a cigarette box in the back and I thought I'd share the warning with everyone. I've seen this side at the store:

However, when I flipped it over, I saw this other label. I guess if the one doesn't work, maybe this one will?!

Photo Shoot and Good-byes.

The children came home from Nanna's (Nid's step-mom's) house yesterday. They'd been with her for a week. They came home with stories of a castle and shopping and visiting with their Grandad (Nid's dad) and Mo (Grandad's wife).

Today they left to go to their other grandparents (Grandma and Taid) house for the summer. But before they headed off, we took some family photos. It started out as a thank you for our friend Alicia, who sent us goodies last week, but it turned into just a fun morning. We'll definitely have to do it again sometime. The full photo album is at my photos site.

Seek the Peak fundraising page for Heather McManamay

Seek the Peak fundraising page for Heather McManamay

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Busy Few Days.

The last of the painting is done! I am glad to say that I finished the built in cabinet in the living room the other day. It's dry and photos are back on display. We got a compliment on those the other day. When Nid's step-mother came to pick up the children for a week with her, she said she'd never seen so many framed photos in the house. Ever. Two of them are thanks to her, or we'd have a sad little display.



I went to the library the other day and got some new books. I'd had a bad run with some books that were not worth finishing, so I thought I'd try some local interest books. I've only flipped through them so far, but they look like they have potential. If nothing else, I'll learn a little bit about the area I'm living in.














Yesterday we got a package in the mail from our friend Alicia in Wisconsin. She sent Nid a Cheesehead tshirt - can't wait to see him in it. There were lots of American sweets, some Dierks TV specials and Cds, Briony got some teen mags, Cale a CD, and I got grape jelly, Dayquil and Nyquil, and the cutest cow mug ever! We also got copies of the DB bumper stickers that Alicia and Nid designed and Alicia had made last week. We're sure to be the only folks in England with these! You can see some photos on my pictures site.