FROM HOUSES TO MOUSES ... and mouse's houses?

Here is a recipe!


1 house (over) full with stuff (some good, some junque ... but thankfully big!)
1 other house full with stuff (its all newer stuff - so not so much junque as 1st house)
4 dogs
3 men
2 women
1 adorably sweet little girl

Mix it all together with rain water, dirt, backaches, headaches, and tired muscles.
Sometimes short tempers - (Add a little more rain water to it just for good measure.)
Stir and mix - pushing and pulling until everything fits into one container (aka house).

Sprinkle with even yet more rain.

Here you have a a wonderful mix of everything and the beginning of an adventure!


No, the process hasn't been easy. I know that especially the marrieds are sick to death of the shuffle and not knowing where their things are. But each day it shows progress. Rhiannon has worked herself silly cleaning and making a little bit of a nest for themselves. I don't hate any part of it - except for maybe the dog hair everywhere. But with two housefuls of vacuum cleaners there, we should be able to keep it at bay.

Like I said, Rhiannon has been working so hard. She pulled apart her entire bedroom and did walls, and surfaces and shampooed the carpet. She did the same with our family room. It was SOOOOooo bad. I knew it was, I just hadn't faced the HOW BAD part square on. I think having the windows open during the summer and the corn burning heat - has dirtied things up a lot. (Plus not having attentive house owners hasn't helped!)

My husband is going to be in BIG trouble though. If not by me, then by his daughter. He loves to buy those nasty marrow bones from the grocery store butcher department and give them to the dogs. The DOGS love them. MmmmmMMMmmMMMM! But then you have these awful things in the house. It's always been bad - but now that the carpets have been shampooed I was REALLY mad (yes, MAD) when I saw some on the floor last night. If I wanted a dead cow on the floor of my house, I'd butcher one myself.   RANDY!!! 

Speaking of dead. One of Mickey and Minnie's country cousins came to visit us. I knew because on my ever-so-cluttered craft table there was EVIDENCE (ewww!) that he had been there. I got FOUR mousetraps and TWO containers of DeCon (don't mess with me!!!) and put the mousetraps out around the floor of the basement and sat the DeCon high out of the other furry beasts' reach.

It was not long before all of the traps had been snapped. WOW! We must have more than ONE country cousin there. Randy reset them and very soon we had one fat mouse snagged and dead. YEAHHHHHH!!!!! Found out also that when Ryan vacuuming in the basement he snapped off the traps.  Soooo anyway now I'm just hoping that one fat mouse and one dorky son-in-law (I love you anyway Ryan!!!!) is all that is visiting.

The fun part is that we get to see our sweet Jaimee every single day. She has been a wonderful little trouper through it all. As long as she has Mommy and Daddy (aka RYAN ... which she says 'oh-so-clearly' ... RYAN!!!) she seems to be happy. She's not bothered by the ifs/whens/whys/ and wherefors of her little life as long as she has them ... and food.

I love my kitchen sink! It is the perfect size to fill up with water and plop her tiny little booty in and let her play and get cleaned off.  Nothing cuter than a little soft skinned naked baby bottom!

We were happy to see Aunt Nita - though with our wild schedules we didn't plan anything at our house for when she was here. We picked her up at the airport and made a stop at a Maid-Rite for lunch. Aunt Nita says there are two things she has to do when she comes to Iowa - one being Maid-Rite and the other being to eat a pork tenderloin. Mom had us down to her house for one of her magnificent meals. I can't even tell you all the yummy stuff that she had. I'm really hungry right now - so everything sounds excellent. She made a 'maid-rite' type burger from vegetarian burger and it was scrumdillyishus!! And mom ... I want your shortcake recipe. Nick ate the shortcakes plain that I brought home because they were so good. Anyway - Aunt Nita's visit is over and she has returned to California with a trip to see Kathy's new house and to go camping with Marjie and Kelly. I'm sure there will be a stop to see her grandbabies too.

I do have to ask ... Aunt Nita?  You sent a note today that said, "Had a great visit with almost all the family in Iowa..."  Just wondering which ones you didn't have a great visit with!!!  *smile*  (I make myself chuckle!)

Got a phone call today from the dentist.  I lost a humongous filling in a back tooth on Friday I think it was.  Didn't hurt - but needed to get myself in and get it fixed.  The appt. was set for Thursday.  So anyway the phone rang and it was the dentist's office.  They had a cancellation and did I want to come in today instead.  (Well, NO - I don't want to come at ALL!!!)  But I said "sure!!!" and off I went - arriving at their office about 10 minutes later.  Got my tooth fixed and a new filling in another.  They said it was loose or cracked ... so we did it all while I was there.  Dr. Lawhead is so good and his assistant Brigette is great too.  I so HATE dental work.

So ... Sharon? You said there hadn't been a Ludke-ville in awhile. Have I rambled on and on (and on) long enough yet? Hope you are enjoying all the activity and hard work of cooking for all those people at camp. I'm sure they are blessed by having some great meals! Did I mention I'm really hungry ... ???
She's cooking for groups of up to 200 people at a time at a camp over in Illinois!

Joy ... don't go.   (That was just in case you said to yourself ... 'if one more person says don't go - I'll take it as a sign to stay here!'  I don't want you to leave.  :(

Howdeez to everyone else ... been thinking of Lisa, Paul, Dava, Josh, Glo and boys!!!! We need to get together in Iowa City sometime!

Josie darling -- I hope you can stay infection free until they can get your tubes in your ears. You poor little dolly.  (This is Randy's sister's little girl ... she's had such a bad time with sore ears.)

LATER ALL!!!

PS I love my new phone. It's so cool. I have so much yet to learn about it but WOW it's neat. And now that I have the red cover ... it's just as darling as my sweet little berry phone. (Thank you RL for putting the cover on it!!  I still miss my berry phone - but since it's screen was 1/3 broken I had to say SO LONG little berry!

Time for bed or at least getting READY for bed!