Happy Thanksgiving and Let the Holidays Begin.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my blogging friends. The McGee Clan Thanksgiving was a full one, we ended up having 22 for dinner, and I've would have welcomed more into my home if I knew of anyone that was alone on that day. That has become a tradition in our home, if we know of anyone without family for Thanksgiving they become our family for the day. The more the merrier.

My 51st birthday was this past Friday, the 28th. I was taken out to dinner with family and we spent the evening laughing. What a wonderful way to celebrate my 51 years on this earth.

Baby McGee, better known as "Peanut" is hitting the 10 week mark. Here is what "Peanut" looks like now.

From this week until birth, the developing organism is called a fetus.
The fetus is now the size of a small strawberry.
The feet are 2mm long (one tenth of an inch).
The neck is beginning to take shape.
The body muscles are almost developed. Baby has begun movement.
While still too small for you to feel, your little one is wriggling and shifting.
The jaws are in place. The mouth cavity and the nose are joined.
The ears and nose can now be seen clearly.
Fingerprints are already evident in the skin.
Nipples and hair follicles begin to form

Okay, this is Peanut's grandmother signing off. Have a wonderful week.

hugs to all.

Pictures from classes.

Wednesday night's painting class finished up their four week class with tulips and roses. They all look different but good in their own right. This is my last class with them for a while, I hope to get to paint with them all again in the future.


Steve and Jeff show off their work, didn't they do good?




















This is Jamie and Rhonda and I love what they did. Look at Rhonda's big rose, it is so beautiful.
Jamie did great on her rose buds, she has really improved these four weeks.

Jan and Pat got to finish their pumpkins in time for Halloween, barely. We finished them the night before. Look how cute they turned out.

And next is last Thursday night's class. We painted poinsettias for the project. It was so fun being together and painting, a great bunch of women.

Anne is improving each week, and she is so much fun to have in class.

Brenda has been out for a while, she had medical problems in her family and was committed to them. She is back with us now and she hasn't missed a step.

Cathy, one of my BBF, and Myles show off her pretty tray. Cathy is one of those people that doesn't need a class but she come every week anyway.





Next week we will be painting a Santa on a wine caddy. This should be lots of fun.

Later,

Charlie

Dogs are hurt as someone tries to break in, and Peanut at 8 weeks.

Okay, first I'm going to start with good news. Philip and Kim's baby, which we are calling Peanut until we find out if we are having a boy or girl is now 8 weeks. Just wanted to share a photo of what Peanut should be looking like at this stage. Kim is being so good, watching what she eats and drinks. I am just so excited, can you tell?

Now to the other stuff. Friday I went to help Phil with his inventory at Norandex, things were going good until about 5:15 and we get a call from a neighbor telling us that our dogs had gotten out and had crossed the highway. Well, I about died. I got in the car to come home, Hunter was on his way home, and Phil was stuck at the branch working. I just kept praying that the dogs would be okay.

Hunter and I got to the house about the same time and we came in the house to find all the dogs there except for Drake and Patch. Now by this time it is dark and raining. We take off on foot, but we don't start calling the dogs until we cross over Military Cutoff, we didn't want the dogs to take off running for us and get hit. We walked for a good while and then we decided for one of us to come get a car. I came back to the house and noticed that the gate was open on the left side of the house. I walked over to check it out and someone had broken the panel and had reached over to open the gate. I was too mad to be scared. I got in the car and started driving down the roads. Finally I was driving down Station road and driving about 4 miles an hour I saw this black dog running down the road and I yelled. It was Drake. Another car was coming and had to swerved to miss him. He took off into a church parking lot and I was trying to get out of my car to get to him. He was acting wild. Finally he came to me and I got him in the car, he had blood all over his face. I tried not to panic but it was hard. I still couldn't find Patch. A young boy stopped me to tell me that he saw Patch head in a different direction. I went where he told me but I couldn't find him. So I decided to bring Drake home and then go back to look for Patch. When I pulled up to the house there was Patch sitting on the front part of the porch and I just started crying. Patch is our old man and has a special place in my heart.

When I got in the house I went to look to see if anyone had gotten into the house, but I couldn't see anything missing. Hunter came in, Samantha and then Philip. We started working on Drake and decided that he needed to go to the hospital. I really needed to go back to help Phil so Philip and Hunter took him. Mom met them there, so I knew he was going to be in good hands.

We think that someone tried to break in and Patch and Drake went after them. We have proof of this because on the other side a cooler was pushed up to that gate and someone tried to push it open. The police came but didn't fill a report, but said that they would keep an eye open.

With the morning light Phil was able to go walk around the house and found some more evidence of what happened last night. Philip had just done some yard work for us and used landscaping timbers and had piled some up on the side of the house. Well, we think that when they couldn't get in on the one side they took the timber over to the other side and hit the panel in and reached in and unlocked the gate. Don't know if the person tried to come in the back door or if the dogs went out of the doggie door and went after him. We now believe that Drake was beaten with the timber. His injuries and wounds look like it, more than if he had been hit by a car. He isn't walking very well at all, his eye is messed up, and he has wounds all over his body.. He is sleeping a lot, which is to be expected. We are just giving him his med's and taking good care of him and encouraging him all the time. Patch, the old man, wasn't hurt, but he just sleeps all the time. He goes from the bed to the sofa.

I am so angry, not so much that someone tried to break in but that someone caused harm to my four legged children. The doggie door was open and the gate was open, so all of them could have gotten out, including my little Myles. I would love to find the person that did this so that I could take the landscaping timber to them.

This is Patch.

This is Drake.

Take care my friends,

Charlie

Lights on at night are a good thing.

So, we are driving along and Cindy needs a break so me being medicated offered to drive. And the idiots took me up on it. Now mind you, I'm taking pain meds every two hours. lol. I get in the driver's side of the van, put my seat belt on and proceeded to drive. Things went pretty well for about the first hour, then all of a sudden it was dark outside. Cindy is sitting up front playing with her new GPS, which we named Rosie after the robot on the Jetson's cartoon show, and Sissy was sitting behind her playing poker on my laptop. Finally Cindy looks over and asks if I'm okay. I very calmly tell her and Sissy that I'm find, I just can't see the road. I tell them I am not a good night time driver, I always have a hard seeing the road. Sissy noticed the death grip that I had on the steering wheel and Cindy notice the wild expression in my eyes. They proceed to tell me to take an exit and we will exchange drivers. They go back to doing what they were doing and I continue to drive because I can't see the road and have no idea where the exits are. Finally, the two put their heads together and decide that I need some help. A welcome area is approaching and they tell me to take it. Okay, but where is it? I get in the right lane and finally one of tells me to slow down that the exit is here and I'm still asking "where'. At this point we are laughing, but make it in to the parking lot, only to here Cindy say "Oh Crap, you don't have the lights on." Needlessly I look at her and kill her with my eyes, who in the world drives without the lights on. She proceeded to tell me that when she was driving it was light outside and didn't need the lights. Okay, just give me another pain pill, I'm going to the back seat now.

have fun my friends.
Charlie

Home again, just too early.

Hi, Florida and the sunshine was nice. We didn't really do much, but it was nice just being out of town. We have cut your trip short because we got a call yesterday that Mom is back in the hospital. We feared that something like this would happen while we were gone, thus another reason for only going to Jacksonville. She has a staff infection, and now they are looking to see if it is in her bones. She has just gone down hill, it breaks my heart to see her in this condition, and her quality of life is poor. Anyway, we are headed home and I'll get to see her tonight or tomorrow and then we are going to take it a day at a time. We have gotten her a motorize chair, which I used this weekend in Florida, and she will be able to go places with me now. I'm excited about that, and looking forward to some good days.

My sisters believe that I have a broken rib or one that has been pushed out of place. Cindy made me lay on my stomach last night, which was a feat in itself, and she was checking my ribs. She found the spot that has been hurting and said that it is sticking out. So9, Hopefully tomorrow or Monday I will find someone that can help me with this and get rid of all of this pain.

Okay, have a great weekend and I'll pop in again soon.
hugs to all,
Charlie

We have a "Peanut".

.Last week Kim and Philip had a scare, she was spotting. They went back to the doctor on Friday and then went back again on Monday and they were able to see the baby and also hear the baby's heartbeat. Philip didn't get to go, he was working, so Kim's mom had the blessing to be there. Philip brought me the photos from the ultrasound and I got to see our little Peanut. How exciting. And the doctor gave her the due date of June 30th, not bad cause I had picked June 29th. I am leaving tomorrow for my trip with my sisters and nephew. We were supposed to travel to Disney this week, but I'm still able to do much so we decided to change our vacation. We are going to go to Jacksonville, Fl. and visit the big flea market there, and just hang out a bit. My sisters are being so good to me, they are taking me with them and I'm not paying a thing. I still can't believe it. And I am so looking forward to getting out of town for a few days. So, I'll be gone for a few days but I'll be back next week. Until then have a wonderful week. Hugs, Charlie