Just a few tid-bits

I have worked in the past with this nice gentleman who sells antique samplers.  He has his own place on the web now at www.chris-yeo.com/.  Above is one of the samplers up for sale.  If you contact him, tell him I sent you!

One of my New Year's Resolutions that is now in its second (third?) year is to get the shop organized and cleaned out.  My friend Jennifer has been helping me with that, and things are looking great.  Yesterday I was cleaning through some old photo files on my desktop.  I found a few gems to share...for me, they are reminders of things to be thankful for during a week here in Hattiesburg when so many people lost so much.

Several years ago, my mom and dad footed the bill for a trip to Disney World with my family and my sister's family.  Mom loves posed and pretty pictures.  I take those, too, but I always love the chance to let people be goofy.  I told the boys (Graham, Henry, Harrison) to give me some fish faces.  Harrison is mimicking Nemo's dad there in the middle.

What is it about Thanksgiving?  It's such a great day -- the only thing that needs to be done is meal preparation (which I think is one of the easiest meals to put together for such a large group).  Then eat and enjoy.  Every year, Steve's family comes down from up north to celebrate.  I make everything from scratch (pies, cranberry sauce, the whole nine yards.)  We sip on Whiskey Sours and eat veggies and homemade dill dip while the food cooks.  We watch the Macy's parade, take a nap at some point, spend some time outside.  There's such a feeling of happiness sitting down to that table with people we love.  We all go around and say what we're thankful for.

I found this picture of Lucky, Dusty and Ned, the first little group of kittens we took in back in March of 2011.  We're probably got about 100 fosters in under our belt already.  February is a lull -- no kittens now, but soon.  I keep pictures of my fosters near me and wonder how they're all doing.  These little guys were so sweet, and we were continually amazed by them...how quickly they developed, how much they learned, how fast they grew.  This was the batch we learned on, and I won't forget them.

I will be in and out of the shop this week.  A group of us from the shelter is organizing pet food distribution to a lower-income part of town that was particularly hard-hit.  We also want to go door to door to check on pets.  If there are pets missing, we'll take reports.  Many helping hands are making lighter work of a very big task.  It will be a long time until the city is put back together.

Whoop, I have to go -- just got a call that a dog needs to be rescued.  Wish us all luck here in Hattiesburg!