…died yesterday.  

I had him longer than I had Kevin - Napolean has been with me ever since the summer of 2005, and Kevin became his ferret’y dad when we married a year later.

He loved playing with his bell toy, snuggling in warm rags, and bouncing around the room. He had this little plastic squeaky toy shaped like a little man in a blue coat that he would drag around the house with him. When excited, he would make a chucking/kissing type of noise, and when he was upset he would hiss.

Shoulder rides were his favorite thing (besides his little blue man), and he was good at giving kisses. He would even jump in my arms from the floor when I reached down towards him.

He was a good, funny little guy and my heart is broken that he’s gone.

Although we didn’t know it until a few months ago, Napolean had kept a huge secret from us his whole life - he was actually a girl. It took a sharp eyed neighbor to fill us in. We tried calling him a her for a while, but old habits die hard - and we finally decided that Napolean(a) would forever and always be a “he” to us. I’m sure he really didn’t mind.

His nicknames included “Poley”, “Snicky Nicky” and the occassional “Snickelodeon”.

His cage is forever empty now, and his food dish is sitting there on top, never to be replenished again.

The little jingle bell wooden toy that hung in his cage these past 3 years will be going into my memory box.  It’s hard - I keep thinking I hear his jingle bell rattling like he does, then it will hit me that he’s no longer there to rattle it.  I cried for hours last night.  Kevin said he even shed a small tear on his way home from work after I told him.  

We’re about to bury him in the backyard.  We made him a coffin out of Kevin’s size 14 shoe box, and wrapped Napolean up in a nice dish towel. 

He’ll be buried with his water bottle, and the little blue man that he loved so much in life.

I have this most adorable little cousin named Christina….

Here she is on the right in the blue top.

Ok, well, she’s not exactly little anymore - she’ll be 16 in a couple months.  That picture up there was taken the day before I graduated from high school in 2001.  But I still remember diapering her and sometimes I wonder when she ever stopped liking Barney. Where have all the years gone?

Anyway, today I gathered up some sample clothes from my online store, www.CollieShop.com and went to her house to have her model them for me. Real clothes on real people look so much more professional than the cafepress generated plain products that are in my store.

Here’s two of the ads I’ve worked up so far from our shoot!

I’m quite proud of her!  My sweet little babydoll is all grown up…sniffle…

Whew…

Yesterday, Kevin and I took on the massive job of getting up ALL the leaves in our yard. We live next to woods, have an oak tree in our back yard, and have 2 ornamental trees in the front yard…and ALL the leaves have fallen off of them. I guess they were up to my knees. Or well, it seemed that way!

Luckily we have 2 leaf blowers, but it still was a huge job. We were out there from 12 pm till 4:30 yesterday, with Jack-Evan playing on a large blanket. The piles are HUGE out back! I’m tempted to jump in them if I could forget about some of the creepy crawlies that I saw whilst blowing the leaves away.

Today we did the front and it took from 11:30 till 1:30. The leaves in the front, we were able to blow them out to the side of the street where the town leaf collector will come along with the machine and suck them up. So those are taken care of. And now all that’s left are the massive piles of leaves out back. And I am completely pooped and my hands hurt terribly. I’m sure I’ll have blisters on them within a few hours from holding up the blower so long (we have a little rope thing to hold it with because the handle broke).

But the whole yard sure does look terrific.
Would you believe that I did the yard work in a tank top and shorts? Yep. It’s that hot here in South Carolina right now. Only a week before Christmas and it’s almost summer-like with this heat wave that’s come through. I had the air condition on 72 just the other night because we were sweltering in the house! Where is the cold weather? So much for dreaming of a white Christmas, huh?

Anyway, we’re about to head out to go bowling with my cousins Nathan & Dylan and their girlfriends. Then we’ll probably come back and work some more in the yard. Kevin wants to get the Christmas lights on the house finished! The neighbors have us beat completely - they have 5-6 of those huge blow up Santas and Snowmen and other characters out front. All we’ve done outside so far for decoration was to hang a wreath on the door.

…will wear you out!

Just ask Jack:

Our favorite waitress at our local buffet gave Jack-Evan this little Santa suit for Christmas and he wore it this past weekend to church where he was passed around like a little football.  I grew up in the small church we attend and everyone there is like family, so of course Jack is the baby of the church.  Everyone just fusses all over him!

This is what he looked like just before we left church!

…you pick up your son to nurse, and call him boobie.

He’s only 7 months old.  

Should he be enjoying boxes yet?

I’m going to have my hands full…

Doesn’t this just put a smile on your face?  It does me!  Kinda makes me go gushy all over.

…and I’m wondering where Thanksgiving got to?

Weren’t we just celebrating Halloween yesterday???

This month is flying!

Were in the midst of refinancing our house from a 30 year fixed to a 15 year fixed (yay!) so we’ve been busy sprucing up the house a bit. We’re approved for the loan as long as the value of the house comes back at what we think it should.

Jack-Evan is to that stage now where he’s *almost* crawling and *almost* sitting strait up by himself. He ’s just got to get the confidence. I can see it in his eyes - he’ll start to crawl without thinking about it and then once he realizes what he’s doing it’s as if a light bulb turns on and he gets scared to take that next step, so he lets his body sink back to the floor.

Isn’t that how life goes in adulthood as well? You have the ability to do something, yet fear of stepping out into new territory keeps you from reaching your goals.

Only difference, Jack-Evan will soon lose that fear and begin to crawl at full speed. Some adults never lose their fear and live their entire lives without taking that first step towards their dreams. Pity…

Welcome to this week’s Works for Me Wednesday post!

So how do we make our nifty little avatars show up?  

That’s a question I’ve been wondering since I started blogging this past January.  

I wanted to go from this…

to this…

I have a blogger account, so I knew that if I commented on those blogger blogs then my profile pic would show as my avatar.

But how oh how do I get my teenyweeny picture to show up on other blogs comments as well??

Well.  I found the answer.  Finally.

Just go to www.Gravatar.com, sign up for an account.  

The awesome part is they only need your email to sign up.  None of that gimme your name, address, SSN, brother’s aunt’s name, sister’s birthday kinda form fillin’ out!  No personal information is asked for.

 Just your email is needed.  That’s all.

Once you enter your email, a confirmation will be sent to your inbox.  When it arrives, click on the confirmation link.

Then you can upload any picture you want to use as your universal avatar and associate it with the email address you comment with.  You can have a multitude of pictures associated to a multitude of emails.

It’s really easy to add another email to your account….

And just as easy to add new pics…

Then all you need to do is associate a photo with an email address….

…and now on any Gravatar enabled blog, you will see your photo appear beside the comments you leave!

I even made one for Jack-Evan so his photo could easily appear on the author page of the posts done in his voice.  :)  

Cool, no?

So anyway, now you can have your face smiling at everyone you comment to.  And that’s what Works for Me!

Yesterday afternoon as Kevin and I were preparing to go into the buffet restaraunt to eat lunch with my parents, this amazing song came on.  I had never heard it before, so I made Kevin wait just so I could finish the song!  It must be extremely new because I had a hard time even finding it on YouTube…but the words are awesome and I wanted to share it.  There’s just something about it that gives me chills.

It’s Amy Grant’s “I Need a Silent Night”.  I’ve included the lyrics too.

Verse 1
I made this same mistake before
Too many malls, too many stores
December traffic
Christmas rush
It breaks me till I push and shove
Children are crying
While mother’s are trying
To photograph Santa and sleigh
The shopping and buying and standing forever why
Well what can i say

Chorus
I need a silent night
A holy night
To hear an angel voice
through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear
A little peace right here
To end this crazy day
With a Silent Night

Verse 2
December comes, then disappears
Faster and faster every year
Did my own mother keep this pace
Or was the world a diffferent place?
When people stay home wishin’ for snow
Watching 3 channels on their tv
Look at us now rushin’ around
Tryin’ to buy Christmas peace

Chorus
I need a silent night
A holy night
To hear an angel voice
through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear
A little peace right here
To end this crazy day
With a Silent Night

Bridge:
What was it like back there in Bethlehem
With peace on earth, good will toward men?

Speaking part:
There were shepherds out in the field
keepin watch over their flock by night
And the glory of the Lord shown around them
and they were sore afraid
And the angel said “Fear not
for behold I bring you good news of great joy
That shall be for all people
for unto you
is Born this day a Savior
who is Christ the Lord
And His name shall called
Wonderful Counselor
Prince of Peace”

Chorus:
I need a silent night
A holy night
To hear an angel voice
Through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear
A little peace right here
To end this crazy day
With a Silent Night

Ending:
To end this crazy day
With a Silent Night