Wonderful trip to Connecticut

Our trips to Connecticut are always so much fun and filled with so much laughter and it makes it hard to leave my family
I could write pages and pages on all the things we packed in to our time there but here are the highlights.
I took Doug to the Connecticut shoreline -

his first time there and we took a few "self-shots"-

swapping glasses:

Goofballs...
We ate LOTS of Italian food - YUM! One night we went to Pepe's for pizza and one afternoon we went to Modern Pizza. Pepe's is usually my all time favorite but I have to say that this time Modern was my favorite. And of course, we went to Libby's Italian pastries and got about a dozen cannolis - the best you will EVER eat. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the cannoli's because we ate them so fast there was no evidence they were even around...
We went out to dinner at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant one night. There were 15 of us and I didn't even take any pictures - I'll have to see if I can get my sister to send me a few. We took up two whole hibachi tables but thankfully we were all facing each other with the two chefs in the middle cooking. We had fun watching each other trying to catch flying food with our mouths and a few of us (not me!) were even brave enough to have Saki squirted into our mouths from the hibachi chefs. It was amazing to see who could hold the most saki in their mouths. It was a lot of fun and the food was really good too.
Look at the pictures below and you will have to agree that I have two of the most beautiful nephews on the planet. My sister Amanda's baby Joao has the most amazing eyes and such a charismatic little personality. Amanda calls him "Bug" and he is one of the cutest little bugs I've seen in a long time.

Here is a cute picture of Joao getting a bath - he loves the water and was kicking and splashing and having such a fun time.

My sister January's baby Garrett is so calm and so sweet. He's two months younger than Joao and not quite as "busy" as Joao but just give him a little time...


I got to see my friend Wendy. She came to Garrett's blessing and then she wanted to visit my Mom's grave since she hadn't been there since we had the headstone installed. Wendy and I have been friends for twenty-something years. We've seen lots of ups and downs together and I'm so happy we could catch up with each other this weekend.

Doug and I met my Gram for breakfast one morning and went to see her cute little "old-lady" condo. She must have had her hearing aids turned way up because she didn't have any trouble hearing me this time. :) My voice is kind of high and so many times she just can't seem to hear me - when I call her on the phone I always have to yell and even then she doesn't hear me - but she did really well this time.
I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff but I got home really late last night and didn't sleep well so as I remember stuff I'll post it.
I've got so much to blog about this week so stay tuned for some fun stuff like the Easter Tag swap I participated in, pictures of our finished patio, and a few other exciting things. :)

Home from Connecticut, New York and Poor Niles!

We ventured up to Connecticut last week. I couldn't wait to meet my new nephew Joao (John) and see my family as it has been way too long! We squeezed so much stuff into our few days there - a trip to New York City - where we saw Jennifer Aniston shooting a film near Bryant Part, Pizza at Pepes, Baby Shower for my sister Jan, breakfast with my Gram and just lots of laughs and good times.
On Friday we took the train from Milford to New York. It's a quick and easy train ride and fun to people watch. Left to right is my brother Bob, his girlfriend Jess, Me & Doug. Can you tell how excited we are? It was actually a pretty nice day - just slightly cold but not too bad - and plenty of sun. We were so lucky!

We had lunch at Simply Pasta, took the subway to Soho, shopped around China Town, went to Supreme - a skateboard shop and after much walking and a little shopping we took the train back to have pizza in New Haven at Pepes.
One of the main reasons for our trip was to meet our sweet nephew! Isn't he just a precious little baby? He belongs to my sister Amanda and if I thought I could get away with it, I would have brought him back to Oklahoma with me!

Another big reason for our trip was a baby shower for my sister January. Her due date is the beginning of January and with the holiday activities we decided to have the shower now. Left to right is January, Me & nephew, Amanda and Jess.

I just can't get enough of this little man! He really liked his auntie too! ;)

Unfortunately, on Saturday while Doug and I were out shopping we got a phone call that nobody wants to get. One of our little Yorkies - Niles - got attacked while away at Doggie Camp. He was mauled by a Jack Russell Terrier and suffered multiple puncture wounds, bruises and at least four broken ribs. Niles is 10 years old and only four pounds and is missing several of his teeth so he really can't defend himself. We were absolutely devastated by the news and of course, it put a damper on our trip. He was rushed to the Emergency Veterinary Clinic here in Tulsa and they did a great job patching him up and taking care of him until we arrived home late last night. We stopped by to see him and *maybe* take him home but he was in such fragile condition that I started feeling weak and almost passed out from seeing him in that condition. We decided to let him stay the rest of the night at the Critical Care Clinic.

This morning we took him from the ER clinic to our vet and he stayed there most of the day today. We have him home tonight and put him in his own little "playpen" where he can move around a little bit but is safe from being bothered from our other dogs. We've got him doped up on a Fentanyl patch to keep his pain controlled but the problem now is that he is not eating. I'm hoping he will regain his appetite soon - he is just too little and can't afford to lose any weight. Plus we have to get his antibiotics into him. If you pray, please pray for Niles to have a quick and uneventful recovery.
I hope to work on some of my Silver Bella projects this weekend and post more pictures.

Ooops!

Somehow I published today's blog without typing in anything. Let me try this again.

We went to Savastano's tonight for pizza. Call me crazy but I like my pizza cut into wedges ~ not into squares! At Savastano's they absolutely *will not* cut the pizza into wedges. They claim because it is supposed to be Chicago style pizza and the owners are from Chicago that they are not allowed to cut the thin crust pizza into wedges. What ever happened to "the customer is always right"? We asked for the pizza to be brought out uncut so we could cut it ourselves - into wedges. It may sound crazy but I think it tastes so much better cut into wedges. I don't like pizza without crust on the end. So, out it came and we cut it ourselves. Ummmmm.. delicious! and I was so much happier.

I will eat there again because the pizza is good. Next time though, I'm going to bring my own pizza cutter. Our waitress brought out the biggest clunker pizza cutter I've ever seen. The wheel was completely wobbly and I thought it was going to fall off the handle and go rolling across the floor. (I must be tired because I'm laughing to myself thinking about that wobbly wheel while I'm typing this -hee hee hee!)

Okay, so now that we've talked about food...

This is Phoebe. Also known as Phoebe Buffet, Phoebe who stayed too long at the Buffet, Curly, Girls, Feebs, Nerky, Narnickiny...the list goes on and on. She has never met a meal she hasn't liked. Let's just say she has a slight, ahem, weight challenge. We tell her it looks good on her though. :) I'm not sure if you can see from this picture but she has stumpy little legs and a nice, round belly. She sort of wobbles when she walks - kind of like a weeble. When she runs she looks like a little millipede.
Anyway. Curly and I have just started walking in the evening. We both need to stretch our legs a little. Since we are just starting out, she can't go very far without running out of steam so we are starting slow. The problem is, when she gets tired ~ after oh, about 100 feet or so, ~ she tries to walk directly under my feet so I'll pick her up. But I'm smarter than that. Tonight I tried to run just slightly ahead of her and made her run to catch me. I'm sure we were quite a sight. She just needs to lose a few .oz's and hopefully by helping her get a little extra exercise she can lose a little weight (and maybe I will too...).
I can't really put her on a diet or limit her food intake because she is already very food possessive and she gets even worse when I even think about limiting her intake. Plus with four dogs, honestly, it is so much easier to just free feed. So, as an alternative we are walking. Hopefully the exercise will do us both good and will wear her out so she will just sleep at night instead of guarding the food bowl all night long. Maybe we will both benefit.