The Blackburn Family

Tonight we made fresh pasta again. I also made sauce with my tomatoes and it was so yummy. It was only our second attempt at making pasta with our expensive pasta machine. Now that we have tomatoes for making sauce I am sure we will make it again soon. It really isn’t as hard as you would think! It took a bunch of tomatoes to make a little bit of sauce, but thankfully I have tons of tomatoes right now.

Yesterday mom and I hosted a bridal shower for Jennifer. Click here to see the pictures.

As for JD, I took him to the vet on Wednesday for his procedure, but as soon as I got to work the vet was calling. JD’s blood work was a bit off and he was running a slight temperature so the vet wasn’t comfortable putting him under for the surgery. So after work I drove all the way back out there to pick him up again. I still haven’t heard from the vet about what they think is wrong with him. They ran $200 worth of tests on Wednesday, but I guess the results aren’t in yet. So now we have spent $550 on JD in a week and we still don’t know what is wrong with him. Plus he still needs to get his bladder stones removed.

Yesterday I decided it was time to take JD to the vet. He has been throwing up a lot in the last couple weeks and hasn’t had much of an appetite. After more throwing up over the weekend I called the vet yesterday and took him in. He ended up having to stay the night to get fluids because he was dehydrated. The vet also gave him some meds to calm his stomach and took an x-ray. This morning the vet called to inform me that they still weren’t positive why he was throwing up so much, but they did discover his bladder was full of stones!! Great…. Then she told me the surgery to remove them would costs $1,500 - $1,800. Ouch. We are going to try to flush them out first, but if that isn’t working they will have to go in and remove them. So between his teeth and this he is going to cost us about $2,500 this year, but look at that face….

How can you not love him?

On a more positive note my tomatoes are out of control! The roma’s aren’t really red yet, but the roma grapes are going crazy. I picked most of these today.

Here are a few other pictures of the tomato jungle and my lantanas which are blooming again.

And Apple

My new camera arrived today! Of course I can’t use it yet b/c I don’t have a memory card…. It seems like cameras are much like hotels. The average priced places give you cable with a hundred channels and free breakfast while the higher end hotels give you 10 channels and breakfast that costs you $15 plus tip. When I bought my Olympus point and shoot several years ago it came with everything I needed. This one did not so now I am off to spend more money.

Casey and Gary’s second attempt at sky diving went much better than the first!! The weather was great other than being a million degrees. We got there around 12, but we had to wait awhile before they actually jumped. After finding out you don’t get the roller coaster feeling when you jump I just may consider jumping one day…. although not just yet.

The boys had a big fan club this time. My parents came out along with Casey’s parents, sister, aunt and uncle. Uncle Dayle took some great pictures with Gary’s camera.

I have uploaded a few pictures. Most of them are still frames from the video we bought which I will eventually put on youtube. I also made a little video, but I don’t have it ready yet. So for now here are the pictures we do have.

To see my pictures click here.

To see Gary’s pictures click here.

I know, I have been bad lately. It has been a really busy summer so far and I haven’t been very good with my updates or pictures.

Cody got adopted!! So now I am down to one foster rabbit. I have a hard time getting pictures of him, but I will try to get some new ones up soon. Cody has a great new home with two little girls that will give him lots of love!

We have been doing a ton of work outside this year. I have a few pictures below of some of our work. There is still a ton to do, but the weekends are filled with other stuff which is okay since it is SO hot and humid. We decided to borrow a power washer to clean the back of the house which was covered with mold. Then we decided to power wash the fence which led to power washing the driveway….. Then we had to stain and seal the fence. We are almost done with that step, but the chance of afternoon storms has put a stop to that for awhile. We haven’t sealed the deck yet either. I also planted a small garden. My first attempt at gardening!! I planted 3 tomato plants (2 roma and 1 roma grape - for pasta sauces), basil, mint and cat nip (which J.D. loves). The roma grape plant is huge and has lots of tomatoes! It is well over 6 feet tall if you stretch it out. I have had to put up several stakes to keep it up! The other two remain pretty small, but there are a few tomatoes growing on them. The basil is getting eaten by some unknown bug and I hate to spray it with anything since it is for us to eat! I somehow managed to kill the mint which is a weed that is almost impossible to kill. This is the second mint I have killed. Otherwise the plants look pretty good. I planted a yarrow to attrack lady bugs, but I haven’t seen any yet. The yarrow is finally looking pretty good so I will try to get a few pictures of it tomorrow. I will also get some of the lantana which is really pretty. There is still a ton I want to do, but most of it will wait unil fall when it cools off.

Let’s see…. oh, we went camping with Allison and Jason at Jordan Lake. We only camped one night, but had enough stuff packed in the truck to last several days. We had great weather and cooked dinner over the fire. Well, actually the dinner pretty much caught on fire, but my veggie burger was perfect. No grease to catch on fire!! We made smore’s and roasted marshmallows which was my favorite part. I think we will head back out again in the fall. Maybe we can try Falls Lake this time since it is a bit closer. I really like to camp with a view of the lake. To see the pictures click here.

I have also been really busy with the bunnies this year. I have arranged the last few meetup’s and still work at the SPCA 2-4 times a month with the bunnies. I am going to be working with them this summer to start up a foster program for the rabbits. I am also working with Paula at Cape Fear Rabbit Rescue to start a local chapter of the House Rabbit Society out of Raleigh. I am in the process of becoming an educator which is our first step. ACRS is also working with us and we may be able to use the non-profit status to start up our chapter. I am pretty excited about it, but the application to be an educator is going to take me awhile to complete!!

We got back on Tuesday from Michigan!! We had a great time other than the chilly weather the first few days. It was a nice change for me. This summer has been brutal so far. Casey got to see Lake Michigan and he was pretty impressed. I don’t think he realized the size of the lake! He couldn’t understand why everyone referred to it as the beach or shore until he saw it and realized it is a beach. He actually liked it better since there was no salt air/water. I took a few pictures, but not many. I will put a link for them soon. I am getting tired and don’t want to mess with them tonight. It was great to see everyone especially Grandma since I haven’t seen her in almost three years. We have our houses booked for Sunset Beach next year and I am counting down.

Oh, I forgot the best part. About 2 weeks ago I forgot to put the garage door down one night when I got home. I left it open when I got home because I was going to water the plants later, but then it rained and I didn’t think about it again. When I got in the car the next morning to go to work I looked up and saw a bunch of empty space on the shelf. I knew something was missing. I knew at that point the power washer was had borrow from my dad’s boss was gone without even looking. They took our power drill, jig saw, air compressor, power washer and a small tool kit. Probably teenagers. So we have spent over $1,000 replacing everything that was lost. The whole thing just makes me so mad. It isn’t exactly how I wanted to spend 1K. I was planning to get a new digital SLR camera that week. I had it picked out, but thanks to the robbers I will be waiting a bit longer. I still hope to get it before our trip out west.

Okay, that should do for now. I will try to write more this weekend and add some more pictures.

My garden the early days:

The HUGE tomato a couple weeks ago:

The tomatoes:

Hydrangea:

The fence before and after power washing:

Okay, there are tons of things going on that I haven’t posted, lots of pictures. I don’t even know what, but I remember thinking several times in the last few weeks of things I needed to post… Well, maybe later. Here is a little video I made tonight of our new and improved fish tank. I taped it on my digital camera so please forgive the poor quality. It is really dark so it is hard to see the fish, but you can see all the cool new plants. I will try to take some pictures (on my very long list of things to do).

Thanks to everyone that donated to Sophie’s Walkers!! The SPCA had a record year for the walk and raised over $130,000! I raised $260 which is way beyond my original goal of $100. Thanks everyone!!

Our team and dogs (Sohpie and Maggie):

Click here to see the rest of the photos.

Casey, Gary and I went up to Franklinton today so Casey and Gary could jump out of plane. Crazy huh? Their appointment was at 2 and they had to attend a class first so they could learn how to not kill themselves. I was a bit worried about the weather, but they were still doing jumps so we made the trip out there. Right after we got there (while Gary and Casey were in their class) the rain and thunder started. It poured! So at that point they were several jumps behind due to the weather. Eventually it cleared up and the jumps started. We watched three groups jump. At about 5 they called Casey and Gary to prepare for the jump. I was sitting outside and it was beautiful out. Blue sky, few clouds. I went in to take a few pictures of the boys suiting up and the next thing we know there is another weather delay. So we go outside and see this:

Finally at 6 it looked like the weather wasn’t going to be getting any better so we had to get a rain check. The two guys that were going to jump with Casey and Gary had driven 2 hours and didn’t get to jump. I felt for them. So I guess we will be back in a few weeks to try again. No, I will not be jumping out of a plane. I don’t even ride the kid’s roller coasters!! You should have seen those people falling out of the plane…. Hell no.

Well, here are a few pictures of our first attempt:

Well, took the car to be inspected today and it wouldn’t pass without new tires. I guess I can’t complain since I have 65K miles on 60K tires. I knew I needed new ones this year, but it sure sucks to need them the same week the cat has teeth taken out. Not to mention the 2K worth of work needed on the exterior of our home and replacing the deck (another 1K). I did decide to go ahead and get the insurance on the rabbits. I think it is too late for J.D. since his heart murmur and kidney disease are now considered pre-existing conditions. Tuscan and Moose have a few more years left in them, but they are getting older so it seems smart to go for the insurance. It isn’t cheap ($200 a year), but if they get sick it will cost WAY more. Rabbit vets aren’t cheap.

On a lighter note we made our first attempt to make pasta today. It took forever and it really wasn’t very good! I guess our technique needs a bit of work not to mention a pasta roller! We will try again, but what a pain. I hear it gets easier the more you do it and eventually we will perfect the texture and flour mix that we like. It was a bit chewy for our taste. Gotta start somewhere.

J.D. is doing much better. By Friday he was back to normal. I think the morphine type medicine he was on was making him a bit out of it. Once he was off that stuff he improved quickly. He is back to our cuddly little boy. We will see how he does next week when he has to go back for his followup visit.

Oh, more news! We got some new fish today!!! I decided if we were going to have a fish tank in the living room it needed to look nice! Poor Alfred was alone in that big tank with no lights, one fake plant and ornaments that were so algae covered you couldn’t even tell what they were. We have been working to clean it up the last couple weeks and have put a good amount of money into fixing it up. I still have a bit more to do, but I will post a pictures at some point. I wish I had a before picture. Trust me it was bad. So now Alfred has two new friends that look like small versions of him, George and Simon. Plus we have two little fish with pretty yellow tales. They are very tiny. Eugene and Frank. Hopefully we will get a couple more in a week or two.

After a very long wait (okay, only about 2 months, but that is long!) we finally have our new kitchen floor! It is SO much better than the floor we had! No, it isn’t tile or hardwood which is what everyone seems to assume when I tell them we got a new floor….. just good old vinyl. However, it wasn’t cheap!! So now onto a new deck and maybe one day new counters…. no not granite.

The old floor - sticky tiles installed by the lady that owned the house before us. I sure would like to sit down with her and figure out what the hell she was thinking!! Not to mention the number of trees she planted on our .15 acre and the placement of them or the big hole in the ceiling where she tried to install a ceiling fan…..

The new floor - as you can see we also extended the kitchen floor some to allow for a bigger table.