A New Eye Shadow Makes It Better

Bella had a pedicure today at the vet. Since last April, she’s gained 1.7 pounds! What will I do with our big-boned girl?

Michael and I ran errands with her this morning and our day continued to be very busy. I’m so longing to be outdoors without the wind chill numbing my fingers and making it difficult to use my camera.

Whenever I complain about feeling bored and having the winter doldrums, my dear friend Jan always says to me, in her Pittsburgh accent, “Aaah, get aaat of the haase and buy new eye shadow.” She was my neighbor and good friend for many years in Bel Air, Maryland. We are still good friends, despite our moves around the eastern half of the country during the past few years. While I moved from Maryland to Delaware, she moved from Maryland to West Virginia. During the same week I moved from Delaware to North Carolina, she was moving back to Maryland. Whenever I hear her voice on the phone, I feel as though I talked to her an hour ago. I always made fun of her accent and she was graceful about it, thank goodness, but she took a lot of shots at mine, too! During our lives in Bel Air together, we’d hang over the fence and chat every day while I loved her two labs – Mandy, a black lab, who lived to be a ripe old age of near sixteen and left us last year, and Ginny, a yellow lab, who is still kicking at thirteen. We love our dogs and would walk them together, regularly. Those were the days, when our kids were little! We often complained about our kids' tedious problems and the monotony of the days, but we now realize that life was very simple back then and that our worries were insignificant in comparison to what we worried about when they grew from teens to adults. Her two adult sons and my adult daughter have grown to be wonderful “grown up” kids. We are blessed.

There was not much time for watching birds today and my photos aren’t worth clapping about (some are terrible) but I’ll include what I was able to catch. Of course, I missed at least a dozen opportunities of birds I have been longing to see. I can’t count the number of times I said, “Darn!” today…

While heading out for some shopping with Gina this morning, both of us saw a great shot of a hawk flying low overhead. I gasped, then she said, “Don’t you dare! We’ll wind up in that ditch up ahead or take out that biker.” She was right. I always gasp and curse when there is no room to pull over on our country roads that lead to the interstates.

Bad photo of a song sparrow. It's in the bottom right corner! Those sparrows confuse me, still.

We visited some of our favorite stores today and I’ll mention most importantly, Ulta, a store loaded with what you need to be a beautiful woman! I indulged in a new Ulta eye shadow, and an Exuviance day cream and cleanser. I just love coming home and opening those boxes, sampling them, and smelling the fragrance. It’s like Christmas Day. I’ve been a Lancome woman for many years but have switched to a much less expensive product that is equally as good - Exuviance. And, of course, I enjoyed treating Gina to a few of her favorite things. I’ll continue to treat her for the rest of my life, I guess. Maybe it’s like buying her a new toy? It’s a Mother’s destiny.

We hit Target, of course, and I bought a few toys for Mr. Biggins – a large braided rawhide and a goofy, pink, long-legged animal he loves. Target had a great sale on Kaytee black oil sunflower, too, so I was happy to take advantage of that. The Finch niger seed socks caught my attention, so I thought I’d give them a try, too.

Julie might like this mourning dove.

After stopping at the Lowe’s home store, I found the best bargain on “oilers”, as Lynne calls them. We were both happy and headed home. It was a good day with daughter Gina. It would have been a lot better if she would allow me to take her picture! I’ll be working on that…