Hi! Congrats Suzanne on that terrific total on the yard sale! What was the fund raiser for? Carolyn, I feel your pain re the heat! Hotter than heck here too... I think most of us are catching up on FB, but I find this to be so much more private, a safe place where we can bare our souls. This group is amazing, even if I haven't been checking in so often! Just wanted to say thank you for all of the prayers and good wishes, good thoughts from you guys after my accident. I am completely recovered from that nasty concussion, jaw is all healed and i have been back to work for the past 2 1/2 weeks! You might have seen that I have already been deep sea fishing and this Sunday I am taking my kayak out on Newport Bay. Can't wait! Can't find too many friends or family who enjoy kayaking as much as I do, so I went to meetup.com and found some new friends who DO! Ha! There is group at that link for EVERY interest. So Carolyn, go find 'em! You might suddenly find yourself with TOO much to do! : ) tikanis

Oceanna - that is good advice. Unfortunately, some dogs, and cats too (I have one) that are just frightened by thunder, fireworks or any other loud noises that do not regularly occur in their world. While we've tried to do the treats when the storms or fireworks are happening, it doesn't help with the cat or the pup who just become unhinged by these noises. The thing I find strange is that both of my dogs have the same mother in common. That said, their personalities couldn't be different. My younger boy (the one with the noise issues) is already on a prescription medication for anxiety reaction issues, yet when there are storms, he gets freaked out. I can tell when we are going to have the storms long before the sky even darkens. My younger lab starts early in the afternoon with the anxious behavior. I guess he can sense these storms, when even the meteorologists aren't predicting bad weather for our area, lol. My older guy doesn't react at all to any noise and never has. I hope the treat motivation is helpful to more people. We also use the tv or radio (a bit louder than usual) during storms as well. Also, downplaying and/or ignoring the reaction can be helpful too. Our vet definitely suggests that we not get pulled into the anxiety reaction. Thanks for posting this very helpful info.

Happy Canada Day to our Canadian neighbors and happy Independence Day to everyone here in the United States. I have nothing in particular planned, Elery and I have been working hard renovating the kitchen. I just painted countertops and they can't be used for a couple of days. Ashley is in the hospital, the docs think it's her gallbladder. No, kidney stones. No, wait.....oh, they don't know. Ugh. Makayla is signed up for ballet camp and I've been driving her back and forth to Grand Rapids. Fireworks used to be fun until they started popping them off at every amusement park, ball game, car dealership opening, whatever. Now I don't care if I ever see them again, but Amanda is working on the 4th of July and I might end up with Bud and Makayla somewhere. Have fun, everyone! Annie

I'm just getting ready to hand-sew the binding to the back of this Eiffel Tower Panel quilt that I'm doing for a friend. I've been feverishly trying to get it done and sent. Other than that we are staying home, DH will light up the grill and smoke some sockeye salmon, roast some corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, and grill some broccoli and mushrooms with lemon. Yum! Larri, I absolutely LOVE Greek food, especially stuffed grape leaves, can I come, too? DH isn't as crazy about it, he'll eat it but never asks for it, so I'll leave him home. I do make some dishes occasionally - especially Greek salad and simple broiled lemon chicken breast. We have a very small franchise here that does the gyros, salads, rice bowls and they make this awesome side - feta fries - they are just too good to describe.