Good Morning America March 1,2010

Dispatch the bichon  was like 9 months old here.  We let my oldest daughter cut his hair, she has bulldogs, perhaps Dis was supposed to look like a bulldog?  Then evidently we moved his precious basket from it's accustomed place and carelessly sat it on Mountain Dew bottles, so he  was supposed to be there?  Or so he thought?  This was in 2004.  You still move his basket up high and he will get in it if he possibly can.  Mugsey used to too and sit in Dispatches basket which was rather amusing, I'll have to find that picture. For those of you who don't know Mugsey was a lab, looked like Marley.

It's 7 am and so far I've found a mistake on the web site I'm helping with.  BTW Jan said the link didn't work on my other post, dunno which link so I will give you all of them.  fawnsgalla-rhea.com is one but you can copy and paste that one, it's not done by any means, it's the website pegysus web design is making, the gallery is the big thing on that site and then there will be a shop also.  Tresa's Blog and the Elderly Cheese Stick Gestapo is one and Florence View with my views on facebook and picasa is another.

So this morning?  You ask how is my morning going?  Well thanks for asking. I've

1. Woke up @ midnight after 3 hours sleep with a cold and helped my husband unload tomatoes, I mean like actually picked up boxes of tomatoes and rearranged them on a pallet.  I can do this, just not a good thing in the night.
2. Then we slept another hour before we finished delivering @ Wal Mart.  I dreamed someone was in my house unexpectedly like I just looked up and they were there.  Good thing I didn't wake up screaming because I screamed in my dream.  It was all OK though, it was just someone trying to solve a crime with my help?  (since I'm such a super sleuth, NOT)
3. Leaving Wal Mart my phone fell off from the laptop and landed in the dog water.  I'm connected to the internet with it now and it really didn't get wet inside.  Nokia E71x will withstand a short dunking.  I turned it off and took it apart just to make sure.
4. This is sort of gross but funny.  We left Dispatch in the truck for 5 hours yesterday, he was fine, I took him potty directly before and after we got back in and he headed back to the truck so I thought he was through since that's his signal.  We were going to our next drop (the tomatoes) and he was on my lap this is like 15 minutes later.  I thought he was having like spasms?  He was shaking intermittently, I'm like oh now what is wrong with him, all we need is another vet bill, is he in pain, is he cold?  So I cuddled him.  We stopped when we got off the interstate and I told my husband the dog may have to go poop, evidently that solved the shaking problem, he was so excited to see us when we got back in the truck he didn't have time to finish what he needed to do potty wise like a kid.  It wasn't funny but it was, poor puppy was saying, oooohhhh I gotta go, I gotta go, oooooooooh why didn't I go before......

So how has your Monday morning been?  I'd better catch another nap because my mind just went blank as to how I put a link in here.  Press the link button would be a good guess...........

I Am So Slow

First of all grandson lost first two matches so he was out almost immediately Thursday @ state, he was so relieved to not have to wrestle again  it was like night and day.  It's something to make it to state as a freshman so he was happy just to be there.   The opening ceremonies with the wrestlers coming into the gym was rather impressive, I guess it was just the music but it was almost Olympic like.  I'll post in a bit (which means today or sometime in February) about the elderly gestapo @ the wrestling meet on Tresa's Blog.  You say you haven't heard of the elderly gestapo?  Well you should read about them and be warned.  They are after your cheese sticks.  They want your cheese sticks so you will buy their $3 candy bars.  REGULAR candy bars, not like imported chocolate or anything.

 

That's my daughter and two unkempt dogs in the picture above.  That is part of the reason I haven't posted.  She has been here for a week almost.  She's gone now and we miss her, the house is quiet...no Charlie the Yorkie Poo and Dispatch wrestling and wrestling.  They fought a few times but were getting better, the playing far outweighed the fighting.  The dogs both got a bath before she left.  My other daughter has been here a couple times, we went over there, it snowed, that was fun.  21 miles on roads that you couldn't tell where the road ended and the shoulder started and 3 of the grandkids were with us, she drove.   Over the river and through the woods......  

I have a part time job, I could do it in the truck but I've got some other things to do so I'm home still or again or whatever.  I'm helping my cousin with websites, the one I'm working on has hand painted candles, glasses, and wedding sets, they are available for shipping.  The site isn't complete but if anyone would like to look @ it email tcscarlet at yahoo dot com.  I also fooled around MUCH more than I should have with the magic of facebook and irritating relatives and friends with old photos last week.

My husband was home for more than he's been home since December too.  His mother is 85 and had open heart surgery and a bit of complication.  She is in rehab now but she is 120 miles away, we did get to go see her Saturday, she was up walking which translated to being drug by 3 nurses in my book but I know it's a long road to recovery.  My Father in Law is there with her, he is 87 and no he isn't driving back and forth, he stays @ the hospital most of the time.  A big winter storm was moving in but wasn't supposed to get here till later that night.  True to form it SNOWED on the way home, big wet flakes but then rained for like 24 hours.  Our snow is STILL not gone after 24 hr of rain!  Then it turned to snow again and left a dusting. 

So that is what has been happening. I would say I should be on here regularly now but those are often famous last words.......

Kids VS Dog or Who Is More Jealous?

I think these pictures were taken in January or February of 2005 which would make Kaylin (granddaughter) almost 2 and Dispatch 1 1/2, isn't Kaylin a doll, she still is and not because she is the child of the one the other kids call my favorite (my favorite is supposedly my oldest stepson whom the other kids say can do no wrong in my eyes, @ that point I tell them I've disliked them all equally @ times). Anyway this is back when we thought Dispatch was a poodle which is another story, thus the horrible haircut. That and my oldest daughter decided to try her hand @ grooming him.

Dispatch (the dog in the picture a bichon and maybe poodle) was pretty good with the grandkids, didn't trust them but there was good reason. They did strange things to him. He did bite another granddaughter but she was teasing him taking food away from him and then giving it back, he learned better. Also Dispatch learned that if I had the camera out he had to be in the picture. He likes our children, loves some but that's another story.
Our children are all horribly jealous of the dog except for the two youngest who are both blond and Christy and Christi respectively, that's what happens when you have a blended family, I can't say Judy is jealous either but she is the youngest of my husbands two oldest daughters, so it's mostly the oldest kids that are jealous? My husband had a 10 year gap in between his two sets of kids so the respective oldest 3 of each family are the worst about not liking the dog. They say we spoil him horribly and they were never spoiled like that. One did admit ONCE that I must have spoiled the kids and they not known it considering how much I spoil the dog. She has @ last count 7 dogs with separate schedules because some of them fight so I don't know about me spoiling MY dog? We got Dispatch when the youngest child we had living with us was barely out of high school. Anyway the kids were basically gone from home and we had this foo foo dog that they were jealous of. We aren't talking babies here, they are in their 20s and 30s and professionals for the most part. But they don't want to h
ear about the dog, they grimace when we have to go home because the dog is there, they pass over the dog pictures, ...........they call him horrors, that stupid mutt?

For an example my oldest daughter who is really a loving caring upstanding person (she's the school nurse, has 4 kids, and a sunbeam group @ church) and I were talking the other day. I told her I had the new video of Dispatch "talking" on youtube and she said she could care less?

We went on a trip to the Florida Keys one Christmas eve when we were in Ft Lauderdale took my youngest daughter and my husbands youngest son and of course Dispatch too, it's referred to sometimes as the trip from hell because they had to ride in the back seat of the pickup with Dispatch who wanted his Mommy and Daddy in the FRONT seat the whole time. We went to the dog beach down there BTW, there and Dairy Queen, only two times we stopped except some state park with an old bridge and lots of shells. And yes the dog got ice cream @ Dairy Queen. BUT I did try to make the dog behave and not be like attached to me the whole trip.

So in short I guess the dog was our answer to the empty nest syndrome (what empty nest, they kept trying to come back!) and the kids didn't like what they viewed as a stupid replacement. And of course when we got married most of them were WAY too old to sleep with us (5-21 years old) but the dog gets to sleep with us, and go everywhere with us, and I carry him when he wants carried, and play when he wants to play (sometimes). I think the worst is if I talk baby talk to him and they say I never talked that nice to them. AND if they had came in from outside and jumped on the furniture with wet feet they would have been severely punished and the dog isn't, and he gets to sit on my lap when I watch tv or "daddies" lap. There are myriad more reasons why they think he is spoiled. Probably one of them is I blog about him and animals and not children but I don't think they want so much of their lives and habits exposed as Dispatches have been?

Anyway the kids are jealous of Dispatch. My husbands cousin has 3 girls the same age as some of our kids. They didn't have a dog inside when the kids were growing up either. The girls left home and voila, the parents get a dog. They have a NEW house in town, nice house and they get a terrier. Their girls tell me the dog eats steak and gets towels warmed up for him but I'm not sure that's all true. They say you have to be careful when you have a new baby when you have a pet already established in the home but no one ever warns about getting a new pet when you have children who are already established in the home?

Happy Turkey Day Amigos!

We are back from our trip, see previous post, and the "other" animals blog. I was starting to feel like the crew of the faithful minnow who took a three hour trip, a three hour trip....sorry, it seemed funny to me. We had to stay in a motel for a couple days to get a load back but we did get one back, thanks Tony. BTW I do have my CDL and I will probably be working with my husband a great deal now. (I weighed the pros and cons did I want to ride with him on ice or drive myself to work on ice, ride with him won). Oh and BTW did I ever tell you how I went on this trip? We were cleaning the truck since husband had used it for hauling construction stuff around for 6 months (read dust over everything) and I was playing with the passenger seat, he said it's air ride and I'll fix it if you'll go with me. Anyway I thought husband would have to put a new seat in the truck or @ least take the innards out of this one. Nope, it MIGHT have taken him 5 minutes to fix it. So I'm a truck driver again or a truck passenger part of the time.

I also posted about Thanksgiving and forgiveness on Tresa's Blog if you wish to be more unimpressed with my mental facilities. I'm so tired I was wandering from room to room forgetting what I came into each one for, bathrooom....... check mousetrap, bedroom.........get dog food (I put it in a suitcase, you think I keep the dogfood in the bedroom?)

The picture above? It's an aceo (colored pencil, 2.5"x3.5" painting) I did of Dispatch the Bichon when he was a baby puppy. I'm not sure why I put it on here and the other blog but it's one of my favorite pictures of him. He was a baby on my blue jeaned lap. I'm pretty sure my legs were skinny then?

All the animals are fine. Skeeter is much better. She yodeled when we got home Dispatch screeched like a banshee when she yodeled.

Highlights of the trip?
1. Dispatch tried to take out a border patrol when he stepped up on the truck when the door was open. I told the officer Dispatch was a citizen too. For those of you that haven't been to S TX or other places close to the border they look in trucks @ various inspection stations.

2. Dispatch is convinced the noise the rumble bars on the side of the road make is a monster trying to come through the floor of the truck to get him. This will keep him occupied staring @ the floor from the safety of my lap for about 1/2 hour. Also Dispatch is NOT happy on the dash of the truck but he fits quite nicely when we are sitting still if he's being annoying. He's not sure what the jake brake is but it's not nearly as scary as the rumble bars and if he watches his daddy much more I'm pretty sure he will know the gear pattern.

3. Remember how Dispatch is the terror of the car trip? Rides in a truck like he's been doing it all his life, sleeps on the floor most of the time, looks out whatever window is available, braces for curves etc. Of course he can touch mommy @ all times IF he wants to so that makes a difference. And of course everyone thinks he is so cute and well behaved @ the truck stops and even point and wave as we go down the road, @ least I think they are pointing and waving @ him or I'm having a REALLY bad hair day?

4. Oh yes, the refrigerator in the truck is @ floor level, it didn't take Dispatch long to learn this. He REALLY likes cold cold bottled water. He started telling me he was thirsty or his water was warm (horrors) by going and sitting by the frig.

Anyway I hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving without gaining a pound. We are going to my in laws tomorrow along with my sis in law and her family and their families and my daughter and her family and four of husbands kids with their families, intendeds, or intended with families. Anyway I just counted and it's 35 people, I think we had close to 50 here two years ago. Mostly immediate family. I got off lucky this year as far as cooking, my SIL was a caterer (she does everything perfectly, did I say that? hey Elenor, just kidding if you read this) and her two daughters are helping. My daughter is picking up canned sweet potatoes because no one was brining any and we have to have some even if no one eats them and I will fix them over there. She's also bringing dirt cake which is some outrageously rich crumbled oreo concoction or that's usually what she brings. I'm dumping canned fruit in a bowl and calling it good. Only two kids won't be there, my youngest and husbands youngest. One is house/dog sitting and the other is spending the holiday with her mother and her husbands family.

Anyway I'm full of good cheer but need to sleep again, Happy Holidays!!!

Prejudice and Kindness

That's the title of my new post on Tresa's Blog, you can get to it here. It's about those less fortunate than us and how a teacher can make a difference with one act of kindness.

Rainy lazy day here in SE TX, Louisiana had tornado warnings earlier. We had torrential rains, some of the guys ran over a water moccasin in the driveway where I walk. They said he was trying to get away from all the water? Hope there are no more.

Moving My Blogs

Hey everyone, I moved my blogs in case you didn't know!! OK, they are still here but the new posts are @ Animals That Give Pause, and Florence View has morphed (second time I've used that word today, becoming a favorite) into Tresa's Blog.

Now I have a legitimate and pertinent question to ask, what to do with my blogger blogs? Leave them here to point to my new blogs? Not a problem except the most popular one has the same name as this one. Do away with them? Has anyone gone from blogger to their own self hosted blog and lived and prospered to tell about it in the desert that is known as no guaranteed comments off of blogger. Just kidding, it took a long long time to get the blogs rolling here.

So advice anyone would care to share?

Mockingbird @ The Guest Bedroom Window

Sorry the picture is blurry he was moving and I was too.

The title says it all (see previous two posts). I went in to clean a bit and I heard a knock on the window. He said "Miss Me?" OK, I'm kidding about that part but there he was knocking on the window. Problem is we're having company this weekend that probably doesn't want to wake up when the mockingbird does. Maybe I should show the cats the bird, I doubt they would catch it but maybe he would stay away? Maybe the mockingbird just thinks since he's a star on the blog he should give me further material?

Maybe Mr. Mockingbird thinks he's saving my life by making me sit @ the computer, since I've started this cleaning binge because of company coming. In the last two weeks I've broken my toe (got it caught on the king sized bedspread while carrying a wicker basket full of photos, didn't fall but toe still hurts, bedspread was on the floor because I was changing the sheets) ran into several bumblebees in the flowerbed while weedeating, tried to pick a dead paper wasp off of a lawn chair that had been stored for the winter and then realized wasp wasn't dead (I'm allergic, I don't go into shock but I swell up horribly from any sting and get sick), and I've killed 3 snakes outside while cleaning up. Two were far away from the house and they were all ringnecks but I do NOT like snakes, sorry.

Obsessive Mockingbird

This Mockingbird has been trying to get in the picture window since Saturday (see previous post). He's persistent if nothing else. The cats are all on the other side of the house, in fact they (6 cats) met me @ the door this morning when I let the dogs out to tell me their giant food dish was empty. Not that I'd want the cats to get the mockingbird but the bird has to QUIT @ some point?
Now I'm obsessive about my day off nap even though it's a gorgeous day in the mid 60s. Still nap time!

I Can't Get No Satisfaction or Tale Of the Mockingbird

Do you see the Bichon on the table (he hasn't quite learned this isn't a normal dog thing), do you see the mockingbird in the four o'clock bush?

Do you see the bird now?
I know it's blurry but it was moving obviously and had to turn my flash off. We have big picture windows in the living room, birds accidentally fly into them all the time. This one wasn't an accident, I thought he was trying to get in the house, my husband said the mockingbird saw his reflection? I don't know whether he wanted to mate or fight his reflection but what he wanted was an illusion.

What we humans want are often illusions also. The neighbors perfect life, their loving spouse, their great job, then you find out they have a mental illness or cancer, their loving spouse has been loving on everyone else and their job is not what it looks like. Then you just merely go onto your next victim of envy instead of taking stock in what you do have and should be grateful for.

The mockingbird reminded me of this. It's been a difficult day in many ways. A broken door glass, a dirty house and company coming, chores undone, too many have to other chores, people gone.

But then I'm reminded of what I do have, a loving family and husband, a few good friends and many casual ones, great health basically, skinnier than I've been in years, and right now an opportunity to actually be able to pay our bills and retire when my husband can still enjoy it.

So I need to quit writing on this and go take the trash out, surely the bird will give up when it gets dark?