Yeah.
I would post a picture of my current dilemma, but I cannot.
I'm pinned to the bed. And it's not what you think. Remember, ThatManILove is in North Dakota.
Zanna the Wonderpup is crashed across one leg, all 35 spotted pounds of her. And Zack, the big 75 lb. lug, is snoring across my other leg. I say, "Kennel". They shift a hair or two, you know, like they are in full obedience, and keep on snoring.
Will someone please bring me a bottle of water and a blankie? The rest of me is freezing.
This evening, ThatManILove and I arrived at the house around the same time. We decided to take the Wonderdogs to the park.
Upon our arrival, I noticed a pit bull pup I met way back in August. She had grown so much. Her owner walked up, and we visited. I confirmed that the pup was indeed the same little bitty pup I’d seen in August. She is so sweet, and it was good to see her and her owner.
I had my camera with me, which caused the pup’s owner to ask me questions about it. She asked about pictures, and I told her some of my dog park pix were posted on my blog, and on the Midland Dog Park site. We introduced ourselves, and my last name stopped her in her tracks.
“Are you related to Sherry?”, she asked. “Yes,” I said, “She’s my sister-in-law.”
(I’ll stop there for a second, and give you some background. TMIL is one of 6 sons in his family, 5 of whom are living. Some 4 or 5 years ago, after one of our huge extended family Christmas gatherings where we draw names for presents, TMIL and I suggested to his family that instead of swapping presents between 5 brothers, their wives, and all their chilluns, that we all come together and adopt families for Christmas, through our churches and the Salvation Army. On the night of our family celebration, we would come together, separate the adopted family presents, and all go different ways to deliver presents to those families*. In addition to the presents, we gave the parents of each family a gift card to HEB. Afterwards, we would regroup at TMIL’s mom’s house, and have Christmas dinner.
The family loved this idea, and it’s since become an annual tradition.
Okay, back to the dog park.)
She said, “I will never forget your last name. I need to tell you a story that happened in my life.”
Her sister’s family was one that was given to TMIL's brother, his wife, Sherry, and TMIL's mom for adoption that Christmas. At the time, this young lady was living with her sister, had just given birth to a son, and as such, was a single mom. She wasn’t on anyone’s list, but Sherry and TMIL's mom found out about her, and included she and her son in the adopted family’s Christmas.
I said, “I remember this story! No way would anyone in our family leave you and your newborn son out!”
The young lady said, “I’ll never forget that Christmas. And someday, I hope to be able to do that same thing for someone else.”
TMIL and I both said, “You will. You will.”
She and her son lived at Midland Fair Havens** (an awesome local facility that helps single moms find jobs while providing child care and housing)and she worked and entered college. She is now married, attending college full time, and will soon be entering nursing school. She runs into Sherry from time to time, and always thanks her for that Christmas way back when. She is such a precious woman, and doesn’t even know how much she blessed us tonight by sharing this story.
I wanted to write this tonight because:
The time is now to help someone.
The time is now to contact your church, or your local Salvation Army, and ask for a family to adopt for Christmas.
The life you bless...may be your own.
*Most organizations ask you to buy gifts and clothes for kids up to age 14. When we found this out, we asked for more information for each family...because what if there was a 15 year old in the house? Or a 17 year old? In almost every family, there was extended family including older children. They would have been excluded. It was in the asking for more information about the household that we discovered the situation with this single mom and her newborn son living with her sister, and included them. Don’t be afraid to push for more information concerning your adopted family.
**Right now, if you'd like to donate to Midland Fair Havens, Denver Mattress will match your donation dollar for dollar! If you have an extra $5, $10, or whatever, please go and donate!
Above are some pix of the dogs. You think they're having fun, by the way they're staring at that door? The answer is YES!. Zanna has come upon deer several times, and she thinks they’re fun to chase. We think she’s never going to come back when she takes off, but she does. I think she thinks that they’re big dogs. Zack has disappeared once himself, but he came back as well. All your training goes out the window when the dogs are exposed to new circumstances like deer, we've learned the hard way. And the terrain is just too rough to keep them on leashes, hence the e-collars.
We’re winding down on our mountain trip - we’ll leave this beautiful place on Wednesday. We’ve had a beautiful, relaxing time and the weather has been awesome here. I think we’re heading to the golf course today, time will tell!
Thanks for sticking by me during this funky time in my life!
XOXOXOXO
The push...
The takedown...
And it all begins again...
As you remember, we had drawn for two sets of tickets to the James Taylor Tanglewood Concert with Sheryl Crow and Yo Yo Ma.
The winners were seats 1&2 – Terri, aka Pepsi’s Mom, from Kansas – and, Jeannie S, seats 3&4from Connecticut. Both of these ladies wanted these tickets to bless (a) a daughter and (b) a friend recovering from cancer. I think that’s really cool.
So, remember, we started with 6 names, typed out, cut up, dumped into my cool yellow bowl.
And then we drew names here:
And the winners are (and yes, Ryan Seacrest is off for the weekend, so there will be no more delays):
Barbara, from Connecticut - you’ll hear more from her later…she won seats 5&6~
And…
Evan, from West Michigan, who won seats 7&8:
My wife gave me a fathers day and birthday gift (I turned 53 on July 22) to go to the concert in Tanglewood but was only able to get lawn seats for the Sun. afternoon concert with JT and the Boston Pops. We live in West Michigan and are going drive the 12-13 hours even if this is the only concert we can take in. We have been looking on line for months for tickets to the Sat. concert with Sheryl Crow. We have been effected by the 14% unemployment rate here in Michigan and because my job is directly related to the housing market things have been really slow. Being able to go hear my favorite artist, James Taylor, in seats where I could actually see him without binoculars would be so awesome. Let me commend you for your gracious gift no matter who you choose. You could have gotten a ton of money for these tickets and to give them away shows you are person of real integrity. God bless!! You can contact me at evan@********** if I am selected.
Well, Evan, your wish came true! Happy 53rd Birthday! I hope you give your lawn tickets away, in turn!
Congrats to the winners!!! Y’all e-mail me your contact info and addresses, and I will be mailing out all these tickets no later than Monday, August 3, 2009. I will most likely mail them receipt confirmation, so you must sign to receive them.
Have fun , thanks for playing in the contest and we’ll catch you on the next one.
After this morning’s activities with my WonderDogs, who knows, there may be some spotted hounds up for grabs in the near future!
Saturday to do list:
(1)Take Zack and Zanna to run at the dog park so they'll quit driving me crazy (not too far of a walk, anyway - to crazy, that is!)!
(2)Meet TexasRed and ThatManSheLoves for the very first time and share lunch! YEAH!
(3)Go see Elder Son team rope at the Lamesa Rodeo – I’m excited – if I’m lucky, I’ll get to post pix of him roping…
He’s so done, he hopped up on the bed and demanded to be covered up. (Yes, he sleeps inbetween the sheets and the comforter. I think this is his going-on 6th year to do so.) This is him, all in a lump. He's stolen the covers. Dang dog.
I uncover him, he doesn't even know it. He's just snoring away. Zack the Wonder Dog.
And here, you see just how much of the California King Size Bed he's taking up. I might as well move to another bedroom.
Anyway, enough about Zack.
I have about a million thoughts running through my head. I have taken two (2) Melatonin, the kind you let dissolve under your tongue - sublingually. They’re usually so strong I have a hangover in the morning. Or, at the very best of the worst, weird weird dreams.
If Braja were here, she’d teach me how to meditate.
Here are some of the thoughts running around in my head.
Now, Zack’s taken over my side of the bed. It’s a good thing ThatManILove isn’t home tonight, because I’m going to have to scoot over to his side.
Zack...give me some covers!!!
Good morning, all.
Oh, yeah - and don't forget about the free James Taylor Concert Tickets giveaway next Monday. Are you up for it?
Twice is crazy.
We’re at crazy right now. Third doesn’t even need to happen.
Remember when Zanna the Wonder Pup “home-based” me at the dog park, when she was playing too hard with the Great Danes? They were chasing her (all Zanna-instigated), then she got scared and ran up behind me, the dogs couldn’t stop, and hit me. They knocked my knees out from under me, I fell and I ate the pole by which I was standing? Result: Two black eyes and a cut lip.
This weekend, we were all vegging out on the couch - I was leaning up against ThatManILove, and Zack and Zanna were curled up at the other end of the couch.
Zanna the Instigator starts a wrestling match with Zack the Wonder Dog, and they’re gently playing with each other. I’m about halfway paying attention, and halfway watching a movie. Zanna moves up closer to ThatManILove and I. There’s a moment’s lull, then Zack pounces. All 70 pounds of him.
His right paw lands on top of my left eye and cheek. ThatManILove jumps up, says, “Oh, baby, are you okay?” I assure him I am, it really didn’t hurt - it scared me more than anything. And Zack is so gentle, he really is...he wouldn’t hurt Zanna, and he certainly wouldn’t hurt me, so the pounce was really light.
We get everybody settled and go back to watching the movie. Later on, I get up to go get a drink, and happen to look at my face. And I see that there has been a little damage. This is with coverup makeup. Coverup just ain’t gonna happen on this one. I can’t wait until I call on customers tomorrow.
It's never boring around here.
Zanna the Wonderpup was due for her second segment of hunter puppy training at Decatur, so we decided to take Little Brother along and make a weekend of it. His eyes gleaming with the promise of swimming at the hotel, he buckled up and settled down in the back seat, new Ipod jamming, earphones in, sometimes singing along. You've been there - you're trucking along, and all of a sudden, a song you know is being sung, sans music, from the back seat, and wonder of wonders, you know the song, too? Well, there we were. He's got a great voice, and always cracks us up with his song choices - he loves the 80's bands!
As I drove and ThatManILove settled down to do some computer work, we counted back. LB1 was my “Little” first, and he was 8 years old when I first met him at his school. I would go in for an hour, once a week, and the principal would take him out of class and we would just hang out on the school premises. (This is what Big Brothers Big Sisters call “a school-based match” –since I was on the Big Brothers Big Sisters board, I wasn’t allowed to have a community based match. This policy has since changed. ) Around Christmas, when we were making his mom a surprise Christmas tile, I visited with his grandma to arrange surprise delivery of the present.
At that point, Grandma politely told me that though LB loved my school visits, that their desire was that he be matched with a man who could take him to activities outside of the school. I told her that they had him signed up for the wrong program – that I would call (as my heart was breaking!) and ask their coordinator to call them and get LB signed up for the community program. Not too long afterwards, ThatManILove got a call…they had a match for him in the community based program. To our surprise, that match was my former Little! And Little Brother’s been a huge part of our lives ever since.
We arrive at the Anderson Ranch, let Zack and Zanna out of the truck, and LB starts exploring the grounds. It had recently rained, so everything was wet and muddy. LB goes and checks out all the different dog breeds, the Labs, the German Shorthairs, and the Walker Coon dogs. LB goes to all the barns, and checks out the contents. There, he finds the baby goats, and falls in love. The Andersons let the babies out so LB can play with them. Meanwhile, the family cat is all over him, and later follows him up on the trampoline, where they jump together. (Sorry, LB’s Mom – hopefully Shout will get all that dirt out of that white t-shirt, and we bought him replacement tennis shoes!) Then, he climbs all over the new Ranger Polaris, and asks to drive it. No way, Jose!
We make it to the hotel, where we’ve arranged for connecting rooms. We arranged for his room to have two doubles in case he doesn't want to stay there by himself. He’s a little nervous about staying in a room by himself, but gets over it quickly after moving freely between the two rooms and realizing we’re right there. ThatManILove goes into LB’s room, and they order the Simpsons movie. They laugh throughout the movie.
LB wakes up with the chickens, and has to go downstairs to grab breakfast. He's starving, he says, and can't wait for us to get ready. (We call him the bottomless pit.) He finishes breakfast, comes back up to the rooms; by then, ThatManILove wants to go to the Waffle House. I'm eating fruit, and LB is now into a movie, so ThatManILove goes by himself. Before he can even get back to the hotel, LB is hungry again - but the breakfast area at the hotel has been closed. I call ThatManILove, and ask him to order an omelette to go for LB. ThatManILove laughingly says, "The Bottomless Pit strikes again?" Soon after, it’s swimming time, and they finally come back up to the room at 2pm, exhausted. We pack up, and head out to eat lunch (LB ate a huge Mexican plate) and drive home. It was a great weekend!
People try to recruit Big Brothers and Big Sisters because it's a way to bless a child. They've got it all wrong...I promise you, we're the ones that are blessed.
Zack and Zanna, trying to cool off a little after hard play and lots of running!
Zanna the Wonderpup, trying to decide what kind of stuff she can stir up next.
Like this - our funny friend, Buddy, digging, and Zanna knowing - just knowing!- that she's not allowed to dig. So, she's enjoying it vicariously. And if we don't watch her, she Will.Be.In.There. Right alongside her friend.
While Buddy shows no conviction whatsoever, and is going after that varmint that has to be in that hole!
And here they are, exhausted, but looking back towards the dog park as if saying, "Do we really have to leave, Mom? Do we?" Check out those smiles.
Well, you win, sort of, since I’m trying to catch up a little on writing. And maybe post twice in two days. There isn't a rule on content, is there? If so, I'm busted. It’s almost 3 a.m., and I’ve slept about 30 minutes tonight. I don’t know what’s going on, except that. work. keeps. cycling. through. my. brain. like. a. maniac. and. will. not. leave. me. alone.
So, each time I think of someone I haven’t called on, or need to visit, I put them on my crackberry calendar. Right then and there. Which insures that my alarm will be going off all day tomorrow, reminding me to do all the things I dreamt about (or thought about when I tried to dream) tonight.
I even took a natural sleeping pill at midnight, which, at the rate it’s going, should probably kick in about 6 a.m., when I should be up getting ready for work.
Zack the Wonderdog has his vasectomy (neuter) appointment later on this morning at 8 a.m. Life should be interesting later this afternoon, when we get him home. I was reading up on what to expect after surgery and found out that you can actually buy prosthetic testicles for your dog. ThatManILove has been teasing about getting them for Zack so that Zack won’t lose his stud dog look, but I think (and hope) he’s teasing.
Anyway, I’m going to go count green sheep now.
Again.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
I’m still here.
I’ve been reading your blogs and sometimes commenting. I’ll be back soon, just bear with me.
It’s been a busy week, and ThatManILove’s been stuck on location 24/7 again. He’s home now, and we’re all snoozing on the couch and/or watching TV. All of the “we” being TMIL, Zack the Wonderdog, and myself.
Picture this. I’m shoved up in one corner, and TMIL’s shoved into the other. Zack? You guessed it. He’s all stretched out long-ways, head on my lap. The boy’s got it made…until next Sunday, when Zanna The WonderPup graduates from hunting school and comes home to tell the Zackmeister all about it.
And then? It will be a whole new day.
The ubiquitious and seriously funny Vodka Mom gave me this cool FFB award. I’m not going to post it, because I found out Little Brother has bookmarked this blog on his PSP. And I'm going to pretend he's never seen That Word. But, because it’s Vodka Mom, I’ll play along with the rules and tell you some trivia from my life. I’ve been doing that all along, however, I’ll try to dig a little deeper.
Jet and Trap, heading out to their trialing field. 
Trap the German Shorthair starting out his hunting. Hunt 'em up, boy! Doesn't he look happy?! 
Trap, retrieving his first bird of the trial. He knows what he's doing, and he loves it!
This is Jet and Trap, immediately after their first run. I don't know who's more excited!
This past weekend at the field trial, I met a young couple named Jet and Stephanie. Actually, I met Jet a couple of months ago, at Pet Smart. Zanna the WonderPup and I were at Zanna’s puppy training, and this young man comes up to the window to introduce himself to me. Seems he has a young shorthair named Trap, and he and his wife seemed pretty new to this area. I told him about the field trials, and the Llano Estacado Bird Hunting Association, and he told me he was interested in getting involved and meeting other hunters. Jet is a football coach, so he told me his time would be limited until after football season was over.
This weekend was Jet’s first field trial with Trap. Though I attended, I didn’t hunt - just trying to get 100% well after my bout with the respiratory junk. Another young man ran Zack for me.
Jet comes up to greet me, and I went over to meet his wife, Stephanie. She’s a sweetheart, and is a teacher in our local school system. We visited for a while, and while talking, I asked her how long they had been in town. Her response?
“Two football seasons.”
I cracked up, thinking “Uh-oh. I’ve got to introduce her to shooting. Once Jet gets addicted to hunting/field trials, Stephanie will have two seasons by which to mark her time. she might as well be involved in one of them.” She laughed, as well.
We visited for a while, then I went on to take care of some business. It was almost time for Trap’s run, and Jet comes up to me again. He asks me to take pictures during his run.
I just could not turn him down. How many people get to document their first run?
Jet and Trap did well, and as I predicted, Jet got adrenalined up - he now loves field trialing. And so does Trap the German Shorthair! Here are some of the shots, for your enjoyment. I know you love good hunting pictures. (I’ll convert all of you yet!) Oh, yeah - and now, Stephanie’s ready to start shooting!
