Post-Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I have to say mine was really great. I do always have a brief let-down period though, after the gifts are open. This year was no exception. Everyone loves their gifts, including me although I honestly get much more pleasure from giving at this time in my life. But every year I just have this sad moment when it's all over. I think it's nostalgia and realizing once again, that Christmas will never again be the way it was when I was a child. That's one thing my parents did really well.......not that they went overboard but we got what we wanted and had a lot of fun. Christmas was special.
I try to do the same thing for my kids and I guess I do pretty well. It's been a great holiday.
Tomorrow they go to their dad's house to get even more gifts. They are very fortunate in so many ways. They have so many people who love them!
Now I'm on a crazy hunt for a huge stuffed Spiderman. My stepson used to have one at our house, but it disappeared. We just found out from his mom, that he asked for one from her, for Christmas. For some reason, she got him an Elmo instead. Apparently he was pretty bummed, (I never realized he liked that particular Spidey so much!) so I said to Dh, "oh, I'll just find one online and get it for him." Much easier said than done! I finally found a couple on Ebay and bid on one, now I'm just hoping I get it. For one of them, the cost wasn't bad but the lady wanted $85 to ship it to me!! Now with my luck, as soon as I got that bad boy in the mail, I'd walk into a thrift store and find one for .85 CENT. No can do! I'd cry.
Alrighty, tomorrow we get the key to the new casa and arrange for the lights to be turned on, all that fun stuff. Sleep is elusive for me lately! zzzzzzz

The Truth about Puppy Mills

Dog Stuff

When I found Sasha at the shelter (through Petfinder.com), I was looking for a dog who would be a "Mama's girl". I have a female dog who I adore, she is my heart dog. But she's not a lap dog, not super-cuddly, doesn't devotedly follow me around.
I guess I should be careful what I wish for........poor Sasha is sooo attached to me. She has seperation anxiety when I'm not there. Even if the rest of the family is at home, she cries and watches out the window for me. My poor baby! I'm going to get a carrier and take her with me anywhere that it's reasonable for her to go.
Yep, I'm going to be one of "those" people.
While I'm on the subject of dogs, I want to talk about Puppy Mills. For many years I'd never even heard of them. Once I did and found out what they are, I was so shocked, and horrified. Now I want to educate other people about them, and plead with everyone to NEVER buy an animal from a Pet Store. Puppy mills are real, they exist, and in some cases they are even LEGAL. If you want more information about Puppy Mills, please visit www.stoppuppymills.com, and watch the videos.

Weekend blah-de-blah

This weekend turned out very well. Ladybug's birthday is on Wednesday the 19th and we had her party at a park on Saturday afternoon. (it's Florida, we can usually do outdoor parties even in December! LOL)
The party was great. That morning it was misting and afternoon storms were predicted! I almost cried! Of all the days and times.......but the weather mercifully held out for us, it was even sunny most of the time. We even managed to get a pavillion when some people left. And best of all, a bunch of her friends made it! I was so worried that not many would make it, because of short notice (my fault, I'm a bad planner), the holiday season, and the fact that she's in a new school this year and most of her friends went to a different middle school. But she had a great turnout, and a great party.....one of the least-stressful and fun parties we've had!Saturday night we went shopping for our Christmas Tree. We finally found the perfect one.
We did a little more shopping and then came home and put the tree up.The next morning, we decorated the tree. Then the kids made a Gingerbread House. After we were done, we took Tim to see the potential new house, then took all the kids' to their dad's house. Their neighbor's son was having his 2nd Birthday Party. While they were gone, we did some more Christmas shopping, and we also stopped by John's baby's grave. We had a little decorated mini-Christmas Tree to leave on his grave. My wonderful Niece, a.k.a. one of my best friends, came with us.
After all that the girls came home and then we finally relaxed a little!
Today I slept most of the day then after dinner, we all went out looking at Christmas lights. Came home and had hot cocoa.
Tomorrow night we're planning on going to see Alvin & The Chipmunks. My sister and niece are coming too.
Wednesday night Ladybug will be having dinner with her dad & stepmom.
On and on and on......lots of plans at this time of the year! Friday night we're going out for my sister's birthday, Saturday night we're going to Carrabba's for the clerk Christmas Dinner..........it just keeps going on! Hopefully, I'll have good news to post tomorrow about the house!
xxxcrossing everythingxxx I can't remember if I posted here about it, but we found a house a couple of weeks ago and we should find out tomorrow if we're going to get it or not. I'm praying!

Our Family Has Grown!

Last night I was looking through Petfinder.com and I came across this beautiful baby girl. We adopted a wire hair dachshund male over the summer, and he is the most awesome dog ever. We're always saying I need to find a girl wire hair, (Tater is a daddy's boy) but they're pretty uncommon to find in rescue so I doubted it would happen. (I don't buy dogs, ever) But there she was on the website, and located in a high-kill shelter too. It happened that today was hubby's day off, so when I got off work and showed him the picture, off we went. My hubby ROCKS!
She was in a town that is about an hour's drive North of us. We had a heck of a time finding the shelter, but we made it. Got there, and there was ANOTHER dachshund in the shelter! I could only get one, so of course I got my wire hair girl, but I contacted my rescue group and we're going to be getting the other girl if she doesn't get adopted by Friday, one of the group members will be adopting her. Yay! Two lives saved. Two hours of sleep today! Yikes! But it's so worth it. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have doctor's appointments right after work tomorrow AM, and then I have to work 7pm-7am tomorrow night. But I'm not complaining! It's more than worth it, and I'll get through it.
When I got her home I put her straight in the bath, she was incredibly filthy and covered with fleas. She seems to feel so much better now, and she is so happy and sweet. All she wants is to cuddle. I am totally in love!

I Caught It

I caught the nasty bug that's been going around my house. I feel like poo. I just want to go home (I'm at work), crawl into my bed and stay there all weekend.
This is what I look like.