10 Things of Thankful

It's time to be thankful again!

1. I am thankful that my Mama made chocolate delight for my husband's birthday dessert, because I am enjoying the leftovers right now.  Mmm-mmm, good!

2. I am thankful that my whole family and hubby's whole family got together Friday night to celebrate his birthday.  We had a great time!

3. I am thankful for one friend who is doing something fantastic for my extended family.  I will elaborate on that later.  ;-)

4. I am thankful for HOT showers.  Most days I just jump in and jump out with little thought.  But have you ever had one of those showers that just feels amazing?  The other day, I woke up sore and crampy and crabby.  I was hurting and stiff and had sheet-wrinkles all over me.  I stumbled into a hot shower and came out feeling a million times better.  Thank you, Hot Shower.

5. Thankful for Tums, because my tummy is currently not very happy about my late night snacking as mentioned in #1.

6. I am thankful for modern technology.  I ordered a frame for my dad for Fathers Day; it's a wooden frame that says We <3 Papa and then has my kids' names all over it.  It's really cool.  Anyway, yesterday at Byron's mom's house, I took a picture of my dad with my three kids and then was able to print it right there at his mom's house with her printer (I brought my own photo paper so I was only mooching her ink).  I just LOVE that we are able to do that; I was born in the 1970's so I am old enough that modern technology really amazes me.

7. I am thankful for these sweet boys.  They were very closely watching me eat breakfast.  They don't beg, they just watch.  Very intently.  And Patchy, the one in the back?  He drools.

8. I am thankful that I was able to un-clog our vacuum cleaner with a wire hanger and a lot of hard work.  Because I am Superwoman!  And this Superwoman likes a clean floor.

9. I am thankful for Summer.  It's my favorite.

10. I am thankful that I am co-hosting Medical Mondays in two days!!  Be sure and come back to visit!

Summer is Here ~~ Friday Fragments

Happy First Day of SUMMER!!!

~ It's been raining a LOT here.  But in the beginning of this week, it was sunny.  WHILE I WAS WORKING.  Now I'm off. And it's freaking raining.

All I want to do is soak up the sun during the day, and have a fire at night.  Is that really too much to ask??
Apparently, yes it is.

~ When things in my life are rough, I dream of snakes and bodies of water teeming with alligators.
I am no dream interpretor, but I have no doubt why I dream of snakes, and it has nothing to do with the slithery bastards in my yard.
Anyway, lately, I have been dreaming of turtles.  Which makes me happy.

Also, baby pigs.  That's a new and delightful one.  How cute is THIS?

~ Speaking of cute....remember our little bulldog puppy, Bo?

Bo now weighs SEVENTY pounds.  He is solid muscle and has no idea he is large.  

He still truly believes he is a puppy and/or lap dog.

He is a sweet, lovable goofball.  I heart him.

~ I will be co-hosting the July edition of Medical Mondays Blog Hop!  I'm so excited!

I have some CRAZY stories to share with y'all.  Never a dull moment in my world!

Have a wonderful weekend, 

and don't forget to visit Friday Fragments at its Summer Home, 

Unknown Mami's place!

Ophidiophobia

Warning: Bad Words.  Sorry.

I have a phobia.  I've had it since I was very young.  I am deathly afraid of snakes.
I think that, as phobias go, it's a pretty reasonable one.  It's not, for example, a fear of aluminum foil. (no really, it's a thing.  I saw it on Maury.)
Aluminum foil cannot kill you.  As far as I know.
Snakes, however, can.
They can also try to kill your dogs.  But that is foreshadowing.

I can trace my phobia to its roots.  When I was very young, I stepped on a snake.  I was innocently walking into my house, minding my own business.  And in the brick pad in front of our door, a snake was hiding in the cracks.  I stepped on something squishy, looked down, and lost my shit.  Instead of running inside, I ran away.  I climbed a fence for the first time in my life, perched at the top and screamed for my daddy.  Bye-bye, snake.

Nightmares about snakes are a very common occurrence in my life.  I don't even like to see a picture of a snake.  They just terrify me.

Now, in case you're new here....I live in the woods.  I'm talking DEEP in the woods.  Very swampy woods.  I've lived here since December and until today, I had only seen one snake and it was dead.  Fine by me.  The only good snake is a dead snake.  (I'm truly sorry to any snake lovers.  I never asked for this phobia, nor do I control it.)

Even though we live in the middle of nowhere, we walk our dogs, they don't run loose.  One of those reasons is because of snakes.  So today, I was walking our two big dogs.  One on a leash, the other without a leash because he's usually very good about staying close and coming when called.

We had two storms this weekend so the woods are nice and wet and swampy.

So as we're walking down the long, muddy driveway, we encounter a snake.  I'm not sure what kind; I'm not a snake expert and I was not exactly in a detached, observational state.  I was in more of a FREAKING THE FUCK OUT state.  But there's a good chance it was a water moccasin.  Very poisonous snakes.  (I just bit the bullet and Wikipedia'd it.  IT WAS A MOCCASIN.  Shoot me now.)

The biggest dog, Patchy, walked RIGHT UP ON IT.  I pulled on him and his COLLAR SLID RIGHT OFF OF HIS NECK.  And the snake raised its head up in what I assume is an "I'm about to bite you" pose.
I had to get closer to the snake in order to pull Patchy away from it.  He finally backed away but Bo was on the OTHER side of the snake, exploring God-knows-what, and totally not listening to my cries for him to COME.  Finally, he came and thankfully, didn't notice the snake or get to close to it.  He's still a puppy and surely would have explored the neat moving thing in the road.

I raced inside, told Byron what happened, and then absolutely lost my shit.  Crying, snot everywhere, a little hyperventilating thrown in for good measure.

I knew it was only a matter of time before I encountered a snake here.  In fact, I stupidly thought that maybe after I finally saw one, I would calm down a bit.  Maybe the fear of seeing one was the worst part.  But what I didn't anticipate was that combined with seeing my first snake here, I would be desperately trying to save my beloved dogs from the snake.  It was a horrible combination.

So basically, I told you all of that to ask you this.

1. Do you know of any apartments for rent in the top floor of the highest building on the planet?

2. Is it true that there are no snakes in Ireland? How much is a one-way ticket there?

3. Do you have any phobias? Please share and make me feel a little better.

Eventful Sunday in my City

As I mentioned before, we celebrate birthdays around here for at least a month week.

So this is really more of a "Weekend in my City" post.

• For our family birthday celebration on Saturday, we went to my parents' house. 

 I made Three Cheese Chicken Parmesan, with spinach and dinner rolls.  

For dessert, Shelbie and her BFF Ashlee made rainbow cupcakes, 

and Elayna chose Blue Bunny White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Ice Cream.  

It was ALL absolutely delicious!

• Hayleigh is walking now and we had a BLAST playing with her.

That's Tim on the couch.  Hayleigh is pretty much his shadow!
They are so cute together.

Hayleigh and Elayna

• This weekend we also got a new addition to our family.

Elayna & Bo

A little backstory here: 

Shelbie and Hunter's son, Tyler, have known each other and gone to school together for years.  

They are not close friends but they run in the same circles.  

Tyler has dated several of Shelbie's friends.

Anyway, one of their mutual friends found this gorgeous puppy a couple of months ago.  Her parents wouldn't let her keep him, so Tyler ended up with him.  He originally planned to give the pup to his girlfriend, but her parents vetoed that idea.  So Tyler tried to keep him himself, but between school and baseball and of course having a girlfriend, he just doesn't spend enough time with the pup.
In fact, we puppy-sat him for a weekend a while back, I blogged about it here.

So Tyler called Dear Old Dad.

Meet Bo, the newest resident at the Casa de Dysfunction!

He is beautiful, a truly gorgeous dog.  He is ALL puppy.  

Sweet, affectionate, playful, HIGH - ENERGY.

I get tired just watching him.

If you're counting, that brings the pet total to 3 dogs, one cat, and one rabbit.

And one tired Mama.

Zzzzzz.......

Visit not-so Unknown Mami for more Sundays in my City posts!

Southern Comfort Zone

My home is now in the woods.

Far back in the woods.....

.....right smack in the middle of nowhere.

it's incredibly peaceful, comforting, quiet....

and beautiful.

{Mackenzie loves it.}

It's my Southern Comfort Zone.

{Linking up with Unknown Mami
for Sundays in my City.}

Dog Days Weekend

My boyfriend Hunter became a big brother and a grandfather, 

all on the same day. 

Here are the new little bundles of joy: 

This is the baby brother, Toby, a toy Australian Shepherd.

Photo by Elayna, isn't it wonderful?

8 week old, 2.5 pound ball of fur.

And here's the grandson, Bo.

so sweet when he's sleeping.....

this pup was found as a stray but is a
pit bulldog assumed to be around 10-12 weeks old.

We puppy- sat both dogs on Friday, and Bo on Saturday.  

Which caused us to have puppy fever.  

Which led to Hunter buying ME a dog on Sunday.  

She is a one year old Chiweenie.

She is also sweet when she is sleeping.

And a little grouchy when woken up....kinda like me.

Name undetermined because we were originally told SHE was a HE.

'Nother story for another day.

It's Where the Heart is. Also, the dog hair.

This week's listicles theme was 10 THINGS IN MY HOME.

My list is going to be all kinds of random, because random is pretty much my middle name.

1. Candles.  My home is always filled with candles, no matter where I live.  I love for my home to smell good and I love the warm feeling candles provide.

2. A dishwasher. And this makes me VERY happy.  Haven't had one in years!

3. Dog hair.  OMG, dog hair.  I could sweep and mop 24/7 and never be done.

4. Laughter.  So much laughter!

5. Love.  Lots of that too.  Unconditional.

6. Friends. I am continually amazed by my wonderful and supportive friends.  I love having them in my home.

7. Laundry.  It's a neverending battle.  At least it smells good (see #1 lol)

8. Food. I have been cooking some DEEEEELICIOUS meals lately.  And I plan on cooking another one tonight!

9. Music.  I can't deal with silence (or loud noise - I know, I'm a pain in the ass).  If I'm not watching something on tv, I need noise, and that comes in the form of music.  I love it, it keeps me going.  Cooking, cleaning, even sleeping - there's always background music.

10. Comfort.  We can be ourselves.  Goofy, bitchy, crabby, silly, whatever mood strikes us.  We don't have to impress anyone.  Because of #5.

Visit Northwest Mommy to join the Listicle fun!

ROXanne.....

(Please tell me you sang that, Police-style. Please.)

When the girls and I moved into our new home, we had to make a sacrifice. We were not allowed to have a big dog here. That meant I had to find a new home for our boxer mix, Sofia.

Long-time readers will know how hard that was for me. You all know about my involvement in animal rescue & fostering. I do not consider animals disposable. It was tough.

And that's all I have to say about that.

I have very much missed having a canine companion, especially on the nights that the girls are at their dad's house and I am home alone. So I decided that once we got settled in, I'd find a small dog to keep me company.

We've been in our home for two months so lately, I've been keeping an eye out, but hadn't found the perfect dog until this weekend. I checked Craigslist and found an ad for a terrier-poo. When I opened the ad, I saw a picture of a dog that reminded me SO MUCH of the dog I had growing up, a terrier/poodle mix. I called the number right away and talked to the owner for half an hour. She runs an informal, non-profit rescue group and just wanted to find this little girl a good home.

And she did.

Roxanne, a.k.a. Roxy, a.k.a. Foxy Roxy, is my ride or die chick.




She is wonderfully well-behaved, and she is my little shadow.

She couldn't have come at a better time; it's Spring Break for the girls and they're both gone for a solid week.

Roxy and I are bonding.

I Don't Know If I Can Yell Any Louder

I feel like I've been run over by a truck. Physically, emotionally, dysfunctionally.

It's been even more chaotic than usual around here.

It feels like being on a ship that keeps filling with water, and as soon as I plug one hole, another one pops up.
It's like one step forward and two steps back.

It's like my life is a giant whack-a-mole game.

I need a vacation. One that involves copious amounts of alcoholic beverages.

But, alas, that's not on the horizon, so I guess I'll just frag!

I already decorated my house for fall/Halloween. I figure if the stores can do it, why can't I? This is my favorite time of year and I'm going to enjoy every moment. I have fall tarts burning, too. Mmmm....

It's that "special" time of the month (ugh) so I stocked up on chocolate at the grocery store today. So what do you think I'm craving?
Oatmeal raisin cookies.

The number of dogs in my possession has suddenly tripled. My neighbor's dogs got out today, and have been on the lam all day long. They've been in and out of our yard, and at one point they had Meep treed! (they're hunting dogs.) Finally tonight, I heard the distinctive beagle bark out in my yard. Two of the three were hanging around, and came right up to me. Since it was so late, I just put them on the screened porch with my boxer. Thankfully, she's the sweetest dog alive and is just thrilled to have two new friends visiting for the evening!

I made Mexican Lasagna for the first time tonight for dinner. It was so good, I posted the recipe on Southern Loving!

This video absolutely cracks me up, which gives you some insight into my twisted sense of humor. Love it!

That's all I got for ya, folks!

Have a great weekend, and

GO GATORS!!

Can I Have Some of That?

Do you get your Daily Dose of Jack?

No, I'm not talking about this.

Although if you do get your daily dose of that Jack, that's certainly none of my concern. Party on, with your bad self! I'll be over here praying for your liver.

Anycirrhosis, that's not what this post is about. This is about a whole 'nother kind of Jack. This Jack is so awesome, if he had thumbs, he would rule the world.

As it is, he's written two books! This latest one is a cookbook, and yours truly (that's me) contributed a recipe to this awesome book. It's now available for your Kindle! Can I Have Some of That?

And best of all, all of the proceeds go to French Bulldog Rescue Network and Chase Away K9 Cancer. Even if you don't have the Kindle, if you purchase the Kindle version, Jack will send you a PDF version for free. That way the charities still get some bones (haha!) and you still get your book. Win/win!

So check it out, and while you're at it, check out his fabulous first book, Jack: A Book About a Dog Where the Dog Doesn't Die at the End.

Dogs everywhere will thank you!

Putting the FUN in Canine Cognitive DysFUNction

a.k.a. Doggy Dementia.

This is about our oldest dog, Suzie. She is a miniature dachshund and she is somewhere around 18 years old. Which puts her somewhere around 126 years old in dog years.

And her mind, it is a'slipping.

This about.com article describes Suzie's behavior so well, I am suspicious that they have been peeking in our windows.

She stands at the hinge side of the door, wondering why it doesn't open and she can't get out of the room.

She randomly walks in circles. Over and over and over.

She gets stuck under things like end tables and Sofia's feeders. She wanders into the closet and stares at the walls.

And we laugh hysterically.

Because truly, these things are funny! She's cute. It's endearing. When you see her running around the house trying to get the little metal decorative table off of her back, what else are you gonna do?

Besides help her, of course. Once you contain your laughter.

She also does things that are not fun. Not funny. Not even a little bit endearing.

Like, her "loss of housetraining". Sigh.

She doesn't respond to commands. We thought she was going deaf, but it appears that she can still hear, it's just the dementia. But the sleep irregularities and barking for no reason? They are the ones that are going to drive me completely off of my rocker. She has combined the two, to save herself trouble I suppose. So when the house is quiet and she should be sleeping, she randomly decides to bark. Except that it's more of a "yelp". It is extremely loud and piercing and makes me want to rip my ears off of my head.

Alternately, I have considered putting Suzie in the washing machine and setting it on SPIN.

(I'm kidding, PETA, and stay off my blog, ya freaks.)

I honestly have no idea when I've slept for a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes, we can quiet her by wrapping her in a blanket and sort of tucking her in to her doggy bed. Sometimes, there is no consoling her. She doesn't like to be petted, picked up, or touched at all, really.
Sometimes, she wakes up the other dogs and they start barking, too. We can't keep her outside so that we can sleep, because I'm afraid she'll wake the neighbors. Even though we are a good distance away from our nearest neighbors. She is LOUD.

She is not in pain. She's just cognitively dysfunctional. The dysfunction is taking over!

There's not much we can do. And I don't feel guilty about laughing at the funny parts, not for a minute. When we were fostering for the dachshund rescue group, I picked Suzie up from the shelter. She had been dumped off by her former family because she was old and they wanted her put to sleep. They weren't willing to pay for it, though, so they just surrendered her to the shelter. There was nothing wrong with Suzie except for untreated worms, which were quickly cleared up with meds. We kept her, thinking she would probably not live long and we didn't want her to be put through the trauma of going to yet another home. And I was attached.

That was about three years ago. She has basically been spoiled rotten for three years, because we figured she didn't have much time left and wanted her to be comfortable and happy. She had her own bed and her own blanket, and she was kept away from the other dogs a lot because they annoyed her. She has lived the good life. And we will continue to keep her comfortable for whatever time she has left here.

I just wish they made Ambien for dogs.

A former foster, Honey, with Suzie.

Friday Night Fragging....

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a nice one for us overall.
My oldest son spent most Thanksgiving day with his girlfriend, which reminded me that (a.) I'm getting old and (b.) not only will I always have to share holidays with the kids' dad, but eventually their spouses, in-laws, etc. I vow to never be the one stressing them out and demanding time....if we need to celebrate a holiday the day before the holiday or the weekend after, so be it. It's all about being together anyway!




So now after a busy week with a full house, I am all alone. John is at work and the kids are with their dad for the weekend. Instead of rushing around getting things done and trying to talk to at least three people at one time, I'm sitting in a quiet house, just me and one dog, watching What Not to Wear. I'm trying to decide whether to clean the house and enjoy it not getting dirty again immediately, eat dinner without interruption, take a shower and actually have time to shave my legs....or just take a nap!



Speaking of the dog.....earlier today, Sofia chewed up a tube of Krazy Glue! Now this is the dog who gets into food a lot....she's eaten 2 birthday cakes and several loaves of bread. But she's never eaten/chewed on anything that wasn't food before. I don't know what got into her! She's fine, but it was pretty amusing to watch her when her lips were all sticky and stiff.




Have you started your Christmas decorating yet? I'm thinking of starting this weekend....



Did you do the Black Friday thing? I didn't...I don't...ever. I'm afraid I'd end up getting arrested. I have a serious lack of patience, I hate crowds, and I hate rude people. I just don't think it would be pretty! I drives John crazy because he loves to shop, and the thought of all the deals we're missing out on just breaks his heart. So I told him next year, he's welcome to go by himself! We'll see if that happens......


Speaking of shopping......on Wednesday I scored a Vera Bradley wristlet at a thrift shop for four bucks! Now THAT is my kind of shopping!




I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday & I hope you have a great weekend!

Visit Mrs 4444s for more Friday Fragments.