Happy Hour Friday

Hello, Everyone.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Thanks to our friend Rxbambi , we can all tell about our "happys" on Friday.  Go see her and link up!

Happiness is a warm puppy.  I'm happy about our new puppy Chili.  And Ginger and Sassy seem to be accepting her as well.  Here she is leaning on Ginger. :)

I'm happy every time Chili goes potty outside.  It doesn't happy every time she goes.  She peed on one of the throw pillows that goes on my bed.  Granted, it was on the floor because the bed wasn't made.  But why climb up on a pillow to pee?

I'm happy that my ankle is on the mend.  It still hurst a little and I'm limping on it still.  But it's much mo' better.

I'm happy no one is sick in my house.  I had two of three kids home 2 days this week.  One of them had strep throat, bronchitis and a double ear infection!  That's a lotta junk for one little kid!

I'm happy that I don't have too much going on this weekend.  I could use a quiet weekend.

So.  What are you happy about?  Link up and play along!

Random Thoughts Tuesday

Hey all!  Thanks for stopping by.  It's Tuesday so I thought I'd participate in the Un-Mom's Random Thoughts Tuesday.  Stop by and check her out.

Sometimes kids say the darndest things.  The other day in the car my middle kid said "Dr. Eggman and Bowzer stole the snow spirits!"  How does one respond to a statement like that? Hmmm

He also asked me "Mom, are we poor?"  I said, "No.  We've got at least 10 bucks in the bank." He rolled his eyes.

The invisible fence person came by today to flag our yard and fit the new puppy with a collar.  She doesn't seem to mind the collar and is already catching on about the fence.  Of course the shocker part is covered so she doesn't get shocked if she goes through.  She just hears the beep.  The second step comes next week.

I bought the puppy a sweater but she doesn't like it.  I'm going to try to take it back.

My foot and ankle still hurt.  It's been 10 days.  They both look better, but still hurt.  Poor me.

My two sick kids (strep, ear infections, bronchitis) are watching "Up".  I love the part of the movie when they find the talking dog.  My favorite of his lines is "I slept under the porch because I love you."

Isn't she cute!  Chili chewing on a pink frog.

Why does Ginger have the habit of standing next to the door with her butt against the wall?  There's a little brown spot there on the wall.  Yup, dog poop spot on my wall.  I've cleaned it.  But she keeps re-making it.  Great, huh?

Well, that's about it for me now.  Check the Un-Mom for more random thoughts.

Finding My Darhma

Many of you have probably noticed that I’m an animal lover.  My family and I share our home with 3 dogs and a cat, as well as a leopard gecko, a shrimp and 3 gold fish.  We also take in foster dogs for a rescue group called Hope Animal Rescues .  So far we’ve fostered 5 dogs.  All of them have found forever homes.

Lately I’ve been on a personal journey to discover my dharma.  I guess I’m having a mid-life crisis or something.  You know, I’m 43 and I spend a significant amount of time doing laundry, making lunches, cleaning toilets, running the vacuum, etc.  I was starting to get depressed about it.  Not that I don’t completely believe that taking care of my family and giving them a safe and happy environment to live in is important.  I totally believe that.  But it wasn’t enough.

So I felt that I needed to find something that really gives me a sense of doing something important for someone else.  I’ve found that with the fostering.  I know that I’m giving a homeless animal a warm and safe place to hang out while waiting for his or her forever family.  I provide them with food and lots of love.  They might need to work on manners or house training.  I do that too.  And although it’s sad to let them go, I’m glad to know that my family and I played a small but important part in that dog’s journey to a forever home.  It also helps Kim and Jackie out.  One fewer dog at the shelter means there’s room to rescue one more.

I was wondering how many animals enter shelters each year and how many of those are euthanized.  I found some really sad and scary numbers from the Humane Society of the United States.  They estimate that animal shelters care for 6-8 million dogs and cats each year.  They further estimate that 3-4 million (yes, 3-4 million) are euthanized.

I’m blown away by those numbers.  Why should so many animals need to be euthanized?  How do they end up in the shelters in the first place?  I don’t like to sound preachy or to criticize anyone for the decisions they make regarding pets in their home.  People have many reasons for wanting a dog of a particular breed.  Or they may be uneducated about the availability of great dogs in a shelter.  I’ve heard from neighbors and friends that they avoid shelter dogs because they don’t want to get someone else’s “problem” dog.  They want a puppy so they can raise it “their way”.  But so many of the dogs in shelters ended up there through no fault of their own.  They weren’t problems.  Sometimes it’s that the owner died.  Or it’s that the owners didn’t think through the decision of pet ownership and should never have gotten a dog in the first place.  I’d venture to say that most shelter dogs would make great pets.  Perhaps they need some training or just some TLC.  And people like those at Hope Rescues will invest time and effort into getting a dog ready for a new home.

Anyway, here is Billy Bob.  He was rescued from a breeder in a small town nearby.  They had 47 dogs, all Chihuahuas, Pugs and Chi-Pug mixes, in a two-room trailer.  Animal control raided and Billy Bob ended up with Hope Rescues.  He’s a sweet little boy.  He’s only about 2 years old.  He’ll be ready for adoption as soon as he’s neutered. 

If you are thinking about adding a dog or a cat to your family, consider adoption.  If you are interested in a particular breed, most shelters get purebred dogs in from time to time.  They will often keep you on a list so they can contact you.  Most shelters offer all kinds of support.  They want you to be happy with your new pet.  And if you want to buy from a breeder, check them out.  If they insist on meeting you somewhere along the interstate or won’t allow you to see their operation, be very suspicious.

Happy Hour Friday

Happy Friday everyone!  Thanks to Rxbambi and Otin , we have reasons to be happy on Friday.  Link up on Bambi's site and play along!

I'm happy that I've done 100 posts!  I didn't even realize it.  But this is post 101.  So much for doing something special for number 100.

I'm happy I'm going to see Grease tonight with my sister and our hubbies.  I've heard it's a good show.  And an evening out without kids is always good.

I'm happy that my puppy does not have diarrhea today.  That was not the case yesterday!

I'm happy that I have some meds for my hurt ankle.  I've decided to sit with my foot up and relax for a couple of hours while the kids are gone.  I still haven't heard from the doc's office about the x-ray.  I'm assuming it's not broken, but it hurts worse today than it did yesterday.  The dogs are sitting with me.  We'll just be a bunch of lazy bitches for a while. :)

I'm happy that Mt. Washmore is smaller today than yesterday.  But I'm not doing any laundry right now. That makes me happy too.

K.  That's about it for now.  I hope everyone is having a happy Friday.  Thanks for stopping by!

Random Thoughts Tuesday

Thanks to Keely over at the Un-Mom , we can post randomly on a Tuesday.  So let's get random.

My foot and ankle hurt, but not as bad as yesterday.  Ya see, I fell down the steps like a big klutz on Saturday night.  I thought I'd broken my foot.  But then my ankle swelled up.  I was at a neighbor's house yesterday.  Her husband happens to be a doc.  He looked at it and sent me for an x-ray.  I am his patient but he doesn't do injuries of this type.  So I had to go to my regular doc last night.  We didn't have the x-ray back yet, but she gave me a powerful anti-inflammatory and the swelling is down today.  If the x-ray says it's broken, I'll go back for further treatment.

My youngest child won 2 awards last night at his cub scout Pinewood Derby.  His car was not the fastest or the fanciest.  But he won the "Most Colorful Car" award and the "Cubmaster's Choice" award.  When we showed up, I felt a little bad for him.  He didn't seem to notice as much as I did that most of the other cars were way fancier and way shinier.  They looked like real little race cars with shiny coats of varnish over their professional-looking pain jobs.  This was my son's car.  I think it's great.

Our new baby is going under the knife this morning.  In fact, she's probably under right now, poor baby.  Yup, she's getting spayed.  No cute little pug puppies for her.  But I firmly believe in spaying and neutering.  It's so sad to hear the statistics on the numbers of dogs and cats that get put down every day because there aren't enough homes to go around.   Chili was from one of those irresponsible breeder-types.  They had 47 dogs (pugs, chihuahuas, and pug/chi mixes) in a two-room tailer.  Animal control raided and made them surrender all but 4 animals.  Hopefully they only kept non-breeding animals.  Anyway, Hope Rescues got 12 of them.

I'm happy that my sister just came by with a skinny carmel latte from Starbucks for me!
She brought her dogs with her.
It's damp and foggy this morning.
I think Ginger may have some sort of allergy.  She keeps licking and scratching.
Did I mention my foot and ankle hurt?

Thanks for stopping by.  Check out the Un-Mom for more random thoughts!

Yes. We are that Crazy

Meet Chili.  She's our new puppy.  And yes, we are her forever family.  I know.  We are crazy.  We've already got two dogs.  But she's small enough to be a cat.  She looks like a full-blooded pug.  But, actually, her momma is half pug, half chihuahua.  Her dad is a pug.  So she's 3/4 pug.

She's about 10 months old.  She was rescued from a home in a near-by town that had 40-something dogs.  They were breeding pugs and chihuahuas.  Animal control raided them and they had to surrender all but 4 of their animals.  Hope Rescues ended up with several of them.  Including Chili.

I wasn't planning on having to potty train anyone right now.  But it looks like that's what I'll be doing.  Hopefully we won't have any freezing temperatures in the next few days.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Hour Friday

If you've been around a while, you know Otin and Rxbambi host happy hour on Friday.  Go to Otin's site, link up, and play along!

I'm happy that our new foster dog is settling in.  Matilda is pretty sweet.  She'd probably do better in a house with older kids or no kids as the kids kind of scare her.  But she is a great little dog.

I'm happy that my kid with strep throat is on the mend.  He'd been really suffering the last couple of days.  No fever today.  And he's hungry.  Hopefully, he'll keep it all down (fever and food).

I'm happy I got the dogs (Ginger and Sassy) out for a walk today.  I haven't walked them in a long time. It's been cold.

I'm happy I saw a coyote today in a field near my neighborhood.  Thanks to hubby for forgetting his lunch so I had to drive past that field.  Too bad I didn't have my camera with me.

I'm happy it's Friday.  I'll try to come up with more, but I'm distracted by my kid right now and can't think.

Rant and Rave Wednesday

Hi All,
I thought I'd do a little Rant and Rave Wednesday a la Little Ms Blogger .  Check her out!

Rant: My kid has strep throat.  I sent him to school yesterday.  I told him if his throat felt any worse when he got home we'd go to the doc.  There was no fever or anything.  So when he got home he said it felt worse.  I took him in.  And it was positive.  Now I feel like a bad mom!

Rant: I had to listen to a whining kid with strep throat today.  And he's not feeling much better despite the antibiotics, so I think he'll be home again tomorrow.  I just hope his two brothers don't get it.

Rave: The antibiotics were free!  Our local supermarket pharmacy gives generic antibiotics for free.  That's pretty cool.

Rave: I've been having a great time with the photo group I'm in.  We are challenged to take and upload a photo each day.  It's been fun.  Here's my photo for today.  It's Jacques, our pet shrimp.

Rave: We have a great new foster dog, Matilda.  She's very sweet.  She's relatively quiet.  She's way laid back.  She's small enough to pick up.  Just an all around good foster dog.

Rant: I didn't get much done today.  Instead I hung out with my sick teenager and watched episodes from "Lost".  That was fun.  But now I have to catch up on all the house work and laundry I was going to do today.

Rant: I hate being diabetic.

Rave: My youngest child said at dinner "I love the meat!"  It was chicken, but I was very happy he loved it nonetheless.  My middle child expressed displeasure before dinner that we were having chicken, but he ate it without complaint.

Well, I could come up with some more, but I'm tired and I've got a couple of kids to get to bed.
I hope everyone had a great Wednesday!  Thanks for stopping by.

I'm Matilda

Hi.  My name is Matilda.  But I'm usually called Tilley.  I'm homeless right now, but that's ok.  Things have been worse.  Let me tell y'all 'bout it.

Just last month I was on death row in Georgia.  I don't know what I did to deserve such a sentence.  But I was there nonetheless.   I was scheduled to go to the gas chamber there with a bunch of other dogs.  But I was rescued at the last minute from that horrible fate.  Several rescue operations worked hard to get me, my son, Spencer, and a bunch of other dogs out of there before it was too late.  I ended up in a van with several other dogs and we ended up in this great place in Illinois.  That was about a week before Christmas.

I'm still waiting for someone to invite me into their family.  But while I wait, I have the opportunity to be fostered by a family.  They have 2 great dogs (Ginger and Sassy).  Sassy actually came to the shelter yesterday and picked me over all the other dogs she met.  They also have a cat.  He's fine, I guess.  I don't really pay much attention to cats.  I kind of have a "Live and let live" attitude about them.  There are 3 boys in the house too.  A teenager and two younger ones.  I like kids.  But I am a little scared of them at first.  As soon as I know they aren't going to pull my tail or pick me up and toss me around, I'm fine.

I'm a good dog.  As you can see, I have beautiful brown eyes and a sleek black coat.  I'm petite.  I'm pretty laid back but I do get excited about playing.  I think I'd do well in just about any family situation.  I'd be a good companion for an older person and I'd make a good family pet as I'm gentle around kids.

So, ya see, even though I'm homeless, things are going pretty well for me.  I hope that my forever family finds me soon.  But until then, I'll be warm and well-fed.  I'll have toys and kids and dogs to play with.  I'll have a couch to nap on.  What more could a dog want?

I Wish I Could Take a Decent Basketball Picture!

I've taken about 100 pictures at my sons' basketball games.  I can't get a really good shot.  I've tried different settings on the camera.  But I either gets shots that are too dark (and when I lighten them, they look grainy) or blurry (when I use a slower shutter speed there's plenty of light but just of blur of player).

So.  Maybe I just don't have the right equipment.  Maybe the problem is that I don't know what I'm doing.  Any suggestions?  (Don't use big photography words.  I'm still a baby when it comes to photography).
I'm hoping to find myself a photography class :)

Happy Hour Friday

Play along with Otin and Bambi (Mr. Linky thing on Otin's site)!  Friday is a great day to be happy!

1. I'm happy to be participating in the Blog Camp Flickr 365 in 2010 thing.  I've been using my camera lots and getting some fun (although not at all professional) shots.  They are on my Flickr, which you can get to by clicking the thing above, if you're interested. :)

2. I'm not really happy to have a second snow day in a row, but I'm happy with some of the pictures I got of the kids in the snow.  I caught youngest yelling "Help!  I can't get up!" like the little kid in A Christmas Story.  Then I got a pic of his big brother helping him up.


3. I'm happy that I've got the Ladies Night Out scrapbooking thing tonight.  It doesn't involve wine, which is too bad, but it's been fun anyway.

4. I'm happy my scale said I was down a pound today.  Not much, but every little bit helps.

5. I'm happy my sister bought me a gift for her birthday.  It's a great little clock she found on Etsy.  The creator made it from an old computer part (hard drive, maybe?), an old CD, and some cool embellishments.  Isn't it cool?  I guess we may have started something with the gift on each other's b-day.  I gave her a bracelet I found at a cool little shop in Reno on my birthday.  It was perfect for her.

I hope you have something to be happy about today.  Play along!

Why My Kids Hate Me This Month

One of my kids has said at least twice since the month began, "I HATE JANUARY!!!"   You may be wondering why this happy child hates the first month of the year.  Well, it has everything to do with our family's new year's resolution to eat a healthy, whole-food diet.  The idea is to do it for the month, then, most-likely, continue.

What do we call a "whole-food diet"?  The definition we are using is a diet containing as few chemical additives as possible.  That doesn't mean we can't still eat some of our favorite things.  And I'm not going to go all crazy and allow only organic foods.  It's just that we want to try to go more natural, and less processed.
The problem is, everything they want to eat is full of chemicals!  I guess that is my fault for giving in to their picky eater personalities.  Only one of the three will eat greater than 1 type of fruit.  None of them will gladly eat a vegetable.  Salad?  What's that?

To their credit, they like whole wheat bread.  That's because that's pretty much all they've ever gotten.  And I only serve them skim milk.

Yesterday my youngest was in tears after school.  He wanted a snack.  I offered him fruit (we had blueberries, red apples, green apples, grapes, oranges, and bananas), toast with peanut butter, baby carrots, or nuts.  He wanted a specific granola bar that is one of his stand-by snacks.

Here is a list of ingredients: coating (sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, cocoa processed with alkali, whey, non-fat milk, soy lecithin, sorbitan monostearate, salt, artificial flavor, polysorbate 60), soy protein isolate, peanut butter (peanuts, hydrogenated rapeseed and cottonseed oil, salt), corn syrup, inulin, fructose, sugar, rice starch, polydextrose, rice cereal (rice, wheat gluten, sugar, defatted wheat germ, salt, high fructose corn syrup, whey, malt flavoring, reduced iron, ...  That's only about half of the listed ingredients, but I'm tired of copying them!  TBHQ and BHT are added as preservatives.

I didn't give in.  But I did offer him a scrambled egg (a co-worker of my hubby gave us some of her free-range chicken eggs).

I know this month will be full of wailing, tears, and gnashing of teeth.  In the end, I hope I will still be here to blog, and that my kids will find out that eating a healthier diet can be enjoyable.  Wish me luck!

Happy Endings

This is a happy ending story that I just wanted to share with anyone who wants to watch it.  I love the idea of just one person doing just one thing for one dog.

Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions

Well, I guess I should get these resolutions down on “paper” so I will be able to go back next year and see how I’ve done.

1. The old stand-by: eat a healthier diet in 2010.  This is one the whole family is working on together this year (although some are not really happy about it).  We are trying to rid our diet of artificial everything as best we can this year.  We’ve started by following some rules on “Whole Foods”, which is basically trying to eat fresh foods with little to no processing.  Processed foods should contain no chemical additives.  So much for the kids’ favorites!  We’ve also joined a sustainable garden (we’ll get a share of the produce plus we get to help out with planting, weeding and harvesting as time allows).

2. Continue to green-up our existence.  I’ve already been working on this.  One of the hardest areas for me right now is the shower.  It’s so hard to get out of the nice warm shower when you know a cold bathroom is waiting.  Especially since we have the thermostat set at 66 degrees. 

3. Put the needs of my kids, husband and me ahead of everyone else.  I tend to say yes too much.   That takes away from family.

4.  My husband has a resolution that includes me.  You can probably guess it.  I’ll do my best to help him out.

5. Be happy.  I want to make an effort to look on the bright side (just like Ali ) and to remind my kids to have an attitude of gratitude.

That should be enough.  I'm always resolving to do better anyway.  So I may add something to the list.  Anyone else doing resolutions?

Happy Hour Friday

Happy Friday, everyone.  And Happy New Year.  Along with Otin and Bambi , I'm playing along with Happy Hour Friday.  Go check them out, link up on Otie's site, and play along!

I'm happy it's a new year.  Maybe I'll make some resolutions.  Maybe I won't!

I'm happy Bambi and her fam are coming over for dinner.  I'm not happy that my house is a mess and I'll spend the rest of the day cleaning up.  (not really for Bambi, she knows I'm not the best house keeper.  But for hubby, cause it stresses him to have company when the house is a mess!)

I'm happy I added a Flickr stream.  Now I have to add some pictures.

I'm not so happy that my 7-yr-old just asked me if "kill" started with a k or a c.  But I'm happy he is interested in spelling words correctly.

I'm glad Dr. Grumpy liked the "sign" we saw on Christmas day.  See?  It says "Grumpy" on it.  So I sent it to him.  You should check out his blog if you never have.  It's pretty funny.  If you're curious, the sign was about riparian zones.  It was along the Truckee River in Reno, NV.

I'm happy my dogs, Ginger and Sassy, and the cat, Spooky, all survived the week without us.  Marilyn the petsitter is a god-send.  They love her.  Well, Spooky doesn't love anyone but me.  But he was glad to eat the food she set out.  Mamba the leopard gecko and Jacques the shrimp (and the 3 goldfish) also survived.

I'm glad you stopped by!  Happy New Year.