Random Thoughts Tuesday 11-23-10

Hey Everyone!  I'm playing along with Keely today over at The UnMom.  Wanna play?  Come on!

Why to some dogs stick their tongues out?  Chili does it.  All the time.  Apparently, she's not the only pug that does it.  I guess maybe their tongues are too big for their mouths.  Or, more likely with Chili, it's an attitude thing.  Here are some pics to show you what I mean.

Chili loves to sleep on the big bear.  With her tongue sticking out.

Chili

Side view

Ginger coming over to tell Chili her tongue is sticking out.

I was planning to get rid of that bear.  Chili pooped on it.  I cleaned it with carpet cleaner.  The kind for pet stains.  The kids don't want me to throw it away.  And it looks fine.  Chili loves to sleep on it.  Ergo, she shouldn't want to poop on it.  Obviously there is something not quite right about her.  She doesn't have that "I won't poop where I sleep" thing that most dogs do.  She spent the first 5 months of her life in a trailer with 46 other dogs.  I don't know exactly what went on there, but I assume she had to poop where she slept.  We are still trying to get her housebroken.  We've had her since February!  She's mostly there.

So Thanksgiving is this week.  I love Thanksgiving.  But it's not right this year.  My fahter-in-law, whom we were planning to go get tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving for us, is in the hospital.  He's had a hemorrhagic stroke.  At least that's what I think you call it.  MRI says lots of bleeding in the brain.  The most tragic part is that he doesn't recognize my husband or brother-in-law.  It's so painful for them to see their dad this way.  He's physically stable at the moment.  They are planning to move him out of the ICU today.  But mentally, he's very confused.
I wish I could be there for my husband.  He's about 3 hours away with his Dad.  But we've got 3 boys.  The younger two really don't need to see him like this.  And although the oldest one could handle it, and wants to go, it's probably not good for him to see Grandpa like this either.

That's the thing about us being in our 40's.  Our parents are getting older or dying.  We lost my mother-in-law about 10 years ago (she died on 9/11, one year before 9/11).  I wasn't there with my husband that day either.  Little boy at home.
My dad died about 5 years ago.  We were living in Alabama.  My parents had driven from Nevada to my sister's house for Easter.  Then they drove down to our house in Alabama.  My dad was running a fever when he got there.  He went to the doc.  Pneumonia.  Doc gave him antibiotics but said not to start driving back unless his fever was gone.  A couple days later we took him to the ER and he was admitted.  He never left.

Chili just came prancing in from upstairs.  I bet she pooped.

Today I have parent-conferences.  This will be a new thing for me with the oldest.  He's in high school.  Apparently, you go to the school.  Stop by the rooms of the teachers you want to visit.  Sign up for an available spot.  Then wait.  Hmm.  I hope it doesn't take the whole 7 hours the teachers are supposed to be available.  Especially since I have two other schools to visit.  At least the oldest can stay with his brothers so I don't have to drag them with me. :)

If you've been following me for over a year (if so, I love you!), you may have seen my post about Tommy.  Well, an author in California heard his story and was moved to write a children's book about him.  Here's the cover.  She will be in town next month for a book signing!  And Tommy will be there too.  He'll be doing paw-tograhs for a small donation to Hope Rescues (just $4).
If that weren't exciting enough, a famous baseball player will be there too!  Yup, Mark Buehlre from the Chicago White Sox will be there.  He and his wife are big supporters of Hope Rescues and have attended several functions.  I've been there at the same time.  Jealous?  Well, he and his wife are super nice people.
If you live in the St. Louis area, check out Hope's website for details.

Well, dear readers.  I hope you will visit the UnMom for some other RTT.  Until next time, I thank you very much for stopping by.  I hope you have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving (for the US people!).

Sassy Sunday - (11-21-10)

Hello, Everyone.  Thanks for stopping by today for our (mostly) weekly Sassy Sunday.  Today I'm thinking about thankfulness.  Having and attitude of gratitude.  There's a lot for me to be thankful for.

1. A roof over my head.  Seems a bit cliche maybe.  But I am grateful to have a home.  We've had a few homeless dogs in our house over the last year or so.  They were all foster dogs from one rescue organization, Hope Rescues.  They've got a full house.  They always have a full house!  But at least these dogs all have a chance of finding a home.  We don't have a foster dog right now.  I guess I'm thankful about that.  We usually get the ones that annoy me.

2. Food.  Ok.  So it's not always the food I'd like to have.  Barb says she buys us the "good stuff" and mentions to us once in a while that it's expensive so we should be happy to eat it.  But it is dog food.  And right now she's feeding us DIET dog food.  I guess she thinks Ginger and Chili need to lose weight. But speaking of food, I'm particularly grateful for fresh fruits and veggies.  I love 'em!  If Barb gets the cutting board out, I'm there.  For some reason she won't give me grapes or onion or garlic.  But I love carrots, celery, turnips, brussels sprouts (really!), apples, pears, etc.

3. A yard.  Someone needs to tell Chili that if she'd poop in the yard (instead of the closet) she'd make all the humans happy.  But I'm glad to have a yard.  We've got an invisible fence so we can go out without a leash (except for Ginger, she had to be leashed lately 'cause she barks at people).  I love to run and chase stuff.

4. Blankets.  Especially fleece blankets.  These are the ones I love to chew on as I go to sleep.  I knead them like dough while I'm chewing.  It's very relaxing.  Sometimes Barb makes comments about them when she's cleaning up in the yard.  How rude.  But I'm thankful for them.

5. Couches.  I heard a crazy thing once.  Some dogs are not allowed on the couch.  How crazy is that.  I pretty much spend my days on the couch.

6. Ginger and Chili.  And all the humans in my life.  And my cousins Juneau, Kodi and Jenny.  Juneau and Kodi are American Eskimos.  They have these beautiful white coats.  Jenny is like me, a mix with a beautiful black coat.

I've got lots more to be thankful for.  But I don't want to bore you!  Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Sassy

Theme Thursday 11-18-10

Hi All.  Thanks for stopping by today!  I'm playing along with Theme Thursday.  You can find others participating here.  Come on!  Play along.  It's an easy way to get a theme for your blog post today.

So the theme today is Food.

Last week was the end of the season at our CSA garden.  What a great harvest.  The baby beets were delicious.  There's a ton of salad greens - our farmers, Crystal and Eric, planted a bunch of really interesting salad greens.  There are spicy ones and mild ones, red ones and green ones.  It makes salad eating fun.  Some of them look like nothing I'd consider putting in a salad but they are wonderful.

We tried kolrabi for the first time.  That was interesting. And I used the basil to make a great pasta and shrimp dish.  (the kids, who all love shrimp, were a little turned off by the green sauce.  Pearls before swine....)

I loved the produce we got this season.  The unusually hot and dry summer made for a challenging season for our farmers.  But they did a great job.  And it's there first year.  I think they've got more of a feel for what people are gonna want next year and I'm looking forward to it.  Hopefully, I get a few more fresh fruits and veggies and a few fewer chemicals into the kids.  That's the goal.  

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great Thursday.

Sassy Sunday - on a Monday (11-15-10)

Good morning everyone!  Thanks for stopping by.  First, I'm sorry to be a day late on my post.  The thing is, I don't have my own computer and Barb spent a good part of the day working on hers.  She had to make up an exam for her students then she made up a game to play in class.  It's a Jeopardy game with questions from the chapters on the exam.  The students love it.  After she did it the first time, the students begged her to do it again.

Then before I could get on the computer, the other dogs and I got to take a trip to the dog park.  I've never been there when there were so many other dogs!  It was great.  We ran.  We played.  We sniffed.  It was great.  Here are some pics.

Chili running like a maniac

Look at all the dogs!

Ginger by the agility equipment.  We need Ace to show us how it's done.

Doesn't it look like we had a great time?  The only problem with this dog park, which is the closest to our house, is that it is about 15 miles away.   We need one in our town.

There's a bit of a struggle going on in our house right now.  The parents are telling the kids that they watch too much TV and play video games more than they should.  So yesterday Dad told the kids to turn off the TV at noon (they'd been up only a couple of hours but had done nothing but sit around in their pj's and watch TV) and they couldn't turn it back on until dinner-time.  (Not during dinner, mind you.  They turned it on while Mom was cooking.)

You should have heard the complaints out of those boys!  They had NOTHING to do.  But somehow they managed.  They played outside with the neighbor kids.  (Although the youngest tried to come in and get a Wii game to take over to the neighbor's house to play.  Saying the neighbor kid insisted.  It didn't work).  The played in the basement with their legos.   They have been working on a battle scene down there for months.  Their newest creation: a zip line.  Check it out.

They've got a great mix down there of toys.  Legos from several sets (Star Wars and Indiana Jones pieces in this pic).  They've got dinosaurs.  They've got ninjas.  They've got boxing robots.  And they've got a ton of plastic soldiers.  Kind of fun.  And they put it all together without the TV!  Amazing.

Well, speaking of those kids, it's getting on about 7 so it's time to get their lazy butts out of bed.  Chili usually helps with that.  Barb puts her up in their beds (a top bunk and a loft bed) and she tells them to get up.  I'd help but I can't jump that high and Barb says she can't pick me up.  Hmmp.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Love,

Sassy

Random Tuesday

Hey All.  Thanks for stopping by.  I thought I'd join Keely in a little randomness.  I haven't been playing much lately.  Go check her out, she's always worth a visit!

I hate bulging!  Especially when it involves the disks in my neck.  There is pain.  And maybe worse than the pain (or maybe not) is the crunching sound.  Bone on bone crunching coming from the inside.  and very near by ears.  Yuck.  I hate that sound.

Pain can be a real downer.  Not that it's excrutiating, super bad, but it's bad enough.  So the doc has referred me to the pain doc.  And he can see me.  IN TWO WEEKS.  So I called the doc back and he gave me some pain meds.  Alot of good that does me.  I have to get up in front of a class of undergrads every day and talk about biology.  Wouldn't be a pretty picture if I was high on tramadol.  So I can only take it at night.

On a good note, I picked up some nice veggies from the "hippie farm" (as my kids call it.  it's a co op).  But now what do I do with the kolrabi?  And there's only one small eggplant this week.  What does one do with one tiny eggplant?  My favorite is the spicy salad mix.  Some of the whimpier share holders complained it was too spicy.  It's got like mustard greens and some other stuff that has a bit of a bite to it.  So now it's separate from the non-spicy salad mix.  That's fine.  I just mix it together.
This was our last pick-up of the season.  I'm gonna buy another share for next year.  (if I can get hubby to agree)  It's worth the 20 miles every other week to get organic "hippy-grown" produce.  (they aren't really hippies.  just have that long hair, non-arm-pit-shaving, tree-hugging air about them.  but they are really nice people.)  Plus, I've tried some new produce this year.  Have you ever eaten ground cherries?

maybe I'll take a pain pill while I'm eating my hippy-farm food tonight!

Mexican jumping beans.  My 2 younger boys are begging for them.  And the youngest one doesn't even know what they are.  He just wants them.  But these two are always at each other's throats.  Fighting and whining and yelling and complaining.  So I told them if they could go a week without fighting, I'd buy them.  We have started our week over every day since then.  Boys.

I wonder if pugs are known for emptying their anal glands at odd and inopportune moments?  If you've ever been around anal gland juice, you know what I'm talking about.  I mean, yes.  If you scare a dog or get them really upset, it might happen.  But it just comes out of Chili's butt sometimes for no reason.  Geesh that stuff smells bad.

K.  Well.  My neck hurts, I have produce to put away (wonder what I should do with my tomatillos?), the dishwasher needs to be emptied and refilled, the washer and dryer both need to be emptied and filled, (kid just walked in and asked for a snowboard?).  So thanks so much for stopping by!!
Barb

Sassy Sunday 11/7/10

Happy Sunday, Everyone.  This is Sassy.  See what I put up with?  Those little boys were having such a great time covering me up with the blanket.  I was annoyed.  But I love them, so I let them.  As long as they aren't trying to look in my ears or cut my nails, I'm ok.  But I draw the line at ears and nails!  Barb says I'm a drama queen.  I say I'm just The Queen.

I got to see Jackie from Hope Rescues yesterday.  I heard her tell Barb I was pretty.  And that my face reminded her of a seal's face.  I think seals are cute.  I happen to think I'm cute too. :)

Barb wrote a question on the message board this week for everyone to answer.  It says to list one thing you are thankful for.  One of the kids, the middle one, wrote "my dogs".  I love that little kid!!

It's starting to get cold here.  I'm not sure when the big people are going to finally turn on the heat.  I hear them tell the kids to put on a sweater.  Luckily, I've got fur.  And the occasional blanket thrown on by the kids.  By the way, if the kids leave the blanket on the floor, Chili pees on it.  That's true for jackets and any type of laundry.

Well, I don't have much else to tell you about.  I hope you have a great Sunday!
Love,
Sassy

Their Mom is a Geek

Well, I took the time to take pictures of our Halloween feast.  So I might as well show them off.  I try to do fun stuff for holidays.  I think these are things people remember from their childhood.  Like at April Fools Day when we made "fakon and eggs" out of candy and "cupcakes" out of meatloaf and colored mashed potatoes.

So here it is:

Our Sea Monster Sandwich

Monster biscuits to go with our soup

Watermelon creature

Ghost witches and spiders for dessert

 Not too heavy a meal.  Just right to fuel up the kids for trick-or-treating.  Now it's time to get all those decorations down.  I don't mind decorating.  It's de-decorating that I hate.  Especially getting the fake spider webs out of the thorny bushes.  Off to find some gardening gloves.

Have a great day!

Macro Monday

Pumpkin Guts

Here's my contribution to Macro Monday.  See some other great pics here!  (By saying "other great pics" I wasn't trying to claim mine was great. :) But I think it turned out ok.)