Her name is Lola... she's not a show dog

This, ladies and gents, is my dog Lola.

Lola is my co-dependent fur child. My shadow. My snuggler.

I remember swearing off getting another dog after having to put my Boston Terrier, Boomer, down due to lung cancer. But, time passed... and face it, I'm just a dog person. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Dogs are the one TRUE source of unconditional love we mere humans can ever hope to experience here on earth. Period! It's that simple. Therefore, knowing you can have THAT -- who WOULDN'T want a dog I axe ya? (Yes, I did that on purpose. Don't try to correct my Urbanese!)

So, come November I decided it was time and so I scoured papers for locals that had puppies for sale.

I found one.

Yeah, I did.

I decided to go over there "just to look" I said.

I followed my directions, pulled off the road and onto a heavily treed cul-de-sac. I made my way to the door and was invited into the back yard to see the puppies. There were many. It was this little mass of fur and teeth and yips and tumbles and puppy breath. They were SO STINKIN ADORABLE!

Let's be real here, how can you NOT love a puppy? They're so sweet and cuddly and soft and, well, yeah, dumb...

I carefully made my way through the pups one by one figuring out which had the markings I liked...and which had this... which was the runt... Ultimately, I chose one they'd named White Cloud (Isn't there a toilet paper named that?) Why? Because she had a heart murmur and I didn't want her to NOT be chosen. Plus, she was ADORABLE!

I wasn't going to buy one that day but the owner said he and his family were going out of town for Thanksgiving and I asked what they were going to do with the puppies. "Leave them here out back..." and I just KNEW that MY puppy wasn't going to be left outside IN THE COLD!!!!! I bought her. Yes, I did.

She was so sweet and little and possessed that precious puppy breath. I was in love. I brought her home to meet Drew that afternoon.  I'm not sure she knew what to think of her... or her of him for that matter.  

The rest is history.  

She was carried around inside my red robe (I would put on my robe, tie it and then insert her inside with her head peeping out) from the get go.  She'd sleep there.  She loved it.  She still thinks she belongs in there now (at 20 pounds!)  

She has slept next to me since she was brought home.  Yes, I'm one of THOSE people.  I'm not the only one, however.  Josh turned her into a snuggler, too.  He was sick this day and she just snuggled right up to him on the couch.

I love her.  She's my little girl.

She is SO well behaved.  I wouldn't expect less, however.  She still won't sit on command.  If you tell her to, she looks rather offended.  Also, she's defective in that she doesn't wag her tail.  But that's okay... I know when she's happy!

She doesn't do tricks.  Being adorable is her go-to move.  She's above the dog-and-pony show.  Parlor tricks are beneath her.  

Unfortunately, I've made her a TAD co-dependent. If I go away for the night, she won't eat... she won't even hardly leave her cage.  It's truly pathetic.  She goes into this depressive funk and until she hears my voice when I walk back through the door... you'd never knew we had a Boston!

Bostons are my breed.  Black and white goes with everything, does it not?  Entered into the Weekly Writer's Workshop... just cause it's so dern fun!

Sunday Stealing

Today we ripped off as a blogger named Danielle, from her blog Sometimes Sweet. She doesn't say where she got it--but it was probably stolen from somewhere cool. Tracing back the thefts of those that we steal from could take a while. So, of course, that will be as far as we go. Link back to us at Sunday Stealing!

Thinking about:  Truthfully, I'm thinking about hopping on a flight to Colorado.  

Feeling:  Blessed.

Reading:  An instruction guide for using my new Kindle Fire HD.

Listening to:  Lucy and Lola chewing on one another in the armchair behind me.  It's a night time ritual.  Heeeeeere's Lucy.

Wondering:  What I shall make for breakfast tomorrow.  

Looking forward to:  sleeping in my bed with clean sheets on it tonight!  (Yes, it's ridiculous, I love sleeping on clean sheets.  They make me happy!)

Missing:  There are several puzzle pieces missing from Benji's wooden puzzles... I'll be searching for those this week I fear.

Watching:  The letters appear on the screen... that's a shocker, huh?  Insofar as life or TV --- NOTHING because I don't watch tv.

Eating:  Too much!  I took my mom to a Mother's Day lunch at The Gaylord hotel in Grapevine and they had an amazing buffet!  I had a piece of the most decadent Swiss cheese... a delicious chicken enchilada... some fantastic smoked salmon with cream cheese... some roasted Brussel sprouts... shrimp... crab legs... fresh, sweet melon and the dark chocolate icing off a piece of cake.  Yes, just the icing.  

Making me happy:  My new Kindle Fire HD... and a free month of Amazon Prime!

Saturday 9

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!


Saturday 9: Mama Told Me (Not to Come)

1) This song is about a lad who didn't take his mother's advice and attended the wild party anyway. When you were young, did your parents approve of your friends? If you're a parent yourself, how have you handled it when your kids start hanging around with friends you're not crazy about?
Luckily my mom has always been an excellent judge of character.  She called it like she saw it with anyone and everyone and never held back telling me if she thought someone was no good.  Apparently, I'm a fairly good judge of character, too, and there were less than three times I can recall her saying that about MY friends.  My sister's friends -- that's another story.  My eldest son has some great friends.  Only one (who apparently is a kleptomaniac and will not be allowed in my home again) gives me cause for concern...but his best friend, Brendan, is like my fourth kid when he's here... just a part of our family and we love him like our own.  Josh has a good judge of character, too, apparently.  I'll assume he gets it from me.  Let's just hope that none of his friends are EVER worthy of THIS...

2) A 2010 poll named Marge Simpson of The Simpsons the most popular TV mom of all time. Who is your favorite TV (or movie) mother?  Who could say Mrs. C wasn't the best mom around?  (That'd be Marion Cunningham for you younger folk who weren't given the PRIVILEGE to fall in love with The Fonz!)  Or June Cleaver from Leave It To Beaver?  Classic, wonderful, loving, sweet-natured, nurturing moms.  Clair Huxtable from The Cosby Show... she was just awesome!  I'd take any of those three.

3) Crazy Sam's mother is a big fan of The National Enquirer. As she likes to say, "They were right about John Edwards!" Do you read the tabloids? Cast a guilty glance at them when you're in line at the store? Or ignore them altogether?
I don't read them but if I'm standing in line I will peruse the cover but nothing more.

4) Mother Winters always gave Sam peppermint tea to calm her stomach. Do you have any tried-and-true home remedies to share?
Tried and true home remedies... apparently not.  "Go to sleep" seems to cure it all.

5) Thinking of guts ... When making decisions, do you tend to consider all the options carefully or do you "go with your gut"?
I go with my gut after evaluation of all possible outcomes and sometimes seeking peer review of the situation.

6) Spring is here! Do you have a green thumb?
...only if I dip it in paint.  

7) Have you put away your winter clothes yet?
No.  But I don't have much to put away... just one bin of sweaters.

8) After you lather and rinse, do you repeat?
It depends on what I've done.  If I have a lot of product or hairspray in my hair, yes.  If it's just sweat, no.

9) To celebrate Mother's Day, Sam is giving away Hershey bars. Would you prefer classic milk chocolate, dark chocolate or milk chocolate with almonds?
Dark chocolate please.  Thank you.

5 Question Friday

1. What's the one personal hygiene thing you will not do in front of your spouse? You know, while I'm not a shy person, I am a private person. I don't do a whole lot in front of anyone... Yes, I realize I'm probably an obsessive control freak of nature, but I won't change. I'm 40 years old. If I haven't done "private" or personal things in front of someone by now... I'm certainly not going to change my ways for anyone. I mean, sheesh, I won't even pluck my eyebrows around someone else... spouse or otherwise.

2. What's your favorite thing about a newborn? They stay where you put them... and they sleep -- a lot!

3. When is "too young" to have a Facebook account? Younger than 13... Even then they are still pretty clueless about the fact that ANYTHING you say, post or photograph and share is out there ... FOR... EVER!!!

4. What are your hoping for for Mother's Day? Yeah... I'm not EVEN gonna go there. I expect exactly what I will more than likely get... nothing. Or flowers, which I really don't want.

5. What was the best field trip you ever took in school? I remember in high school when I thought of being an educator and we took several field trips to area schools to see how other institutions were teaching students how to learn. It opened my eyes to how exciting it can be to light the fire of desire to learn within kids... One school, in particular, had varied ages in one classroom and taught them English rules of grammar and such via rhyme and it was SO COOL! I left that place wishing I'd gone to school there. The children started learning sign language by a certified ASL instructor at the age of 4 (they had a Pre-K as well)... I was so envious. I wanted to be a teacher... because of that field trip.

(that was, until I realized how much teachers DON'T make...yeah, then I went into law.)

Thursday 13

Thirteen things that people do on Facebook that annoy the ever-lovin' shit out of me.  What's sad is that I could totally go through my wall right now and probably pull out one for each category.  :)  



1) Grammar --- This HAD to be number one for me.  I'm the ever-popular-every-crowd-has-one "Grammar Nazi" in my circle of friends.  It's true.  I'm okay with it.  I'm also honored that many of them have forwarded me e-mails, letters, proposals, rebuttals, etc. to peruse for grammatical correction prior to sending to its intended party.  I can talk trashy hick like the best of them, but when it comes down to it, I know my stuff man!

2) The Liker -- People that "Like" their own posts.  WHY would you LIKE your OWN POST?  I just don't even get this one.  It bugs me.

3) The Fuzzy Shooter --- If you're going to take the time to post a picture, at least make sure we can all see it!  I like looking at my friends pictures.  I don't think it takes a photojournalism degree in order to hold a camera steady.  THIS red panda is cute and fuzzy.  That's the ONLY thing "fuzzy" that should be posted on facebook.

4) The "Vague Booker"  --- People that continually post open ended "whoa is me" crap JUST for the purpose of soliciting "what's wrong" empathetic responses so that the original poster then has an "excuse" to air it all over Facebook.

5) The Family Fighter --- Seriously, the idea of having to even say this is just so childish.  I'm 40 freakin years old... as are most of my friends (if not older) and SERIOUSLY?  Grow the hell up and quit fighting with your family ON FACEBOOK.  

6) The Comment Eraser --- I totally understand erasing comments that are racist, bigoted, cruel, gratuitously sexual and the like.  However, if YOU post something on your wall and have FRIENDS.... it has now become an INTERACTIVE PUBLIC FORUM.  When people respond, and they happen to -- oh, I don't know disagree with you -- you DELETE their comment.  You're a moron.  Generally they delete them because said comment makes them look like a complete f'n moron and proves their wee little brain is beyond logical debate.  It just makes them look like an idiotic dolt.... yeah, so you delete it to save face.  If you didn't want comments on your post, that's when you just say whatever it is you want out loud... and move on.

7) The Defriend / Refriender --- I'm mad at you or I don't like that you disagree with me, so I'm going to defriend you.  When I'm in a better mood, I'll "re" friend you.  If you don't accept my friend request the second time, you must be a real bitch.  Seriously?  Again, GROW UP.  

8) The Party Planner -- I've been invited to more parties by people I haven't seen in 20 years... just because (I think) they want to have people present at parties (to buy stuff) so they get more free stuff.  Okay, I'll confess, I hope they just want to see me...and could care less if I bought anything.  That's what I'll keep telling myself anyway!

9) The Tagger -- People who tag me in photos that I am clearly not in instead of just adding my name in the comments.  Yes, I remove the tags.  I'm one of those.  

10) The Friend Collector -- I hate getting friend requests from people I seriously do not know.  It's like they're either just being a friend collector or they saw my name and maybe comments on a friend's page and so I'm automatically supposed to friend them.  It's just weird.  I do have friends that I have met THROUGH mutual friends, but we actually forged a friendship.... not just sent one another random friend requests.  It's also weird to me to accept friend requests from people you don't know JUST BECAUSE you have mutual friends.  I can't TELL you how many times I've received a friend request and see that I have 20+ friends in common but I can't -- for the life of me -- remember who this person is.  So, I start messaging our common friends.  And NO ONE can recall this person...they only approved them BECAUSE they had mutual friends.  That's weird to me.  

11) The Block and Snooper -- Those that block others and then snoop on their walls through mutual friends.  My advice is fairly straightforward --> Get a life.  

12) Selfies -- Girls that take a gazillion shots of themselves like... daily.  One a week is fine... three or four a day... is RIDICULOUS.  The only person that wants to see you that much is your spouse (I hope) and your pet.  This kid, however, already has the duck lips down.  I see someone in trouble in the future!

13) Slut shots -- Girls that have to include cleavage in every picture... or feel the need to post pictures in bikinis or bathing suits or "look at this slutty outfit" I wore aren't I hawt shots.  I'm SOOOO over this kind of crap.  I hope you garner all the attention your poor little minuscule pathetic self-esteem apparently needs to buoy your self confidence.

And with that... I bid thee farewell!