What's in a name?

I've had more and more poeple from my real life reading my blog lately. It's sorta like worlds coliding. When I first started this blog, no one in real life read it. Only my cyber freinds. Then my real life freinds started reading it too.

When I first started it Sir D was uncomfortable putting our real names on the interent. I respeced that and only used my first name and used alieses for the kids. You can read the post where I explain our internet aliases here.

I'm not really sure if they're necessary anymore or not. I shall have to think on it some more.

On another note, Sir D and I are supposed to be going away for a weekend getaway with our RV this weekend for our anniversary. The place where we are going was struck by a tornado (yes, in January), and now they are calling for snow and ice and freezing temps this weekend. It was almost 70 earlier in the week. sigh.

I must say that we have more trouble celebrating our anniversary. Feb 1st is a terrible time to get married in TX. It is so hard to plan your anniversary. It could be 70 and beautiful or it could be sleeting/snowing. You could have tornado's or snow. Texas weather!

Also, I'm getting over the flu. That is why the blog was so quiet. Coughing, sneezing, crackly lungs, sore throat, headache, fever, the whole works. yuck. I've not left the house since Friday of last week. TOday though I must go out to the store no matter how I feel. We're almost out of toilet paper. YIKES!

Today I must muster up the strength to go on a run. (funny, that meant something totally different back when I was younger)

(Please forgive the disjointedness of this post and any grammatical or spelling errors, I am still on cold medicine. I have no excuse for the other posts with spelling and grammatical errors, however.)

The Girl Who Went To Haiti

This is my freind Jessie and her husband John. Jessie is a sweet girl that I have known for many, many years. Her youngest brother and my oldest son are friends that have known each other since they were crawling around in the church nursery.

Jessie is an amazing woman. She is a RN, who has volunteered for disaster relief with Heart to Heart International for several disasters, the earthquake in China and the Tsunami to name a two. She's now in Haiti as is her husband, John.

I can not even imagine what she's seeing and experiencing. What I see on my TV overwhelms me, I can't imaging the feeling of actually being there, seeing all that NEED with my own two eyes.

Jessie has set up a blog to document her experience in Haiti. I am finding it very powerful and moving. It somehow seems more real to look at Haiti through Jessie's eyes than my own because I have no experience with which to filter the images I'm seeing.

Jessie does. She's done this before. She's an AMAZING young woman.

BTW, Heart to Heart needs all the help it can get to send Dr.'s and RN's to Haiti. One more good charity in need of funding if you find yourself so able.

Of Fireman and Froot Loops

It's a Saturday morning and I am home alone. I know that is probably not something that I should post on the internet, but I am banking on the fact that those of you that know where I live wish me no harm, and those that might wish me harm do not know where I live. I like to live dangerously.

It is a strange thing being home alone on a Saturday morning. I spent much of my adult life awake way earlier than I wished, laying on the couch at oh dark thirty, with my head under a throw pillow while some horrid cartoon kept my wee little children somewhat still and entertained until those of us who are not nocturnal woke up.

But no longer. Now I find myself awake and in a quiet house able to drink my coffee in peace and quiet and have a complete thought. It's quite shocking to the system.



The boys are off being Fireman today. (Good Job, Fireman!), Eve is working at her grandma's house helping her out with some spring cleaning, and Sir D had to go into the office for a few hours and took Ann and Violet the Test Dog with him. (and really, if he's taking Violet to work with him, is it not just semantics to continue to call her the 'Test Dog'?)

So now I find myself in a place I thought I'd never see again. Alone, quiet. peaceful. ahhhhhh.

I know one day they will all move out, I know one day I'll be sad and wish those days of little ones back, but not yet. It's still to fresh in my mind. I'm not so far away from it, that I don't still really appreciate the gift of solitude.

Also, I know what a busy day I have ahead of me. My dearest friend in the whole world's daughter is having her graduation party today. This dear girl and my Will have grown up together. This girl is graduating today, a full semester early and...with her associates degree. Yes, I KNOW! Amazing.

Then we go to my BIL's birthday party. Let's just say those numbers are getting a little bigger than I am comfortable with my peers turning.

Time marching on. It happens in the blink of an eye. One minute they're sitting in front of the TV eating dry froot loops out of a cup and watching 101 Dalmatians for the millionth time, and the next they're out dragging around 100 pound water hoses and putting out fires.

I meant to end with something deeply meaningful and profound but I just realized that I just admitted on the internet that my toddlers ate dry froot loops for breakfast...

Violet the Test Dog

When we got home from our trip to the SPCA on Sunday, where we met and had to leave Glitter, I remembered how some friends of ours were trying to find a home for their Black Lab/Border Collie mix, Violet. They were leaving the country and needed to find her a home. I remembered that they had not had any success and the dog ended up living with their college age son who stayed behind here in the states. I was pretty sure the college age son was still trying to find her a home. He is gone so much...



So we gave him a call. He was more than happy to bring Violet over for us to try. We have begun a one month trial period with Violet. If, after a month it's too much, or she's hard to deal with, we can give her back to the college age son.



So far we've learned Violet can sit, stay, heal, potty outside, and best of all she does not rub her butt on the carpet. It's a match made in heaven!




Bob was great friends with the boy of the family Violet belonged too. Violet loves Bob. Violet will do whatever Bob says. Violet sleeps in Bob's room and follows Bob around like, well, like a puppy.



I know we have a month yet to go, but really? after one day with Violet the Test Dog, I'm pretty sure she's a keeper.



Isin't she sweet?

Who doesn't need a little Glitter?

We are not dog people here on the hilltop. We had a dog. He was a pug. It ended badly. He snorted, he snotted, he was untrainable, and he rubbed his butt on the carpet in an obsessive compulsive manor. It was bad.

When he started getting out of the fence, despite our best efforts to thwart his wanderlust, and marking the neighbors front door, we decided it was time to find him another home.

That was 5 years ago. Trygve the Pug left us shellshocked. Last week all the stars aligned, the gods smiled on us, and my husband had a momentarily brain spasm and somehow, Sir D and I ended up at the Dallas SPCA.

While we were there we met Glitter. Glitter was so sweet. I completely fell in love. She was shy and would very slowly come up to you and sniff your hand. If she decided you were worthy she'd let you scratch around her ears. She wasn't too sure about Sir D. She didn't make a peep, even though she was surrounded by yapping puppies. She'd just look at you with those big brown eyes, silently asking you to take her home.



Unfortunately, Sir D said no. He thought she was a little to big. We were looking for a smaller dog. Our house is the size of a postage stamp and she was just a bit too big. I could have probably talked Sir D into taking Glitter home, but, well, Trygve was my idea. Need I say more?

So there Glitter sits. If you live anywhere near Dallas, please go get Glitter and take her home, K? Then tell me you did, so I can stop thinking about that sweet little dog with those big brown eyes sitting in that cage.