Category Archives: Family

December 20, 2018 · 11:19 am

Progress Report – Trying to Get the Lard Off

I’m still at 31 pounds off and 31 inches off.

Really slow progress, but during the holidays, I think holding our own is pretty good, considering all the social eating we’re doing.

The thing that is different is my exercising.

I’m trying to change my activity each day, hoping to get my body’s attention. I’m doing –

  • Yoga and abdominal exercises one day
  • 35 minutes on the elliptical trainer another
  • Wii Fit Plus exercises one day each week
  • My walking video one day
  • then start again from the top

I’ve said some disparaging things about my walking video, but I have to tell you that, though I find her annoying, I DO feel I’ve had a workout at the end of the 2-mile marker. My goal is to do that, plus the exercises she has AFTER the two miles one day soon.

We’ve been having a lot of friends over lately, for the holidays – but also the fact our son is home from Thailand for the first time in 3 years and we want them to reconnect. We’re having a blast doing that, but it all involves eating something. At this time of the year, serving Nutrisystem diet food or even snacks is definitely a no-no, so we’ve been eating outside our normal parameters many days during the week and will continue this until after our son leaves. If we can just MAINTAIN, rather than GAIN during this time, I’ll be really happy.

I hope that you are having great times with friends and family, too. This is usually a bittersweet time of the year for us, having very few family members left and the ones we have far away. Our son has brought us joy this year and we’re enjoying every minute.

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December 18, 2018 · 3:32 pm

Full Heart

The Girls With Glasses

I was up, unable to sleep, thinking sad thoughts this morning. There is something about not being able to sleep, up by yourself in the middle of the night that seems to encourage destructive thoughts. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen to me often.

I updated our son on a family situation. He encouraged me to tell him how I felt and we ended up having quite a discussion on life, priorities, the flow of life, and death. We talked a long time, sometimes talking through tears. In my world the parent is supposed to be the wiser one, helping their child see the larger picture. Today it was just the opposite. Our son is really serious about meditation, and will go to a retreat early next year to spend two months practicing in a monastery. He has gained so many insights already, just practicing on his own, that it boggles my mind.

The end result of our talk was that I’m able to see my sad thoughts of this morning in a different, more comforting, calm way.

I can’t tell you how full-to-overflowing my heart feels about how lucky we are to be close to our son. I’ll never be able to tell or show HIM enough, either.

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December 16, 2018 · 1:26 pm

Friends

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We’ve been having a truly wonderful time lately, entertaining friends who we either haven’t seen in a long time or friends who want to come and say, “Hi” to our son while he’s home from Thailand.

Our home is so full of love its bursting at the seams and I couldn’t love it more.

We’re exchanging Christmas presents, in some cases – in others, just enjoying some coffee or a bit of food. In all cases, we’re enjoying hugs, laughs, and good conversation.

SUCH a special time for us. Can you see me grinning?

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December 15, 2018 · 2:23 pm

Santa is Coming to Town!

We put up this mailbox decorations this morning.

As far as we’re concerned, Santa came to our home December 10th, when we picked up our son at the airport to stay with us for three weeks.  We really don’t need anything more – just seeing our good friends. We are super lucky this year, having our son for his birthday AND Christmas before he leaves.  Right now he’s in the dining area, working on his computer. Just knowing I can get up and get a wonderful hug makes me smile.

 

I hope Santa is good to YOU this year, too.

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December 14, 2018 · 4:36 pm

“Make the Ordinary Come Alive”

Waldorf Today via Desiree Angelique Hackett

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December 14, 2018 · 4:08 pm

Hugs

The Happyologist

I’ve been smiling all over since Monday afternoon when we picked up our son at the airport. He’s been gone for over three years, living and working in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Most of the time we can ‘forget’ that he’s half a world away. He’s made sure to tell us that if we need him, he’ll be here. We communicate on an almost daily basis via a secure chat program he set up plus a conference call program where we can see his face and talk to him real time. We’re closer than a lot of people are who live in the same city. Every once in a while, though, my hugs bucket gets really low and I miss him so much I hurt.

He’s home with us now. For his birthday, which we celebrated yesterday, and for Christmas, and a bit after that. Just knowing that he’s on his computer in the dining area right now and that I can go in and hug his neck makes me smile. And then he’ll show up in the office, pull me up, and hug me.

I can’t say enough about his hugs. They’re so good they make me tear up.  And he’s super generous with them.

 

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December 13, 2018 · 5:48 pm

Birthday Celebration

Betty Crocker

Our son is home for his birthday for the first time in what seems like forever. We took him out to lunch at one of our favorite places in Greenwood, Arkansas now, The Dari, using one of my Christmas presents from Lynn, my massage therapist, a gift card. We enjoyed good food and good conversation – a quiet celebration of a happy family.

I am in awe of the man our son is. He is seriously into meditation and it is really helping him calm his mind and rethink how he is reacting to the world around him. I don’t know where he got it, but he is so kind and generous! When I’m teed off with someone, he remarks that it’s sad that person is suffering and scared. He makes ME rethink. I learn so much from him.

We’re using every opportunity to really talk during his visit, and I love it.  I’m also using every opportunity to get another of his fabulous hugs. He even volunteers more of them, and it makes me tear up just thinking about it.

Parenting is such a difficult thing. Each of us does the best we can at the time and hope that it’s the right thing to do. Even if everyone around you thinks you’re doing it right  (a very rare thing) it can blow up in your face. You can only try to help or keep your child from going down the wrong path.

We are supremely lucky that with all the mistakes we probably made, our son is such a good person it amazes us. He actually enjoys being with us, is patient with our foibles, and shows in so many ways he loves us. Life just doesn’t get better than this.

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December 12, 2018 · 1:54 pm

Things are Getting Fixed!

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Things have been shaping up around here since our son came home. My husband can fix almost anything, but sometimes things are so frustrating they just get put aside. Our son has been tackling one gadget after another, getting them to work!

  • First of all, he fixed my pedometer so it is much more accurate. My husband had measured my ‘stride’ as 22 inches long. It seems to be that since my stride isn’t really that long, it doesn’t count ANY of my steps that are less than that. So I was walking around all day doing my normal stuff, and since I rarely took a stride that long, a LOT of my steps didn’t count.
  • He is in the last stages of getting the Internet to work in our shop again. This wireless system has really been complicated, but he seems to have worked his will on it.
  • He got our car dash cam to quit turning itself off and on randomly and to work the way we intended for it to again.
  • He got my computer and Microsoft on speaking terms again so we were able to finally add several Windows 10 updates that had been waiting. (This was done out of intense love for his mama, since he HATES Microsoft, Windows 10, and PCs.)

While he’s been working his magic, we took our smaller Dyson vacuum cleaner to be repaired this morning. It had power, but we couldn’t get the rotor to work in the head so that it would actually vacuum. My husband had it apart twice, The first time we cleaned it thoroughly – something I should have been better about. The second time he was suspicious that the switch you push to turn on the rotor wasn’t getting power. He checked that out and couldn’t find any problems. Hence the search for someone who could repair a Dyson.

We found a guy, but he was in Barling – about an hour away from us. I put the address into our GPS and it took us on a new road we’ve never traveled before, cutting the trip by about 2/3 and taking us right to the place. The man took the vacuum into the back and then brought it back 30 seconds later, saying, “It’s fixed.” It turns out that there is a RESET switch on one end of the head that we had inadvertently hit at some time or other and it was in the ‘on strike’ mode or something. He wouldn’t take any money for looking at it and we’re fixed. If you live in west-central Arkansas, the company is Fort Smith Vacuum, 1108 Fort Street, Barling AR  479-452-3770. Closed Mondays. $30 bench fee if you have to leave it with him to be fixed. This is a first class company and I highly recommend him.

My husband was also teed off that he would put his phone in the wireless mode and it would switch back on its own after several seconds. We took it to AT&T. A guy named Adan pushed a million buttons on the phone, and then turned it off and turned it on again (rebooting it.) Problem solved. I wish I could do that with my BRAIN….

Our home phone has been causing us problems. For several reasons we can’t just get rid of what essentially is a land line, but on a cellphone base. My husband wrote a program that screened our calls, virtually eliminating all robocalls, crank calls, and wrong numbers. It would answer the phone without our hearing any ringing. If the person was on the accepted list, the call came right through. If it was someone not on the list, a voice would tell them, “If you are a real person and aren’t selling anything, press 1”  THEN we would hear the phone ring and answer it. The trouble was, it was very temperamental and would treat people that we WANTED to hear from badly.  Or someone would press one and then it said, “Goodbye” and hung up on them. We disconnected the system and soon started getting SEVERAL calls each day with no one on the other end, robocalls, etc. Our son has helped us find a new system that will replace our existing phones in the office, plus add a phone in the kitchen and one in our bedroom – all for a one-time charge. My husband is checking out reviews now before we jump on it.

We are feeling huge tension loads lifted as my husband, my son, both working together, or other experts are solving problems that have been plaguing us for quite a while now. HOORAY!

 

 

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December 11, 2018 · 10:09 am

Happiness

SayingImages.com

Can you see me grinning? Can you feel the happiness spilling out of me all over the floor?

Our son came home from Thailand yesterday for the first time in over 3 years. After he had a chance to catch up a bit on sleep, we shared beef stew, pets, and good conversation until about 11:30 last night.

There are no words for how full I’m feeling. I have everything right in my home. Right now.

Our elderly cocker spaniel/schnauzer cross, Molly, not only remembered him, crying with excitement and joy, she insisted on spending much of the evening in his lap, only moving to push her face closer to him. We were all touched by how happy she was to welcome him home again. Amber was her usual boisterous self, blissfully unaware of how huge she is and how much destruction she can cause in a short amount of time. She, too, calmed down, though, after a while, and was content to come over and demand he love her every once in a while.

It doesn’t matter what we do while he’s here. I’m going to try to get some pictures, and I’m trying NOT to smother him, though he’s telling me I’m ‘worrying too much’ about whether he’s comfortable or not, has everything he needs, can find things, remembers about our weird hot water system, etc. There is no way a mother quits worrying until she is gone.

I’ll collect as many hugs as he’ll allow while he’s here and just enjoy the time spent with him, whatever we’re doing. I love to talk with him. Last night we started talking about meditation. He is really into the practice and it’s helping him calm his mind and deal with whatever happens. I’m really happy he has found something that is so rewarding.

He just came into the office after eating his breakfast and before going up to shower. He loved Amber until she calmed down and then came over and gave me the best hug in the world. Now I’m adding tears to the joy.

So, you’ll probably get sick of happiness exuding all over the place from me over the next three weeks. I have to tell you I can’t help it and I’ll be happy enough for you and me BOTH!

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December 10, 2018 · 3:34 pm

And He’s Home!

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My face is split ear to ear with a huge, goofy grin.

Our son is HOME.

I’ve received three good hugs so far – one at the airport and two when we got home.

He took the ‘short’ flight from Chiang Mai here – 28 hours all told – (8 hours waiting between flights). He flew from Chiang Mai to Incheon, South Korea, waited 4 hours and then flew from Incheon to the DFW airport. Waited another 4 hours and then flew from Dallas to Fort Smith, Arkansas.

He said the OTHER option was one which would take 58 hours.

He was in shorts, sandals, a tee shirt and a hoodie. He said when he left Chiang Mai, it was in the high 80s – night time, and he was sweating the minute he left the house. He never has to wear a hoodie, much less long pants, heavier shirt, full shoes and socks, and maybe even a coat, hat and gloves…. It woke him up to have to walk with us to the car in short-term parking.

We tried to prepare him for Amber, our 94 pound yellow lab PUPPY, but the reality of Amber is a ‘whole-nuther-thing.’ She finally calmed down enough for me to get her to go to her place and THEN Brian could get to know her a bit. Molly remembered him, even though it has been years since he ‘disappeared.’ I thought she would wag her little stubby tail off. She cried, trying to get closer and closer to him. (I know how she feels.)

I’m smiling all over knowing that he’s upstairs sleeping now.  We’ll plan to eat some beef stew together tonight, talk a bit, relax, and then regroup for tomorrow. We need to get supplies for the smoothies he wants to make and other food, plus get his driver’s license renewed before it expires on his birthday. (He needs one when he’s here, but not in Chiang Mai.)

We’ll play the next three weeks by ear, open to whatever he would like to do. I’m hoping we can talk a lot.  And I’ll sneak in as many hugs as he’ll allow…

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December 10, 2018 · 10:43 am

Beyond Happy

The APP Ecosystem

Our son is coming home today for a visit!  He’s been in Chiang Mai, Thailand, this time, for over three years.

Thankfully, he’s a really good communicator, so most of the time we can ignore the fact that he’s across the world from us. We have a secure chat program he set up so we can either message each other or ‘talk’ real time. (He let me know he’s at the DFW airport now waiting for his flight that will bring him here.)

His flight has been really awful – not a lot of plane changes but the whole flight from his place to our airport will have taken 28 hours!  Needless to say, he wants to come straight home and hit the bed for several hours before sharing some beef stew with us tonight.  Just knowing he’s up in what is now the guest room will have me smiling all day long. :0)

He will stay about three weeks – celebrating his birthday AND Christmas with us!

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December 7, 2018 · 2:09 pm

More Like Christmas…

I’m waiting until our son is home on MONDAY (whoopeeeee!) to get the big Tupperware tub of Christmas decorations out –  plus our tree – but I’m starting to do a bit here and there.

This is the dining area. I have a Christmas wreath with lights, lights wrapped around the rail across the top of the window to the right of this picture,  and a few decorations on the divider that goes between the dining area and the kitchen.

 

This is a present from a dear friend. It’s a combination light that looks mosaic and changes colors as you watch and a diffuser with a nice scent.

 

This is ceramic. The couple who made it personalized the heart for me. I’ve had this for years and I love it.

 

This one is made of wood and was also personalized for me by its creators.

 

Every year I like to showcase the Christmas cards we receive from friends and family. I hang each one on the vertical uprights on our stair railing with yarn. I also add ornaments or other decoration. This year I’m using wooden ‘gingerbread’ ornaments. I bought these from a company last year, stained and then painted them to make them look like gingerbread cookies.

 

 

 

 

 

The Christmas cards will make the decoration fuller and fuller as the season progresses. I’ll also add garlands of sparkly stuff!

 

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December 5, 2018 · 1:33 pm

This Scrooge is Thawing

This photo of our son, Brian, and me was taken at Christmas in 2007. It’s still one of my all-time favorite photos.

I’ve been a Scrooge, basically, since then because my heart wasn’t really in it. Our son decided several years ago that in order to really learn Mandarin, he needed to live where it was spoken. He packed up and went to China, attending an American language school there, leaving just before they had a terrible earthquake. He came home, but then went back, this time living in Shanghai.

Then he decided that he wanted to live somewhere more quiet, so he went to Chiang Mai, Thailand. He has made it a point not only to continue learning Mandarin, but also to learn Thai. He participates on a regular basis on an app where people can call in for translations between Mandarin and English and Thai. This allows him to get more and more fluent as he tries to help others.

A friend and his wife joined him in Chiang Mai several years ago. They work together doing computer stuff for various clients in the U.S. Before he left the last time, he set up a secure chat program so that we could leave messages or type at each other real-time. We do that on almost a daily basis. He also set up a program called ‘appear.in’ which he and his friend use in conference calls. We can see each other real-time and talk, like Skype or other similar programs, but MUCH better quality.

It’s been three years since he’s been home. We communicate more than a lot of families who live in the same city, so he hasn’t really seemed a world away, though he gives wonderful hugs, and my ‘hugs bucket’ has been empty for a long time now.

Recently he talked about MAYBE coming home for a visit. I put it out of my mind because a lot can happen in a short space of time, making it impossible – although intentions are the best.

He is actually coming home! We will pick him up at the airport on the 10th of this month!!!! He can stay until January 2nd, when he will fly to see other relatives and good friends before returning to Chiang Mai.

I am definitely feeling the Scrooge in me thawing this year. This morning I got out the two Christmas wreaths I kept after my purge of ‘stuff’ in our home and put them up. I then got out one bag of decorations that I’ve put up in the past, when I wanted to look at least a little bit festive. These are up in the dining area now. (I’ll take some pictures to share a bit later today.)

My husband and I decided that this year we would decorate a Christmas tree and get out all the decorations we haven’t used in years. This means we will need to move furniture in the living room to accommodate the tree – plus haul the huge Tupperware bin of decorations and the tree up from the basement – something we haven’t done in a long time. I’ve decided to wait until our son is home to do the tree, so we can do it together as a family.

As the fact that he has his tickets, and we have a flight arrival time now (the trip from Chiang Mai to here will take a total of 28 hours with layovers, etc) the fact that he’s REALLY coming home is starting to sink in. My heart feels full, plus lighter and lighter. I keep finding myself smiling.

The very best Christmas present we could have – except for when I gave birth to him 40 years ago on Dec. 13th…

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November 30, 2018 · 1:09 pm

Guard Dog?

We are lucky to have brought Amber into our family. We need to keep reminding ourselves of that, though, as she is more than a double-handful.

My husband asked yesterday, “When will she be two?” This is in response to the people who have rightly advised us that a lab is a puppy until she’s two. That’s at LEAST two, I think, because she is showing no signs of maturing. She will be two officially March 7th. I’ve warned my husband that there is no hard and fast rule that says that by – or before – the second birthday maturity and calmness descends over the family like a glorious veil.

Her latest antic answered another comment by my husband – “I wish she would bark at strangers. She sucks as a guard dog.”

This morning he went out to add birdseed to the feeders plus the squirrel bottle feeder that is attached to the outside of the dining area window.

All of a sudden Amber saw him, but apparently didn’t recognize him as a member of our family. She instantly was up, paws on the windowsill, barking, hair standing on end over her neck and over her butt, knocking one of my plants off the windowsill. She didn’t hear me yelling at her to stop. I had to physically pull her away from the window, shove her through the doggie gate and close it firmly. She was still growling.

Thankfully, my plant and holder ‘fell’ into the lettuce plants on the card table beside the window, rather than crashing to the floor. I was able to carefully pull it back up and put it on the windowsill again without dumping or hurting the succulent I’ve had for years. The orchid took a dive, but I retrieved it, put an ice cube in it, and placed it back on the sill. I checked to make sure all the other plants were okay and then swept the floor beside the windowsill and under the card table.

My husband came back in, oblivious to the whole thing. When I told him what happened, he looked pleased that Amber had reacted that way to a ‘stranger’ so close to our window. (Usually, she wants to get into the truck with the UPS guy, Fedex lady, or any other delivery people or workmen. At the post office, she wags her tail off at anyone who talks to her.)

I GUESS I’m happy that if we had an intruder, Amber would cause a ruckus and bark loudly, but right now, I’m still shaken over being in the middle of it.

Living for March in hope…..

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November 30, 2018 · 10:14 am

“Emptiness”

Julie Meadows via Jackie Lyons

This sculpture hit me right between the eyes.

We lost our daughter, Jade, just after she turned two months old and had her checkup at the pediatrician’s office. She died of SIDS. (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). I thought we would die, too. My husband and I both seriously considered ending it, our pain was so great. The only thing that kept us going was our son, Brian, who was two years old and desperately needed us. The hole in your gut never leaves. The hurt in your heart never leaves. I’m tearing up even as I try to type this, and we lost Jade almost 38 years ago. This sculpture was created by someone who has been there and truly understands. My heart goes out to the artist.

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November 23, 2018 · 2:48 pm

Fishing for a Compliment…

Our fish aren’t very good conversationalists. They don’t want or give affection, give compliments or give out rebukes. I feel good, though, that their aquarium is now bright, shining clean. I changed out the decorations in the tank, too, so they have a change of scene, as well as new filters, plus clean and treated water.

About the only thing they DO is bunch up in the corner when they want to be fed, wriggling their tiny bodies and making a big deal of seeing my face, even before I give them anything to eat. THAT makes all the upkeep worth it. :0)

I’m feeling lazy today since I spent most of the day outside yesterday cleaning out and pruning the plants in our planters. I finished all in the front yard – we have 11 in all (eight 8 foot brick planters and 3 of assorted sizes), plus the planters on the deck yesterday. I’m a bit long in the tooth for that much work, but we had an 80% chance of rain today (and the forecasters were correct), and my body is in protest mode today.

Now that the project for the day is finished, I’m going to go do some yoga to see if I can get stretched out again.

Otherwise, friends (Lunch Bunch) followed by food and football!

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November 18, 2018 · 1:09 pm

Ordinary?

Waldorf Today via Desiree Angelique Hackett

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November 15, 2018 · 4:34 pm

Musical Beds?

We have five dog beds in the house: two small beds for Molly (our cocker spaniel/schnauzer cross) or the cats to use, a larger one for Amber (a 93 pound lab puppy) to use, and two really large beds (one in the living room and the other in the utility room) for several animals to use at once or Amber to spread out on.

As you can see from the picture above, the animals have a whole different take on the subject. Amber loves to curl up in one of the small beds.

 

Here is Molly on the larger bed in the office.

And here she is all by herself on the corner of this large bed in the living room.

One cat will spread out in the middle of this bed and dare all comers to encroach on her territory (though neither of them will allow us to even TRY to get a pic).

The best laid plans….

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November 14, 2018 · 11:27 am

Our Luck Runneth Over

Live Life in Color

My husband and I are very lucky – and VERY aware of it.

We’re both retired, busier than we’ve EVER been, (even when raising a child, working full time, going to school nights, weekends, and summers, and all that that entails).  We can plan most of our days to do what is most important to us at the time. We can be energetic, getting lots of stuff accomplished, or fat-ass in our recliners, reading a book or watching TV until we nod off for a nap. We live on top of a ridge line on about 8 acres, so we don’t have to worry about any of our activities bothering our neighbors. We can work in our shop in the middle of the night if a creative mood strikes, making a yard critter out of spare parts or a decoration for the mailbox.

We are both healthier than we’ve been in several years – other than getting older than dirt. We are actively trying to get the lard off and exercise. Since April, we have both lost about 30 pounds. Our blood tests are showing the difference and our primary doctor is patting us on our collective heads. My husband is almost where he needs to be weight-wise, but the NutriSystem programs we’re on help us watch our portions while avoiding sugar, salt, and fat without causing big problems and we’re eating more raw veggies at least twice a day.

Our luck runneth over because our son is trying to make arrangements to come home from Thailand for a good visit – the first in three years or so. We talk to him almost daily, either using a good chat program he arranged, or a face-to-face program called, “Appear.in”, or a combination of both, so we get everything but hugs on a regular basis. We’re lucky that he seems to enjoy us as people, rather than communicating out of some sense of ‘duty.’ We are closer as a family with him living across the planet from us than some families who live in the same city. Lucky, indeed.

We remark to each other that it doesn’t bet much better than this. We love our lives. Winning huge sums of money through PCH or the state lottery would be icing on an already delicious cake…

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November 10, 2018 · 1:49 pm

What Makes a Relationship Successful?

happified.tumblr.com via sayingimages.com

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November 2, 2018 · 10:09 am

I Woke Up Happy Today

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I avoid exercise DVDs where the people are SO pert, SO excited, exuding the joys of moving – telling you how GOOD it all feels. They make me hostile. Likewise, I greet cloyingly sweet pictures and people with at least a silent snarl.

SO – you may react that way to ME this morning, because I woke up happy.

Though things are far from perfect, I have a pretty great life. I fell in love with my husband almost 60 years ago. We’ll celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in June. AND we don’t just love, we’re addicted to each other. That doesn’t mean – by ANY means – that I don’t want to punch him in the face on a regular basis, but we chose to share our lives and it was definitely a good choice. We lost a daughter when she was 2 months old to SIDS – but we made a son who makes us proud of the generous, caring man he’s become, who loves us, reaches out on an almost daily basis from halfway across the world, just to check in and make sure we’re okay. And we might spend Christmas together this year!

We have two dogs, Molly (a sweet, elderly cocker spaniel/schnauzer cross) and Amber (a 95 pound yellow lab PUPPY) who drives us nuts and makes us laugh every day; two cats (Abby (a tortoiseshell fat cat) and Smoke (a sleek grey hunter); plus 4 goldfish who have tripled in size since we added them to our family.

We have a home we built over 30 years ago on top of a ridge line in Arkansas and we still love it. Since the initial building, we added a shop, then later doubled its size, plus built a greenhouse that so far hasn’t succumbed to wind and rain. We’re reasonably close to town, yet enjoy complete privacy up here, a really nice combination. We have a view of several ridge lines – and since we can see them, seeing the seasons change – we can pretend we own it all. :0)

Our health is improving as we get some of our lard off and are trying to exercise. I’m mainly doing my elliptical trainer and yoga stretching for old folks. My husband is doing better and better trying to do sit ups. We are consciously trying to move more.

We are retired, so many days we can do what we want – or don’t want to do. I can try to be productive or enjoy curling up in my chair with a good book.  I can choose to check things off my to-do list or play in my art room. We have good friends who make our lives rich.

I woke up happy today. I hope you did, too.

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October 29, 2018 · 9:14 am

Amber is at it Again

No one would believe, looking into Amber’s SWEET face and beautiful eyes that she can be so destructive. She won’t be two years old until March, but I’m beginning to think this is her natural personality, rather than merely ‘puppy-hood.’

We played a combination of ‘fetch,’ ‘tease-mom-with-the-ball-over-and-over,’ and ‘tug-of-war-with-a-spitty-ball’ yesterday in the front yard.  She weighs about 95 lbs now, so playing with her, throwing the ball the few times she actually lets me have it, and then bracing for impact in case she actually runs into me on the return is quite tiring. After we finished the pretense of ‘fetch’ we went out to the greenhouse. I prop the door open and she runs inside and out checking on everything while I water plants.

And what is my ‘reward’ for being buddies with Amber? I got up from the computer to find shredded silk flowers all over the foyer carpet. For some reason she attacked a bottle of flowers that have been on the floor in the foyer the whole time she’s been a part of our family. She has never shown any interest in the flowers before, so I found it particularly annoying.

I refuse to move everything we own up high enough she MIGHT not be able to reach and destroy it. There is no way I can control her movements every waking minute. We have doggy toys that we rotate, so she has something ‘new’ to play with. We make a point of either letting her out or taking her out so many times a day I’m not sure what we did with ourselves before Amber.

I’m HOPING that she will grow out of this.  It occurs to me that she has been companionable with a lot of my decluttering efforts. Maybe she is deciding what needs to go and making it so there can be no second thoughts….

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October 27, 2018 · 11:04 am

Thing One and Thing Two

 

Gym Junkies

THING ONE:

When I came downstairs this morning, I found my husband cooking us breakfast! We are on NutriSystem, trying to get a bunch of our lard off, so we’re usually eating one of the NS breakfasts, so this was a really nice surprise. AND he didn’t go nuts, trying to cook what we USED to eat for a typical Saturday morning splurge breakfast. He cooked three pieces of bacon for us to share and two fried eggs. (No toast and jelly, no hash browns, no third egg, no three-pieces-each on bacon, or orange juice.) It was a wonderful surprise, and we didn’t even have to feel guilty, since it was in the proper range of calories for breakfast and we hadn’t had a flex meal breakfast this week. :0)

THING TWO:

I told you recently that my friend, Marsha, and I are having trouble communicating lately. We aren’t sure what the problem is, but we’ve now confirmed email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, have talked on the phone, and are continuing to search for the reason for our problem.

This is Marsha (on the right) with a friend of hers.

This morning I received an email from Marsha, suggesting that we try to connect on the chat program via gmail. I searched all over the place and finally found an icon I could hit that showed she had sent me a connection request. We connected and then proceeded to type madly at each other! It was great, and I’m glad we have another way to communicate, particularly when all else fails. I’ll keep the chat program on all the time so that I can check it each time I come back to the computer during the day and evening to see if she’s left a message, or – better – if she’s available to type at me real time. Hooraaaaay!

What a GREAT start to my morning!!

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October 26, 2018 · 2:37 pm

Relationships

sayingimages.com

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October 25, 2018 · 12:20 pm

Sweet Doggie

Jill Abramson – sayingimages.com

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October 24, 2018 · 10:04 am

Dog’s Life

Robert Falcon Scott via sayingimages.com

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October 23, 2018 · 9:20 am

The Game is Afoot!

Amber loves to play with a ball, particularly one with a loud squeaky inside.

She comes to us, ball in mouth, showing us she wants to play. We ask for the ball. She puts her whole head in our hand with the ball in her mouth, or just the ball, still holding onto it. She tries to get us to play tug of war with the large, squeaky, spitty ball. Yuck. We do this over and over, with her taking the ball and running away, then coming back to tease us with it.

Then she finally lets us have it. We throw it, she runs like a maniac, gets the ball, and the game starts again. She doesn’t really want to play ‘fetch.’ She loves the whole idea of HER having the ball and OUR wanting it. For every time we throw it, she pretends she’s going to give it to us and then runs away, smiling around the ball as we wait for her to come again over and over … Anticipation is all.

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October 22, 2018 · 3:29 pm

Sleek Molly

Molly really doesn’t like to have her picture taken, but here she is, fresh from the groomer’s. She is super-clean, smells wonderful (I don’t know what soap they’re using now, but it really smells nice.) Now I can see any varmints who try to hitch a ride on her (though things have slowed WAAAY down since the weather has cooled down some) and I can easily bathe her in the sink and get her dry if she and Amber slip off together again to roll in ‘whatever.’

The receptionist said she was a ‘good girl,’ so she got a cookie a minute ago and is now spreading out on the dog bed in the living room after drinking a ton of water.

We won’t have her groomed again until about March, so she’ll be ‘Fuzzy Molly’ again in about 3 months…

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October 19, 2018 · 10:21 am

Family Fun

dogster

 

dirtydogs.biz

These aren’t actual pictures of our dogs, but close enough.

By last night, I was having to remind myself why I thought it was such a great idea to have a houseful of pets….

Molly and Amber ran off yesterday afternoon. My husband and I weren’t communicating well (imagine THAT!) and he let Amber out without checking to see if Molly was already out.

They came back about an hour later, finally, covered in ‘stuff.’  It was cool outside, so I wet a micro cloth and used it on Amber, since she wasn’t as bad as the doggie above. I was able, after umpteen times of rinsing the cloth out and using it again, to get Amber to the point where she could stay inside with us.

Molly was a mess from head to toe, so I put her in the kitchen sink and scrubbed her. After using two bath towels to dry her, I was exhausted and decided she was dry enough to finish on her own. (My husband said she was still damp when we took them out for their final outing for the day last night).

Meanwhile, Amber showed us another result of letting the dogs out together by puking on the carpet. I found this out when my husband started cursing loudly and putting her out. We got things cleaned up and just settled down when Amber barked to come in. By mutual agreement, we put her behind the gate in the utility room where she sleeps. The rest of the afternoon and evening I cleaned up more – and more, but it was on the tiles of the utility room floor. We fed her only water the rest of the day.

This morning there was another spot, but it was from last night. We have fed her and put her back in the utility room until we learn if she’s keeping her food down or not today. We’re hoping she never finds whatever she found yesterday again!

Meanwhile, I called and scheduled Molly to be shorn as if she were a sheep Monday. It’s cool outside, but she usually doesn’t stay out long – particularly if her owners are smart enough not to let Amber out with her – and she’ll be much easier to clean for a while.

We love our pets. We just wish WE were smarter in dealing with them.

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October 18, 2018 · 12:05 pm

Reminder

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October 8, 2018 · 11:33 am

Our Doggie In The Window

The Doggie In The Window
Every morning Amber sits like this after she’s finished her breakfast. She’s waiting for Molly to finish HER breakfast in the pantry, and waiting for US to finish OUR breakfast in the dining area right across the room from her. I can’t see her without the song by Patti Page running through my head –
Patti Page
How much is that doggie in the window?
The one with the waggly tail
How much is that doggie in the window?
I do hope that doggie’s for sale
I must take a trip to California
And leave my poor sweetheart alone
If he has a dog, he won’t be lonesome
And the doggie will have a good home
How much is that doggie in the window?
The one with the waggly tail
How much is that doggie in the window?
I do hope that doggie’s for sale
I read in the papers there are robbers
With flashlights that shine in the dark
My love needs a doggie to protect him
And scare them away with one bark
I don’t want a bunny or a kitty
I don’t want a parrot that talks
I don’t want a bowl of little fishies
He can’t take a goldfish for a walk
How much is that doggie in the window?
The one with the waggly tail
How much is that doggie in the window?
I do hope that doggie’s for sale
Songwriters: Bob Merrill
The Doggie In The Window lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Music & Media Int’l, Inc
__________________________________
I’m also writing this to keep what Amber did lately in perspective –
  • Two days ago we turned off the TV late at night. This is the doggies’ signal that it’s time for the great game of “Out-A-Dog” followed by a cookie to each involved party and then bed. There is great enthusiasm, with Amber rushing over to us from her huge bed that is right under the TV. Two days ago I was slow to lift my bare feet and she, in her enthusiasm, stepped on the top of my right foot. Since she now weighs about 95 pounds, this is no small thing. It really hurt, and I yelled, scaring her.  A swollen area immediately popped up, shaped like a dome on the top of my foot. It doesn’t hurt anymore, but I have a very impressive multicolored bruise that is taking its good time to go away….
  • I have two ceramic type doggies decorating the front porch. I found them at a garage sale down the road, falling in love with them right away and adopting both to live at my house. For some reason, Amber either considers these ‘toys’ or ‘adversaries’ – I’m not really sure which. Her actions toward them go in cycles. All of a sudden one will be upside down on the porch. Or in the yard. This morning the brown one was upside down in the front yard where Amber had decided the felt on the bottom of it had to go. Bits of the felt were all over the yard. The fact that I have shown them to her and told her “NO!” in no uncertain terms only results in a sly, doggie smile. I’ve tried making the doggies go away for a while. I’ve tried going out with Amber, ready to discipline her if she goes to them. I’ve tried making sure a toy or two is in the yard, ready for play. So far, nothing has deterred her.

It’s a really good thing that she is so friendly and affectionate, melting me into a puddle several times a day with her antics….

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