| Big Dog Mom's profileDriving the Dog MobilePhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
|
April 27 Monday Night QuickieMy brain is crowded with the following . . .
There are only two human people living in this house. How in the world can I have so many loads of laundry?
Does lasagna reproduce if you put it in the fridge overnight? I swear there wasn't that much left last night . . . but there it is taking over the kitchen.
Hubby and Princess settled their differences. She's moving back to Ohio in mid-June. Happy to have the grandkids closer. Unhappy that the drama will now be on my doorstep instead of a long distance phone call away.
MIL is playing the "poor sickly old lady" card with anybody that will pay attention to it. Hubby and I are immune to it so we look like the bad guys to unsuspecting bystanders.
Hubby has a part-time job delivering newspapers. I help on the weekends. It's not as stressful as my day job but way more physical. I have hurt muscles that I didn't even know existed.
I've spent most of the evening trying to figure out how to add songs to Hubby's MP3 player. I've not been successful. It's not been pretty.
I found this picture on my hard drive the other day. I'm pretty sure it was taken the first couple of weeks that Rocky came to live with us. It's going to be the wallpaper for my computer at work.
 BTW, he snores. Really loud. Just like Luci. No sweeter sound than stereo dog snoring.
April 26 Pool Party Yep, it's that time of year . . . . we had our first pool party this afternoon. The weather was sunny and beautifully warm. Somewhere in the mid 80's. Trust me, that's not normal for Ohio in late April. I turned the AC on yesterday. It'll probably be cold and rainy next week, but today was beautiful!
Today was the day we decided to introduce Rocky to the joy that is a swimming pool. Luci was thrilled when we got the pool out today. She was so excited, she couldn't stay still long enough for me to turn on the hose. Rocky had no idea what was going on and since it involved a hose (I've had to spray the mud off him a couple of times lately) he didn't want any part of it. No matter what I tried - or how curious he got when he thought I wasn't looking - he would not get in the pool. He would stand at the side of the pool and watch Luci, but he never got in it himself. After she splashed in the pool for a while, she'd run around the yard and find a pile of dirt to roll in.
Luci was having a wonderful time.
 Rocky was not impressed.
Next time I'll get out the sprinkler and see if he likes that better. . .
April 21 My HappinessNo matter how stressful or how busy my day is, there's always something that can put a smile on my face.
This is one of those somethings
This is the other something
This is as close as I can get right now to a picture of the two of them together. If you look closely, you can see the dirt on Luci's nose. What you can't see is the dirt on the back of Rocky's legs and on his neck. I'll be really happy when the grass grows in the bare spots in the yard.
To see the two of them sitting at the front door waiting for me to come home from work at night. To see their smiling faces when the alarm goes off in the morning . . . okay, I only see Luci's face first thing in the morning. Rocky takes a while to wake up. He's not a morning dog at all. That makes all the drama and craziness tolerable . . .
And the puppy kisses. We can't forget the puppy kisses . . . April 20 Guilty PleasureHi, my name is Pam and I'm a reality show addict. You name it, I'll watch it. Operation Repo. Bridezillas. Dancing with the Stars. American Idol. This Old House. Ice Road Truckers. Pinks. Jon and Kate Plus 8. Animal Cops. Cops. But I've recently discovered a new guilty pleasure. Everyone, meet the Hayes family. Mom, Dad and 10 kids. Two sets of twins and a set of sextuplets. It's amazing what this family can accomplish in one day. And yet I have a hard time controlling two dogs. April 18 My Life Is A Soap OperaI hate drama. I'd rather watch a week's worth of Y&R episodes than have to deal with some of the stuff going on in my life right now. Nothing overly serious, just annoying.
So in true denial fashion, I'm not going to mention any of it. Dealing with all of it has made me appreciate the aspects of my life that aren't a soap opera.
My baby brother is turning 40 next week. That sentence alone makes me feel really old. He's six years younger than me. He's always been the baby of the family. Youngest of 6 children + only son = spoiled rotten kid. Pretty cool now, but a major pain when I was living at home. He understand my sick and twisted sense of humor and my love of physical comedy. He scours You*Tube and Break*Com to find videos of people falling down or crashing into things and sends them to me. We watch America's Funniest Video reruns at Mom & Dad's house and laugh until we almost wet our pants. He's a self-taught computer geek and changes cell phones like some people change shoes. Oh, and he got the beautiful blonde wavy hair I've always wanted.
The weather is warmer here in Ohio. Still pretty chilly at night and in the early morning, but overall much better. Everything is blooming. I was out doing some errands this afternoon and the entire town is blooming. It's just beautiful. The apple tree in the back yard should be in full bloom in a week or so. I have a ton of wild violets in the yard. The grass is starting to fill in the mud holes in the back yard. Hopefully that will mean that Luci and Rocky won't be covered in mud all the time.
Luci and Rocky. I don't think we could have found a better match for Luci if we had tried. They are inseparable. They're wrestling in the living room right now. That'll last about 10 minutes and then Rocky will lay down for a nap and Luci will snuggle right up beside him. Or they'll both give me sad eyes and I'll sit on the floor and have the two of them snuggle on my lap. You haven't lived until you've had 140 lbs of dog sleeping in your lap. (Luci is 100 lbs., Rocky is 40.)
Yes, all of that is much better than the drama . . .
April 14 I Told You SoYes, I have the new Carrie Underwood song playing in my head . . . but as the old Randy Travis version. I can't decide which version I like better. But that's not what this post is about. It's about stuff I knew was going to happen . . . even though I was assured that it wouldn't.
Thing #1 - Rocky is supposed to be Hubby's puppy. He wanted a puppy when Blacky passed away. He promised he would take care of the potty training, getting up for the 3 am potty breaks, obedience training. I knew it was too good to be true. I told myself, "Self, he's full of @^*&. You're going to be taking care of that puppy within a month." I was right. I'm doing the puppy training. I was the one getting up in the middle of the night until he got potty trained. I take him for walks. I'm getting him socialized and civilized. Because of all that, Rocky follows me closer than Luci does. Right now, he's asleep on my feet under the computer desk. Not an easy task for a 40 lb. puppy. At first I was annoyed that Hubby tricked me but Rocky's such an well behaved dog that I don't really mind. He's actually helping me train Luci to be better behaved.
Thing #2 - All the test results are in for MIL. The cardiologist and the electrophysiologist agree that there isn't really much more they can do for MIL's heart condition. We've exhausted all the treatment options. It is what it is. She's not happy. Hubby and I are sad but not really surprised. It's going to make life a little more challenging for us, but we'll be okay.
Thing #3 - Princess came home for the Easter holiday and drama ensued. She never went over to see MIL and MIL is spitting mad. She spent one afternoon with Hubby (she was here 4 days). I only happened to see her because I stopped by Jr's house Saturday afternoon and she was there. Otherwise, I would have gone the whole visit without seeing her or the grandkids. Supposedly Hubby said some things that hurt her feelings. Instead of dealing with it like an adult and telling Hubby that he upset her, she decided to pout like a 5 year old and stay away. I gave her a nice Mom lecture about acting like a spoiled brat and dealing with Hubby on an adult level instead of expecting somebody else (me) to handle her problems for her or staying away for a year and then acting like nothing ever happened. After I left on Saturday, Jr told her to patch things up before she left town. As usual, she didn't listen to anyone's advice and she left town without saying goodbye to Hubby. But supposedly she's moving back to town for good in a couple of months. Forgive me if I'm not jumping for joy at that piece of news.
But other than that, life here at the Big Dog House is great. At least I got our taxes done and we're actually getting money back this year. April 08 I'm Gonna Wear BlackI first heard the news last Wednesday. I thought it was a very sick April Fool's joke. I found out it wasn't a joke. In case you haven't heard, the longest running soap opera has been cancelled. After 72 years on the air - either on radio or on TV - The Guiding Light has been cancelled. This is very devastating to my family. My Mom listened to The Guiding Light on the radio with my Great-Grandmother. My sisters and I all grew up watching the CBS soaps. During my high school years, school let out at 2:30 and we hurried home as fast as we could so that we didn't miss a minute. When I was in college, you were either in the group that watched The Guiding Light or General Hospital. Luckily there were two TV's in the student union and we didn't have fights over the TV. My oldest niece, Dollface, watched it with Mom every day after she got home from school. It's been quality bonding time for the females in my family for a long, long time. And now it's going away. I remember Roger Thorpe - and how ever many times he would die and come back to life. I remember Bert Bauer and the Bauer family 4th of July picnic. Kelly and Morgan. Nola. Floyd. Katie. Hope. Mike. Holly. Ed. Maureen. Rita. Phillip and Beth. Rick and Mindi. Lujack. Reva and Josh. Alan. Alan-Michael. Ross. I spent so many hours wrapped up in their stories that they're like a part of my family.
I'm going to sign whatever petitions I can find. I'm going to write as many letters and emails as I need to so that the Guiding Light can find another home. I'm seriously considering taking September 18 (the day of the last episode) as a vacation day. It's going to be a very sad day for me.
April 07 I Have A Bad Feeling About ThisAfter dealing with the woman for 27 years, I've learned that whenever The Ex calls, drama always follows. As sure as I'm standing (sitting) here and as sure as day follows night. It's always been that way and it will always be that way. I knew it the minute that I heard her voice on the phone a couple of weeks ago. I just wasn't sure what kind of drama she was cooking up . . . .
The first phone call was in early March to invite Hubby and I to Virginia for a special birthday party for Princess' 35 birthday. Hubby told her it was kind of short notice and we wouldn't be able to do it. Supposedly she understood. That's when I started getting nervous. The Ex never invites us down unless she wants something. I had a bad feeling that I just couldn't shake.
Then a couple of weeks ago, The Ex called to let Hubby and I know that Princess was being rushed to the hospital via ambulance for a potentially serious health issue. Like all good parents, we're concerned about Princess' health issue, but we were a little curious about why The Ex called. See,
The Ex and Princess live about 325 miles away from us. We're in Ohio and they're in Virginia. It's not like we could get in the car and drive across town to be by Princess' side. Over the next few days, we got daily updates from The Ex and Princess about what was going on. Test results, doctor consults, possible diagnosis. Hubby was convinced that it was a severe case of acid reflux, but they assured him that it wasn't acid reflux. We heard diagnosis of a possible stroke, a potential heart attack, epilepsy, a possible brain tumor. Last Hubby heard from The Ex, it was a small stroke and the doctors were going to be inserting a feeding tube because Princess wasn't able to keep anything down. None of the stories that we heard made a whole lot of sense to me. Either something screwy was going on or the doctors involved were total idiots. That's when all the phone calls stopped. They didn't call us and we couldn't get ahold of them.
After a couple days of silence, I asked Jr. if he had heard from his sister or his mother. Oh, yea, he told me, Princess was released from the hospital a couple of days after they stopped calling us. Turned out that the serious medical issue was (wait for it!) a severe case of acid reflux. We were relieved to learn that Princess was fine, but we wondered why she hadn't called Hubby to let him know everything was okay. Why hadn't The Ex called to let us know. After all, she's the one that stirred up all the drama. You'd think she'd want to let us know everything was okay.
It's been a week and a half and we still haven't heard directly from Princess or The Ex. All of our info is coming from Jr.
Then today Jr. tells us that The Ex, Princess, and The Grandkids are coming home to Smalltown to visit with family for Easter.
I should be happy that Princess is coming home for a visit, but I really have a bad feeling about this. April 05 Til Death Do Us PartHubby and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary the other day. Nothing too glamorous. We spent a quiet day at home together. I took MIL to the bank and the grocery. He had an appointment with a physical therapist for his back. We had a nice quiet dinner at a family owned local restaurant. The weather was warm and sunny. A beautiful day. But that's not the topic of this post.
When I met Hubby, he had recently gone through a divorce. He was adjusting to the end of a 10 year marriage to his high school sweetheart. He was desperately missing his kids. Jr. was 10 and Princess was 8. He was living all alone for the first time in his life. He wanted out of the marriage so badly that he gave The Ex everything - he kept the house, his car, his tools, and his dog. She got everything else. To say that he had some emotional baggage is an understatement.
I went into my relationship with Hubby knowing full well that The Ex and the kids were part of the package. I knew that because of the age of the kids, that we were going to have to deal with The Ex for quite some time. But I hoped/prayed that when the kids turned 18 and the financial obligations ended, then the drama would end too. What can I say. I was 19 and extremely naive. The kids grew up and had kids of their own. For the sake of the grandkids and family unity, we kept trying to get along with The Ex and Husband #2, Husband #3, Internet Boyfriend #1, and Husband #4. It was a losing battle. If we did something nice, we were trying to buy the kids love and affection. If we didn't do something, we were horrible selfish people. And it's not just The Ex that feels this way. Princess has been known to stir up drama, too. We can't win, so we've stopped trying. We can't stop the drama, but we can minimize our exposure to it.
We go for months, sometimes a year of two, between dramatic incidents. We relish the quiet times because we know how bad it can be when the drama starts up. We dread phone calls from The Ex. When we see her phone number on the caller id, we debate over who is going to answer the phone - "I don't want to talk to her, you talk to her." "She's your ex-wife, you talk to her." When her number comes up on the caller id, we just know we're in for a rough stretch of road.
I'm getting a bad feeling that we might be in the beginning phases of another dramatic incident. But you know what, I'm tired of this cycle. After 25 years of marriage, I think it's time for this crap to end. But I don't know how to make it stop. I've done my time. I've paid my dues. I realize she's the mother of his children, but do I seriously have to put up with her and her nonsense "til death do us part"?
April 01 Second Child Syndrome
My dear Nadine has been waiting patiently for pictures of Rocky. I confess. I have a bad case of Second Child Syndrome. I don't have as many pictures of him . . . but when Luci was a puppy, I was taking pictures of her all the time. Check out the September 03 album and see more photos of the newest addition to the Big Dog Family. He's quite the charmer. He's 4 months old and weighs approximately 40 lbs. The picture above was taken on his 3 month birthday. You can see the droopy eyes and the freckles. Look at the size of those feet! He eats 4 cups of food a day. The shelter told us he's a boxer mix but we aren't sure what he's mixed with. Could be St. Bernard, could be Bassett, could be Beagle. We have no idea . . . and we've heard all those guesses. I even been told that we could have a DNA test done to determine his breed. I just smiled politely and say that we'll have to wait to see what he grows up to be. A DNA test on a dog?! I can just see that as an episode of Maury.
He's a beautiful boy. Well behaved. Did very well last night at puppy class. Loves to snuggle on the floor with me and Luci at night. He also loves to romp and play in the backyard. I had to take him to get a bath the night before puppy class because he was a mess. I couldn't take a filthy dog to puppy class! Then everyone would know about my case of Second Child Syndrome . . .
|
|
|
