Ahhh, family. We are coming up on another holiday. The 4th of July. Independence Day. I love love love this holiday. It is one of the few without presents. It is a low stress, easy day to spend with the ones that we love.
We get together with family and there are many of us. We have lots and lots of little people and lots and lots of adults. I love all of them. We all bring food and we eat more than anyone should. Spending time with my family is one of my favorite things in the whole world. Now, it doesn't come without some tiny aggravations -- but, what in life is without aggravation? ("Shut the door -- you're letting all the bought air out! and "Did you finish the OTHER can of soda you had earlier?" or "Doesn't anyone know where the trashcan is?"), but when all is said and done, no matter how many times the door is opened and shut and no matter how many drinks are wasted or how much trash ends up in my potato bin, I wouldn't have celebrated my holiday in any other way because I love these people so much. We get along so well, we have plenty to talk about, and we are content to be with each other from morning until night. My son-in-law once said, "You guys are happy just sitting around the room with each other." That is certainly true, but honestly, we are rarely silent. He is the same son-in-law that says "Your family is just like being in My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Our family gatherings are never boring. The kids entertain each other and us old folks. We have such a good time. We rarely miss a holiday with each other. Sometimes, when it is too long between holidays, we just have a day together for the fun of it. There are plenty of birthday parties in between some of the holidays, so we don't go too long without getting together. And forget about 2-hour birthday parties -- when we get together, we never want to leave because the kids are having such a good time. I feel sorry for people who don't have what we have. Our camaraderie is legend. I am truly blessed to have been put in this family. This holiday is falling on a Friday, so we will all have a long party into the night with a bonfire and s'mores and then the entire weekend to recover from all the festivities. Bring on the fun!!
Monday, June 30, 2008
My Two Dogs
Well, let me tell you, I have some kind of dogs. They are rat terrier fiests. One is blind, one is mentally challenged, and both of them are going deaf. If we tied the dogs together, maybe one could see where the other one was going, but they neither one would hear a car coming.
Anyway, Sophie Elizabeth is my dog, and Maddie Biscuit is my husband's dog. Maddie used to be our daughter's dog, but she kept running down the street trying to escape and she got tired of chasing her, so we took the dog in.
I love them both dearly, but they do have issues. Sophie is mentally challenged. She is a PICA dog. That means she eats inedible things, mainly plastic bags. If you find a ziplock zipper laying in the floor, it just means that Sophie has eaten the bag part. If you hurt her feelings, or she is feeling blue or even bored, she eats plastic bags. Mostly those Wal-Mart or Food Lion plastic bags. She will, if she can't find her favorite brand of bag, consume a regular trash bag if necessary. Anything can set her off and she binges on plastic bags. Then, naturally, she has to dispose of the contents of her stomach (because plastic bags don't digest very well) -- how do I put this delicately?--there really isn't any other way to say this -- she barfs the entire bag that has been torn into little pieces and swallowed onto the closest piece of clean carpet that she can find.
Sophie likes carpet. She spends her entire dinner time carrying mouthfuls of food from her dinner bowl to the carpet to eat. Sometimes she eats what she brings to the carpet, sometimes she likes to leave it there to have for a snack later. Annoying habit -- though, she has done it since she was a tiny puppy. She is spotted on one side and has black and white markings on her other side, while her head is mostly black and white and brown. We call her the "Cowmation" dog.
Maddie is an escape artist. When we lived in Alabama, Wayne had to move the woodpile because Maddie was jumping up as high as she could from the woodpile to try to scale the 9 foot privacy fence. She managed a few times before he figured out what she was doing. She is like a hamster, if her head can get through a hole, her whole self will follow. She has chewed through her kennel door so many times (and it is chain link fencing) that Wayne has had to put rat wire on the bottom of the kennel door to keep our Houdini dog from escaping. My question is this...Since she is blind, where is she going? What is she looking for? The grass smells the same in the kennel as it does in the rest of the yard.
We have to be careful of Maddie around the dock. If she gets on the pier and loses her balance, in she goes into the river. We have to stand on the side of the yard hollering so she can hear our voices. Since she can't see, and she can't touch the bottom, she needs sound to guide her back towards safety. She has learned not to go too far onto the pier, but sometimes, she can't help herself and just goes swimming. It's got to be disconcerting to a blind dog to one minute being on solid ground to the next minute being in the water.
Anyway, Sophie Elizabeth is my dog, and Maddie Biscuit is my husband's dog. Maddie used to be our daughter's dog, but she kept running down the street trying to escape and she got tired of chasing her, so we took the dog in.
I love them both dearly, but they do have issues. Sophie is mentally challenged. She is a PICA dog. That means she eats inedible things, mainly plastic bags. If you find a ziplock zipper laying in the floor, it just means that Sophie has eaten the bag part. If you hurt her feelings, or she is feeling blue or even bored, she eats plastic bags. Mostly those Wal-Mart or Food Lion plastic bags. She will, if she can't find her favorite brand of bag, consume a regular trash bag if necessary. Anything can set her off and she binges on plastic bags. Then, naturally, she has to dispose of the contents of her stomach (because plastic bags don't digest very well) -- how do I put this delicately?--there really isn't any other way to say this -- she barfs the entire bag that has been torn into little pieces and swallowed onto the closest piece of clean carpet that she can find.
Sophie likes carpet. She spends her entire dinner time carrying mouthfuls of food from her dinner bowl to the carpet to eat. Sometimes she eats what she brings to the carpet, sometimes she likes to leave it there to have for a snack later. Annoying habit -- though, she has done it since she was a tiny puppy. She is spotted on one side and has black and white markings on her other side, while her head is mostly black and white and brown. We call her the "Cowmation" dog.
Maddie is an escape artist. When we lived in Alabama, Wayne had to move the woodpile because Maddie was jumping up as high as she could from the woodpile to try to scale the 9 foot privacy fence. She managed a few times before he figured out what she was doing. She is like a hamster, if her head can get through a hole, her whole self will follow. She has chewed through her kennel door so many times (and it is chain link fencing) that Wayne has had to put rat wire on the bottom of the kennel door to keep our Houdini dog from escaping. My question is this...Since she is blind, where is she going? What is she looking for? The grass smells the same in the kennel as it does in the rest of the yard.
We have to be careful of Maddie around the dock. If she gets on the pier and loses her balance, in she goes into the river. We have to stand on the side of the yard hollering so she can hear our voices. Since she can't see, and she can't touch the bottom, she needs sound to guide her back towards safety. She has learned not to go too far onto the pier, but sometimes, she can't help herself and just goes swimming. It's got to be disconcerting to a blind dog to one minute being on solid ground to the next minute being in the water.
Eden Story
This is the funniest story...I hope I can get it down right.
Eden sometimes spends the night with me and we have some pretty in depth conversations, even if she is only four years, old, she has a lot to say. So, Eden and I were sitting across from each other at my dining room table. She said, "Meema, what does 'cannibal' mean?" I, of course, had several things pop through my mind -- do I tell her what it is, do I not explain it in detail, what should I do? Anyway, I decided to just answer her question. I told her, "Well, Eden, a cannibal is a person who eats another person." She looks at me horrified and said, "They can't find us, can they?" I calmed her fears and told her that no, cannibals are mostly in Africa or other far away countries, and since she is four, I told her that no one does that anymore. (I didn't want to cause her any sleepless nights.) I went on to enquire about where she had heard that word. She said she didn't know. I assured her that cannibal wasn't a bad word and that she could tell me where she heard it. Then, I told her that I was sure that she did know where she had heard that word, and she told me that her cousins hollered "CANNIBAL" when they jumped into the pool. I was laughing so hard. After I could control myself, I explained to her that the boys were actually hollering, "cannon ball" when they jumped into the pool because they were rolling themselves into balls and jumping off into the water. She was very relieved that the boys weren't talking about cannibals. All's well that ends well.
Eden sometimes spends the night with me and we have some pretty in depth conversations, even if she is only four years, old, she has a lot to say. So, Eden and I were sitting across from each other at my dining room table. She said, "Meema, what does 'cannibal' mean?" I, of course, had several things pop through my mind -- do I tell her what it is, do I not explain it in detail, what should I do? Anyway, I decided to just answer her question. I told her, "Well, Eden, a cannibal is a person who eats another person." She looks at me horrified and said, "They can't find us, can they?" I calmed her fears and told her that no, cannibals are mostly in Africa or other far away countries, and since she is four, I told her that no one does that anymore. (I didn't want to cause her any sleepless nights.) I went on to enquire about where she had heard that word. She said she didn't know. I assured her that cannibal wasn't a bad word and that she could tell me where she heard it. Then, I told her that I was sure that she did know where she had heard that word, and she told me that her cousins hollered "CANNIBAL" when they jumped into the pool. I was laughing so hard. After I could control myself, I explained to her that the boys were actually hollering, "cannon ball" when they jumped into the pool because they were rolling themselves into balls and jumping off into the water. She was very relieved that the boys weren't talking about cannibals. All's well that ends well.
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