Earlier tonight Zale and I were playing Yahtzee at the table. The girls were also sitting at the table playing with the Easter gifts my Mom and step dad brought them yesterday. They often play “princess games” and make their dolls talk to each other. This was the very short conversation.
Hannah: I’m a princess
Hannah: Reagan, do I look like a princess or what?
Reagan: Or what
Of course it was all Zale and I could do to control the laughter.
After months of thinking about it, I finally went through with it and posted my wedding dress on Craigslist. While I was getting it out of the box to take pictures of it, Hannah was having a blast. Here’s a few pictures of her wearing my veil and dress. Of course I’ve got to throw one in of Zale and I on our wedding day too.
playing with the veil
posing with the blusher in place...had to have it just right
"wearing" the dress
Zale and I, March 1, 2003
Reagan didn’t get in on the action because she was sleeping. Honestly, I don’t know that I would have gotten the pictures done or the sale posted if she had been up too. And I’m sure you noticed in the second picture Maddie was trying to make sure she was involved too. 
I think Hannah had a good time, and the girls have enjoyed using the box as their house before turning it into a slide by leaning it on the furniture.
Reagan is cooperating at bed time. It’s usually a struggle to get her into her PJs. But tonight, she’s even doing it with a smile. Zale said something about it being a bit scary. I agreed and told him to start planning the escape route.
Hannah, on the other hand, is whining about it all. I guess it’s just one of those nights for her.
Over the last couple of days I’ve really been missing having a dog in the house. And the kids have too. I had pretty much resigned myself to not having another one for quite awhile. At least until we were able to build a fence. But out of curiosity I kept looking on line at different breeds. Just to see which breed would best fit our family and situation.
Zale mentioned Craigslist, so I browsed for a bit before LifeGroup started tonight. I found some really cute puppies, but I didn’t want to deal with the expense of a new puppy. All the shots, and getting it fixed, etc. Plus I didn’t want to have to house train it. I’m having trouble potty training Reagan, much less worrying about training a puppy. So I put the lap top away and finished getting ready for Life Group.
After Life Group I looked at the laptop and thought, I’ll just check and see if there’s any new postings. Just to see. Sure enough I see a posting for Maddie. Her family loves her dearly and didn’t want to part with her. But their 4 year old became allergic to her, so they had to give her away. She’s 18 months old, an inside dog but does love to play outside. She’s been so well taken care of, fixed, all her shots are up to date, house trained, everything. Of course the big thing for us is kids. And she’s wonderful with kids! Loves them! Her entire back half shakes as she wags her tail from the excitement of seeing a child. It’s the cutest thing! She’s 29 pounds (fully grown), so a much better size than Griffin was for our house.
I called the number on the listing and chatted with Maddie’s owner for a few minutes. We agreed to meet tomorrow since it was 8:00 when I called. I hinted at meeting her tonight, but was fine to go tomorrow. A short time later she called me back and suggested we go ahead and meet while she was out with Maddie anyway. So I kissed the kids and went on my way. It was so hard for Maddie’s family to give her up. And I understand that from giving up Griffin. But I know that Griffin is in a much better environment, and Maddie needed a new home. So it all worked out. I can’t help but think that God had a hand in this. The way everything came together so quickly.
And right now, she’s sound asleep on the couch. Thankfully she seems to have adjusted to her new home rather quickly.
a Boarder Collie puppy
After getting home from our road trip yesterday morning, I checked my e mail and got on Face Book for a few minutes before crashing in the recliner. I had a brief thought of posting on Face book that anyone who wanted to offer us a puppy/dog, to please not even mention it. I was really missing Griffin and knew if someone offered it would be really hard to say no to another dog. But I had the fleeting thought as I was drifting off to sleep that it wasn’t necessary, who in the world would offer us a dog?
I kid you not, when I woke up early afternoon, I checked my Face Book and had a message from Zale’s Aunt offering us an 8 week old Boarder Collie that was weened, dewormed, and had it’s first shots. (The picture above is just a reference, not one that we were offered) Zale was at a mock court trial State competition so I couldn’t call him, but I texted him. His reply was, “Hablo? no read anglis….” In my mind all I could picture was this adorable fuzzy little puppy that the girls would love, who knows what Anthony’s reaction would be, but a huge part of me was thinking, “I still have the GPS in the car, I could drive up to Kentucky (where Joyce has her farm) and probably be back before Zale gets home. I know, more craziness. We’ve had a dog in this house since May of 2004 when we got Gracie. When she passed in December, we still had Griffin. Now that he’s gone (and with the kids being gone this weekend) the house is so quiet it’s almost spooky.
But I refrained from going to Kentucky and I went to church instead. I was talking to two of my girlfriends about it at church and my exact words were, “I need you to talk me down from the whole puppy thing.” They did a very good job! Zale met me at church and then we went to dinner. I still plead my case a little about getting the puppy, but Zale’s logic prevailed. He agreed that a smaller / medium sized dog that wouldn’t need a fence may be in our future, but a Boarder Collie may not be the right kind of dog for us. It would probably still need a fence. After doing some research on line, I agreed. But then went on every Humane Society website in our area to look at other dogs/puppies.
So while I’m searching on line, Zale is saying, hey, if we had another dog we’d have to take it out right now! It would be whining and scratching at the door wanting to go out, or just peeing on the carpet. Subtle, I know. So even though I do miss Griffin, I think Zale is right. We should wait to get another dog until we have a fence. Since that’s probably not going to happen for awhile, I’ll just have to borrow Oz or Lily (Dad’s German Shepard dogs) every now and then to get that “doggie fix”.
Friday afternoon I picked up Dad around 3:30 in the afternoon and we headed to Arkansas to take Griffin to his new home. A 5 1/2 to 6 hour drive took longer than usual and we didn’t get to Audra’s until after 10:00. We stayed for an hour or so and left with the intent on staying at Aunt Penny’s house for the night before heading back home Saturday morning.
But, leaving Griffin was much harder than I thought it would be. Griffin drove me nuts more often than not, but I was more attached than I knew. After shedding a few tears I had this overwhelming desire to go home. I knew it was crazy, Dad had been up since 4:00 that morning, and even though I didn’t get up near as early, my sleep was interrupted several times, so I knew I was probably more tired than what I was feeling right then. But I REALLY wanted to get home. So I posed the question to Dad, would it be too crazy to just drive home tonight? We quickly came up with several reasons why it would be a good idea, went back and forth a bit on “you decide”, “No, you decide.” Within just a few minutes we made the decision to go home. So we called Penny (who was driving in front of us) to let her know, pulled over for good bye hugs, and were on our way.
We shared the driving and I dropped him off at his house before 5:30 AM, I was home before 6. My sleep has been off schedule ever since, but I think it was worth it. There’s just something about sleeping in your own home. Dad and I love doing these “adventures” together and have good stories and memories to last a life time. It was really tough to leave Griffin, but he has two acres of fenced in yard to run and a doggie door so he can go in and out of the house. I know he’ll be much happier there. And you couldn’t ask for a better family to take care of him!
I’m really hoping to keep up the motivation to work out. But in the last week I’ve used the elliptical twice and played racquetball twice. Which is probably more than I’ve done in almost a year. Here’s hoping I can keep it up!
A bit of a difference from the last time I was working out somewhat consistently, is that I’m not really doing it with weight loss in mind. But more to increase my energy level. There’s so much I want to do with the kids this summer (especially since it’s the last summer before Hannah starts school, and the last summer before Anthony is out of high school), that I want to have the stamina to keep up with them. I hope for many trips to the park, zoo, hanging out at Mom’s pool, day trips when we can afford it, and maybe the library when it’s too hot to be outside. Wish I had never stopped working out! Then it wouldn’t be so hard to get back into!
A while ago Zale and I realized that having Griffin here wasn’t really working out. I think Zale realized it before I did. He really is a good dog, a beautiful dog, but he also has a huge need for a fenced in yard where he can run and play. From all the reading we did on Mastiff’s I thought they were very lazy dogs. Which is one of the reasons why we wanted him. But as it turns out, Brazilian-Bull Mastiffs are still very much puppies when they’re puppies, and not lazy at all! AT ALL!
Since getting a fence isn’t going to happen anytime soon, as we had hoped, it was time to look for another home for him. I first asked my cousin if they could take him back, but that wasn’t going to work out. My cousin’s friend wanted him, but he lives in Washington state. So that’s quite a distance and no good way for him to get there.
There was one other person that had expressed an interest in him when we got him. And it just happened to be Aunt Penny’s daughter, Audra. Who once raised and bred Mastiff’s. How perfect is that? So while Aunt Penny was here last weekend, we called her daughter who was very excited and wanted him right away. When I asked if she wanted to ask her husband before saying yes, I heard her say, “we’re getting a dog, ok?” Thankfully he was good with it too. They have a huge fenced in yard with plenty of space for Griffin to play and get all that energy out.
She does live about 6 hours away, but that’s a much shorter trip than Washington state! My Mom will have the kids this weekend, and Zale will be busy with his mock court trial team at their state competition. Dad and I had already talked about hanging out anyway, so we decided why not do it on the road? Friday afternoon we’re heading to Arkansas with Griffin to introduce him to his new family. I’m excited for them and for Griffin since he’s going to have so much more freedom to run. But I will miss him.
Dad called yesterday and “suggested” that I take griffin on short car rides between then and Friday to get him use to being in the car. I say “suggested”, because his exact words were, “I have a mission for you.” Those words usually scare me just a bit. But it was a good idea. Until yesterday he had only been in our Suburban if we took him anywhere with us. And the car is not his favorite place to be.
So last night I figured I’d take Griffin to get gas, just to have somewhere to go. He whined a bit and stood with his front paws in the passenger seat, with his back legs in the back seat of our older Infiniti sedan. Yep, he’s that big. I open the door to get out at the gas station, and before I could stop him, he was out the door. Thankfully I had left his leash hooked up to his gentle leader (not as tight as a muzzle, but keeps him from pulling us down the street), so I was able to grab that before he got away. I figured it would be easier to just let him stay out with me while I pumped gas, than try to force him back into the car. He wasn’t real comfortable with any of it, but he did ok. From there I called my best friend, Kim to see if I could come over for a minute so she could see Griffin while we still have him. They have a lab and a cat, that Griffin did ok with. He was a hit with Kim and her daughter Molly, as he is with most people.
As I type Griffin is whining and pawing at the front door to go out. Even thought I just took him out half an hour ago. Right about now is where a fence would come in very handy!!!
Yesterday I was still sore from playing racquetball last Saturday. But that didn’t stop me from wanting to play. Since it was just me and Dad, I didn’t have the safety net of Penny to lean on. Without her, not only do I get a lesson in racquetball, but I also get a work out. Push ups (just a few), running, stretching, you get the idea. Did I mention running? I am not a runner, never have been. But several times, due to bad shots, we’d stop hitting the ball and run around the court. Oh joy!
Neither of us left the court without injury. Thankfully nothing major or anything that will prevent us from playing again soon. In fact, Dad has a game tonight. I am very grateful to be playing again. It’s so nice to get a good work out!
Today started out pretty early for me. I agreed to meet Dad in East Nashville this morning at 8:15. That’s actually REALLY early for me to be out and about, but it was ok. After we finished up some business we went back to his house to do some cleaning since Aunt Penny was on her way to visit. We started cleaning, but decided we’d eat first and clean later. So off to lunch we go. Penny made it in shortly after we got back from lunch. After a little bit of catching up it was time to get to the racquetball court. And here’s where things got really good.
I don’t think I did too badly, especially considering how long it had been since I’ve “played”. For the most part we just hit the ball around, but with about 10 minutes left in the hour Dad decided we should play a short game. Penny and I against Dad. She and I actually won! It was great. Yes I know, two of us against one of him, but I’ll take it! Most of the time I didn’t have a clue what was going on. Thankfully they kept score. I managed a few points, but they usually had to tell me when I made one. We laughed more than anything and I honestly can’t wait to get back on the court. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I started hitting the ball again.
After racquetball I raced home to get ready to go to church. Which was great, good lesson, good music, and great friends. Then back to our house for pizza, dirt cake, and more fun. I’m pretty exhausted, but enjoyed every minute to today!! Thanks Penny for making the drive, thanks Zale for taking care of the kids most of the day while I played, and thanks Dad for lunch, dinner, and just a great day! Love you all!!!!
Oh yea, one thing I should probably mention, this morning Dad and I met up with a friend of Leeanna’s (Dad’s girlfriend’s daughter). I guess she didn’t hear when Dad introduced me as his daughter, so a minute later she asked if I was Leeanna’s Mom. This is the 2nd time that’s happened. Leeanna is 22 or 23, I’m 35. As a teenager I thought it was cool when someone thought I was older than I really was. Not so much anymore! I think she also assumed Dad and I were married instead of Father / Daughter. We get that a lot too. But I’m pretty sure I could comfortably go the rest of my life without anyone else thinking I’m old enough to be Leeanna’s Mom! Big sister, sure. Mom, I’d rather not.
