We got a new dog!

I'm not really sure how I feel about it. It's one more thing to take care of. But Grace has been wanting one for a loooooooong time. My sister has miniature schnauzers and bred hers towards the end of the year and was having trouble selling the puppies so she tried to give Grace one for Christmas - but after reading up on them, and seeing how high maintenance they were - I turned her down. (though it was a generous offer! She was selling th em for like 4 or 500 bucks!)

Well, Steve has a couple friends that had this miniature pinscher and they were looking for a new home for her. (they also have 2 boxers and felt they had too many dogs at this point - I think boxers will do that to you! LOL!) So steve thought it would be a good idea for Grace. I had already been saying IF we got a dog, it had to be small (we don't have a fenced yard and I wanted an indoor dog and we have a small house!), I didn't want a puppy (I didn't want the hyperness or all that training and chewing and stuff to go thru) and it had to be a LOW maintenance dog. Well - this seems to be it. She's already trained - we take her out every few hours to do her business and no accidents in the house (YAY). She doesn't bark (much - she's done it a couple times but she's getting used to the sounds in the house - she didn't really even bark on her walks). She's not terribly hyper. And she won't be high maintenance w/ grooming or very particular diets (though I guess they can be prone to overeating if you aren't careful).

She's pretty cute - looks just like a mini dobie (though I found out they are actually related to terriers and not dobermans at all! interesting!). Follows me everywhere. Lays in my lap when I'm still. Very inquisitive. Though I hve found I don't clean my floors as well as I should - she eats whatever she finds down there! It's like having a toddler again! lol! And it's funny b/c she doesn't really do tricks - like sit, lie down or anything - unless you have treats for her. And you can't SAY treats b/c she knows the word. If you say it - she comes right to you, and sits down and looks so pitiful as she's hoping for a goodie. I was on the phone w/ my sister a minute ago and I think they said it on the radio or something b/c all of a sudden she turned around from what she was doing and looked at me and sat down begging and even lifted her one leg after I didn't give her a treat right away! It was so funny! (I didn't give her a treat though - b/c I'm SO going to break that habit! Treats are okay b/c I'm not going to be worried about saying a WORD and her begging. geez!)

Sleeping last night was hard bc it was new to her. Apparently before - they just told her to "go to your room" and she'd go to her crate or lie down on her bed and go to sleep when they did. But it didn't work for us. She paced and whined for over an hour after we went to bed. (and apparently sometimes she'd sleep w/ their teen daughter and we SO aren't having that - no sleeping in OUR bed!) But she finally settled down somewhere. OH - and after Tony went to bed (he was the last of the kids to go) she spent an HOUR staring at his room, being tense and growling and low barking from time to time. SOMETHING had her upset and it happened when Tony went to bed! It was so weird! We'll see if it happens again tonight.

Ah - the joys of having a new doggie.

Welcome to the New Year!

Lots of things have been happening since I last blogged. So it's another blog in pictures.

T is now playing basketball - instead of football. They are currently doing very well. He's on the B team again but that's okay. The coach has VERY quickly whipped them into a stomping good team! And T has improved SO much! He's gone from being unconfident and unsure and gangly to very confident and knowing the plays and calling them out - and a skilled player. His coach says to watch out down the line - he'll be a force to be reckoned with! (I think it also helps that he's the tallest and those long arms are GREAT for rebounds! One of the last games he was defensive player of the game! WOOT!)


Winning 3rd place in a championship playoff


G had a school choir/play/performance. She was very cute and good. The performance was a hoot! She's also a very talented artist and is always drawing me pictures. I really should take some pics of her pics to post. I have stacks of her pics saved hoping one day she'll be famous! heehee! G recently hurt her knee and we're not sure what's going on there. The doc put her in a knee immobilizing brace for a few weeks while they are out of school - and no bikes/scooters/dance/etc. But you just can't keep that girl down! She finally got tired of the brace a few days back and went w/out it for probably 2 days and her knee started hurting again. I thought it had gotten better. Dang. My dad says when he was a kid - he had "osgood-schlatter syndrome" which affects the patellar tendon - and is supposed to be something kids will grow out of. Part of me hopes is something simple like this but at the same time not this - b/c I don't know how she will play sports or dance or just be the active kid she is. But we go back on the 5th to the orthopedist and we shall see what he says. Regardless - she'll be bouncing off the walls I think no matter what you do!


D had a great bday party w/ 7 of his friends (and his brother). They all came to the house and had a dungeouns and dragons gettogether. For SIX hours. They ate tons of food and had lots of fun - but it was nice b/c they mostly stayed in his bedroom playing. And it's a quiet (for the most part) game - not rambunctious. Which is important since we live in a tiny house and that was 7 extra people here! LOL! He was very happy! He got lots of cool D&D stuff for his bday too. I can't believe his is 15 now though. It makes me sad to think about my kids growing up so fast. He is also almost done w/ his first semester in high school. And is doing pretty good. He's struggling some in spanish but it's a dual credit class - a COLLEGE level spanish class. So if he gets a C in there, I'm okay with that! He's loving theater. He got to participate in a disaster drill where he was covered in goo and wounds participated as a victim while the disaster team came to rescue and run their codes and what not. He got to go about the rest of school w/ his wounds on him. He loved it!



Christmas has come and gone - not a lot of fanfare there. We kept is small and focused on family and what Christmas means. I ended up not working that night too - getting cancelled was a nice gift!

December has been a very difficult month for me physically with lots of back and joint pain. Some days to the point of not being able to move or walk. My meds have changed and things are gradually getting better but I'm on meds that I didn't want to be on. So far my immune system is holding up and that's a good thing. I'm gradually decreasing my steroids and we'll see how that goes. If the meds don't work after a few months - I'm still struggling - I'll go on Embrel or some other biologic. I'm also considering another rheumatologist - at least for another look see, another opinion. I am back at work - I did have to call in (again) before Christmas. I go back tonight and tomorrow. But then I drop my days again - to only working 1-4 days a month. I'm hopeful that will stll help us financially enough, but not hurt me physically. And over time - maybe I can get strong enough (w/ the new meds - or the next meds!) to getting my life back! I'm very hopeful with this new year! (Plus I read that they have isolated 2 other genes associated w/ the spondyloarthropathies - and I'm HLAB27 negative. I'm curious if they are testing for the other 2 genes or when they will start testing. I wonder what my status is there. But they are coming up w/ new drugs that focus on those genes. Exciting stuff!)

Steve is working his business! This is the year we plan to get very aggressive with it and hopefully grow it significantly. With my time off - I'll work on his files and accounting and trying to help him w/ shipping and packaging and what not. But I'm very proud of him. He's extremely creative with his ideas and w/out barely any effort at all - the customers just seem to flock to him. So if we actually advertized and marketed - I can imagine things would really take off!

Back in November we went to a park and took some family pics. We only had about 15 minutes b/c I forgot to charge the battery! And I wasn't impressed enough w/ any of them to make cards out of them - but here's some I did like.

My favorite G face






Me and my honey


My FAVE one of the guys! It's offcenter which I HATED but it's just so representative of the laughter that takes place in our familY!

The post in pictures

A funny from Grace's bday - Tony being silly w/ Grace


Also on her bday - the walk for diabetes:
Excited!


Me - in lights! (or rather the sun, yikes!)


Grace needs to brush her teeth more often!


Pics from one of Tony's last football games:
I thought this was a funny shot


Thirsty


Then yesterday we took Grace to the B's house to ride horses. She doesn't know how - so Bro B was showing her. She had a fun time!










Sister B w/ one of the horses:




The sunset over the pond and thru the trees






The B's dragon

November 4 - a day in history

It was the day: The 7th grade football B team became district CHAMPS!!!! YAY!!!! GO middle child o' mine!!!!! (I really need to upload some pics but who has time??) They remained UNDEFEATED this season! And it's his FIRST year playing football! The funny thing is the 7th grade A team hasn't won a game. And up until this week (we don't know about this week - which is why I'm not including it) the 8th grade A AND B teams hadn't even been able to score ANY touchdowns! So YOU GO 7th grade ****B**** team!!!! You ROCK! (and T doesn't think he wants to play next year - lol! He wanted to try it out - and he did! Now we're going on to basketball and tennis - though I may limit him to just ONE - not both)



Oh - yeah - the other thing that happened on the 4th - America may have "lost" that day. Obama became president elect. I'm less than thrilled to say the least. They say it's a historic moment b/c he's the first black president - and it's huge. (but wasn't Bill Clinton the first black president? Didn't he tell us that??? LOL!) But see - I thought that the dream that Martin Luther King Jr had was based on the black man getting ahead based on skill and his mind and ability, not b/c of race. At the time he was held back b/c of race. Now we've elected a president b/c of his race. Race was a HUGE issue in this election - and it became so due in large part thanks to Obama himself. Whites were made to have this "white guilt" if we didn't want to vote for him. People were attacked and called racist. We're a racist nation if we don't elect a black president. How is he elected based on ability, skill, ideals? We have a man that has questionable terrorist ties, associations w/ a reverse racist pastor, voter fraud, real estate fraud, socialist policy ideals, etc. (and people were concerned b/c Palin was connected w/ large shopping bills? Or b/c now of infighting in the party and "he said/she said" moments based on geography and such making her look ditzy? I'd rather have a ditzy VEEP than a socialist/terrorist-loving pres - but hey, that's just me.) He wants to take away our freedoms. He SAYS he's bipartisan and he'll bring the country together.

Now it's 3 days later - and his chief of staff is R. Emmanuel - a Republican HATER (telling Rs to go {blank} themselves). He's came from Chicago politics - which is about as corrupt as you can get - and now he's bringing that to the white house.

The Dems want to re-enact the Fairness Doctrine - so the news media has to present a "fair and balanced" story to the public. Who determines if it's "fair and balanced"? It's a way to get rid of the conservative media is what it is.



I'm trying to be hopeful in the new guy. I'm trying to be prayerful for our nation. but it's very hard knowing what our prophets of old have prophesied for our times. And wondering if this is when things REALLY start to happen? You know - the communists have long sighted visions - they don't make decisions based on NOW or even just a few years from now. They look WAY WAY WAY down the road. And the Russsians, even back in the 60's - were determined to take down America. And they weren't goign to do it with force. They vowed to destroy us from the inside. And that's exactly what is happening. We need to be a unified nation - but how do I stand behind a man I don't trust or believe in?

The dad is reading an article on the making of a fuehrer - and how hitler came to power (not his massacre history but his rise to power); and Iran's leader Khomeini. Here's the link if your interested.

Gotta run - or rather walk - it's the Walk for Diabetes day!

Btw - LOVE the wii fit!!!!

Jealous much???

We got a wii fit! na na na na na na! plbtttttt!!!! LOL! We went to walmart today for groceries and other things (I really don't like walmart but it's the only regular store we have so we needed regular stuff - AND groceries - hence the 2 birds, 1 stone trip). Dad and D man happened to see it! They put it under a hoodie that D was getting. I went to rearrange the cart before we hit the grocery aisles - and THERE IT WAS! I jumped on dh and was smooching on him! ahhhhhhh! What a find! Merry Christmas to us early!!!!!!

Dad got called to jury duty. This is his SECOND time this year! I have NEVER EVER EVER been called to jury duty! And I'd lurve to be called! First, I think it's an awesome thing to do - you know, your civic duty and all that. I really do! And I do think I can totally be un/non-biased in a trial. I'm not a hang-em jane kind of gal. I do think I can look at both sides of a case and be fair. But the other reason - I'm SO nosey! I LOVE to know the details of things! I'd just love to sit on a juicy trial and just KNOW what happened! Isn't that awful of me???

So dh gets called and goes today. They are told they'll get divided between county court and circuit court - and he's thinking "oh no, not county court. I want circuit court!" Cuz county court - you know, a bunch of teenagers doing stupid stuff or really non-interesting cases or whatever. So - where do they take him? To county court. Bummer! But! The judge comes in and says all the cases for that day plead (pleaded? Pled? what is the right grammer on that???? He said she said "plead") out. But WAIT! A court on the other side has a big trial and so they are all being herded there cuz they need all the extra jurors. So that's where they go. And it's CIRCUIT court! So dh is THRILLED! A felony! SOmething interesting! (not good that it's a felony - boo on criminals but you know, if you're going to be on a jury, might as well be interesting, right? We're strange, we know it. I read too many crime novels - lol)

THEN - he made it thru todays rounds and gets to go back TOMORROW for round 2! I'm SO jealous! I've never been picked and he gets to go twice in a year and now it's possibly and a really interesting case! (I mean, it could be embellezing or something tax related or even something way above our heads that's cmpletely boring but still way way wrong on the law books but STILL! Way better than jury-ing a traffic ticket or somethign! LOL!) How interesting and kinda cool is that??? I'm way jealous!!!!



OH - and now - we just played w/ the wii fit - and my wii fit age is........ (duh duh duh) ***28***!!!! Like EIGHT years YOUNGER than my real age! How about THAT? NOW are ya jealous much??? HUH? HUH???? lol! (I wonder what I'd be on a bad joint/sore body day?! ROFL!)

Conversation w/ the kids in the car

We've talked a lot about politics in the last few months. "Change" and "Hope" looks like will most likely win, which is scary. We're not thrilled w/ the idea of socialism or communism. You know back in the 60's a young man had political aspirations and preached "change" and "hope" and was people really liked him. No one bothered to question his associations, or what "change" or what to "hope" for. The media really got behind him. the people supported him. He won the election as leader of his country. In a matter of months, the people were all destitute and unable to fight it. That leader was Fidel Castro. I do *not* like this "redistribution" of wealth plan of his. SCARY! So we've talked w/ the kids about it a lot. Tried to share w/ them what it all means. Here's an example.

G lost her tooth today.

G: "I hope the tooth fairy brings me twenty dollars!"
me: "$20? In this economy? Right. Like it hasn't affected the tooth fairy too!"
middle boy: "well, she doesn't drive, she flies - so she's not affected by gas prices."
oldest boy: "If she gives $20, I'm gonna punch her! I never got $20!"
me: "Well, if she gives $20, it won't be real money! haha! It'll be *change* (laugh from everyone)"
dad: "yeah, she's gotta start giving money to people that don't have teeth anymore now, even people with dentures."
me: "People that didn't lose their teeth get to get money G. You did that work of pulling your tooth out yourself, but people that didn't do anything get that benefit of having the tooth fairy bring them money too."
dad: "You'll be lucky to get a couple pennies."
G: "I hate this!"

Hubby was talking about the voters. How some people are voting for BO b/c he's black. Some people are voting for JM b/c BO is black. (gotta love the racism this has brought out as well as what has been injected into this, even BY the candidate. JMO though) But there are some uneducated people out there that are voting for BO b/c they have been told if they do, they get a "free pony". Unfortunately, we probably won't have enough ponies to go around. Are we prepared for that?


On a totally different note - I drove home from work this AM and passed a gas station and it was 1.98/gal! WOOHOO! Haven't seen that in forEVER! The sad thing is, it's all part of the election. Once it's over, the prices will go back up, even if it's just a little. Then next summer, we'll be back over 4/gal I'm sure. But this time last year we were 2.30-2.40. Last month we were 2.70-2.80s (at some points even higher post Ike). Last week it was from 2.30s Friday when I left for San Antonio for TOFW.

Downer

I haven't posted anything about Ike and I really need to do that. But I don't have time right now. I hope to get pics up but can't do that right now either. I have TONS. Unfortunately it's on MY computer - which crashed yesterday from a power spike. (that's what happens when the power comes back on like they are doing it - from all the damage - you run the risk of power surges and spikes) So my motherboard took a hit. Hopeful my harddrive is still okay. But it means getting another computer that we can't afford. And it's not enough to claim on hte insurance b/c it's less than our personal property deductable. And I doubt PEMA will cover it.

Our insurance adjuster will be out tomorrow. We filed I think 4 days (??) after the storm hit. It took forever getting thru by phone and once our agent opened her office (she still didn't have power), we went to her and filed. THat would have been Sept 16. Looking forward but also dreading him coming out. We're still waiting on a FEMA person to get w/ us on our claim there. (I JUST filed on Monday so it will be awhile - which is good b/c I need my insurance claim done)

We are so far in debt right now - from fixing the roof and the electrical stuff; buying gas for a week on the generator; having to feed 6 people in a way we're not used to eating (we did eat out quite a bit once the restaurants opened up - just to get some air conditioning, I'll admit that! And a change of pace!) - and then restocking our ENTIRE freezer and meat supply that was lost from all this. Lost wages for Steve. (which I know are claimable but how long til it shows up??)

My body is KILLING me again. I had to go off my meds b/c I swear I was getting an ulcer. I would curl up in a ball and just cry b/c my stomach hurt so badly. And it just started a couple months previous - and it was getting worse and worse. We tried prevacid, and cutting back on my meds but it wasn't working. SO we cut out my meds altogether to see if that was causing it. After about a week or 2 - and it gradually getting better - less and less episodes, now it's virtually gone. But my joints are on fire again. And every day it's worse. I'm back to being an old lady again. I'm thinking of quitting my job. I feel like crying today - it's such a downer day. (I did cry last night to Steve. The finances building up - him telling me to just quit, we'll deal w/ the finances later but how do you just quit and not worry about how to pay the bills? It doesn't make SENSE!)

Well, I didn't expect to write much at all - except to say - I can't update about Ike yet b/c my computer crashed! And look what I wrote! I need to write something. And then update w/ pictures later I suppose. But now it's time to get the kids. I hate Steve's computer b/c I can't read what I'm writing - he has it set so the text is so small! I need my granny glasses. Ugh. I'll write more eventually.