Self expression

As you probably know by now, I am a HUGE dog lover.  So much so that I have way too many dogs.  One of them is injured this week.  Jake has a lump on his back that has been there for years.  Every time we have him in for his annual shots they tell us it is nothing to worry about. 

This week it grew to probably 4 times its normal size and he has been in a lot of pain.  So hubby took him to the vet and had him examined.  The vet said that he has a tumor and we won't know what it is until we have it surgically removed.  So, we will have surgery on our baby and see what happens.  This brings lots of angst to me because these dogs are my children.  I talk to them, sing songs to them, make up songs for them, etc.  Stay tune for how I handle this as we go along.

But today's story is about a comical side effect of this current injured dog.  Because Jake is injured, I have been sleeping in the guest room with him to ensure that he doesn't get more hurt during the night.  The other dogs have remained in the master bedroom with hubby. 

When Jake was 2 years old, my family convinced me that we needed to get him a playmate.  So, we acquired another dashchund, Roxy.  For 9 years now Roxy has been Jake's 'girlfriend'.  If you ask Jake where his girlfriend is, he immediately goes and finds Roxy.  If Jake is growling at the other dogs and Roxy walks up, he immediately stops growling.  They are dog lifemates. 

So, to get to the point of this story...Roxy got upset with me last night because I had been taking her boyfriend away from her the last couple of nights.  She did everything she could to sleep with Jake and I last night.  But I wouldn't let her.  End of story, right? 

It is never the end of the story around here.  This morning I got up and took all the dogs out to potty.  I got coffee and went up to take a shower.  After I showered, I went back to the guest room to put my makeup on.  When I moved the covers back, a dog had peed on the bed.  Roxy was the only dog that wasn't in the room with me.  I called her in and asked her, 'Roxy, did you pee on my bed?' she wagged her tail and ran into the room.  I interpreted that to mean, 'why yes I did'. 

She continues to punish me this evening.  She jumps on the couch, wants me to raise the covers on the couch and she lays down.  Then she jumps down again.  Then she repeats this over and over and over and OVER!  We'll see what happens when bedtime comes tonight. 

How do you express yourself when you are unhappy with the situation?  Are you straightforward and address things head on or do you wait until someone leaves the room and pee where they sleep?  I hope that I am one that takes things head on.  But it gives me something to think about. 

Snow...again!

We got rid of all the snow a few weeks ago and the dogs and I threw a party.  But it was short lived.  It snowed again Thursday evening and now everything is covered with snow again.  We are back to freezing our rear ends off and forcing our pups to go outside. 

They tell me that it is not uncommon to have snow into April.  I did not see that when I moved here but I am preparing myself to see that this year.  When I accepted the move here last year, I came for a house hunting trip in early March.  There was snow on the ground then so having it now doesn't necessarily surprise me.  But it doesn't make me too happy. 

I look forward to spending time outside again.  I want to plant flowers in my flowerbeds.  I want to watch my dogs play in the yard.  I am doing the sun dance - if there is such a thing!

Where does the time go?

Oh my gosh, where does the time go?  I cannot believe that next week is the first of March.  It seems like I just packed up the Christmas decorations and now it is almost St. Patrick's Day. 

With the coming of March, I am entering my 12th month as a North Coast resident.  I have almost seen a full year of weather changes, a full year of activities, and had a full year of acclimating to my new role.  It has been a year of learning, playing, freezing, snowing and growing.  I am getting more comfortable at work daily.  I love that time when you finally feel like you have a clue what you are doing and don't need to ask as many questions. 

Take care!

What to do, what to do?

I went on a trip with my sister in January and we spent time talking and laughing.  One of the things we talked about was the future.  You know the conversation, what does the future hold, what do we want it to hold, how do you get to the future you want.

And, of course, that got me thinking.  I love my job, I love helping people.  But I think if my career was not an option, I would own a craft shop focused on beads and beadings classes.  I would have other artisans in - quilters, knitters, embroiderers - to showcase their work and have classes on their techniques.

I love antiques and have often thought about running an antique shop.  But I hate to part with antiques which would make selling them to others problematic.  Usually people that buy an antique want to take it home.  So, I think I would use antiques to display my wares in my shop. 

I would serve free coffee to the regulars, always have music playing and encourage people to come in and hang out.  They could practice their craft, visit with other crafters, and enjoy friendship and fellowship. 

I am getting a picture of the shop in my mind.  The question is what to do about that picture. 

Words from my Hubby

I have been sick this week.  Nothing serious, I will live.  However, my hubby told me today that he was glad that he heard me laugh today.  He said that is how he knows when I am really sick - I don't laugh, I don't give him any snappy comebacks and I don't have my normal voice.  It made me feel good to hear him say that.  I often accuse him of not paying any attention to me but then he says things like that and I know that he does. 

It is not the big things that make a relationship.  It is the little day to day events that warm your heart and make you happy. 

Winter Learnings

So, living in the frozen North for my first winter, I have learned a few things so far. 

1.  When it snows, they still expect you to show up to work.  Now what is that about??  My whole life has been in the South and when it snows you stay home!  It is a good plan, it works for everyone.  Not here.  2 inches of snow - go to work.  4 inches of snow - go to work.  6 inches of snow - go to work.  It isn't until you get into 12 + inches of snow that they consider not opening the business.  That just doesn't seem right to a southern girl.

2.  Snow blowing is hard work.  Let me be clear - I have learned this one by observation only!  My poor husband gets out and clears our driveway, our sidewalk and then the driveway and sidewalk of one of our neighbors.  By the end of that, he is frozen and exhausted.  One of the good by-products of this is that he has met all our neighbors.  I looked out our window one day and saw that some stranger was clearing our sidewalk.  I said to my husband, 'some man is clearing our sidewalk'.  He said, 'yeah that's Mike.  I cleared his this morning'.  I don't even know who Mike is and my husband has bonded and exchanged favors. 

3.  Small dogs do not like snow.  Take dogs with legs that are less than 4 inches long, add 6 or more inches of snow and you have a situation that requires you to FORCE the dogs to go outside.  You must stand at the door and ensure that they go outside.  Then you must watch them while continuing to say to them, 'you do your business'.  Now I am sure that our neighbors think I am crazy because you know they can hear me.  But if you don't watch them, the dogs will just turn around and come back in the house.  They then do their business inside and appear to feel perfectly justified in doing so.  They look at me as if to say, 'you moved me here, you can clean it up.'

4.  Snow is pretty when it falls but it is ugly when it stays around.  It gets dirty from all the car exhaust and looks nasty.  All the salt that is used to melt it so you don't kill yourself turns the pavement white, gets on the bottom of your pants, etc. 

They say that we are going to get temperatures in the 40s this coming week.  Maybe it will melt some of the snow and we can start over. 

Stay warm y'all!

Where have I been?

I have not done a great job on keeping up with this once my family got here!  But I don't want to let my blog die.  So, here I am again.

Griff and I went for a ride yesterday, we needed to get out of the house for a while.  We ended up at Port Clinton and saw that Lake Erie is mostly frozen - at least the part that we could see.  Kind of amazing that something as big as Lake Erie can freeze.  Now that is cold!!  Griff just kept saying how he coudn't believe it was frozen.  It is hard to believe how cold it has to be and for how long to freeze a lake, especially one as big as a great lake. 

Christmas was good yesterday.  We had lots of good presents.  We ate too much and both felt miserable afterwards.