update on the shelter dogs

well, I am glad to report that Zeus is just fine now. 2 days of muscle relaxers and he is now back to his old "Zeusinator" self. Thank goodness! Grace's eye is still messed up, but I am giving her some antibiotic eye drops that are helping clear it all up. Thank goodness we have already been through all this stuff before and have extra meds for the doggies leftover. I sure couldn't afford a trip to the vet right now!

My brother is in town, and we went over to my Mom and Dad's tonight and had dinner with him, his girlfriend and some of my parents friends. We had a great time. My mother is NOTORIOUS for keeping things in her fridge that have long expired.... it is a pet peeve of mine... you can't open her refrigerator and find anything.... it is packed to the brim with stuff. I have to say she is a bit of a packrat.... but she is trying to do better. Anyways.... the boys found some expired egg nogg in there, some jokes were made about betting they couldn't drink the egg nogg and hold it down. A few minutes later and $40 on the table, we were all out back watching my boys drink expired egg nogg. Now before anyone goes freaking out, the egg nogg hadn't even been opened and smelled fine, I made sure of that first. Needless to say, we had a lot of laughs and the boys came out $20 richer. We really had a good time..... family, isn't that what life is all about!?

Garrett is now at a slumber party.... but boys don't call it that, they are "sleepovers". Blaine is at a friends. Robert and his brother went to watch the UFC fight at a sports bar... I am sitting here alone with my shelter dog misfits enjoying the hum of the washing machine.

And Blaine's room smells great after all the kids left and I sprayed some odor neutralizer! :-)

FIVE THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR:
1. A family that I can spend time with, laugh with, and that we enjoy each others company.
2. That my dogs are all better.
3. Peace and quiet... it's a rarity but it is nice when I can get it.
4. Warm weather today (it was 20 on Wednesday and today I had to run the a/c in my car).
5. The wonderful pork tenderloin my Dad made for dinner tonight.

Welcome to Sharon's zoo

Welcome to Sharon's zoo of misfit shelter dogs..... that should be my blog title.

Last night was an eventful night as far as our dogs go. It all started with Zeus. He did something yesterday (pulled a muscle, stomach pain, SOMETHING) and started this horrific ear piercing screeching noise all of a sudden. You would have thought someone killed this poor dog. We all searched and none of us can find what is wrong with him. He is in pain, after doing research on the net, I am thinking he is having back pain. I gave him some little dog muscle relaxers and hoped I could get a good nights rest. NOT! That dog screeched and yelped allllll night long. I actually SLEPT from 3am to 5am, that is the longest he went without screeching. Bless his heart. In the middle of all that, Faith started his dry heaving coughing thing. Faith has horrible allergies and gets like this every once in a while. Immediately followed by Pixie making yacking noises. She is a breeder rescue and INHALES her food, resulting in this not so pleasant yacking sound when she is inhaling a whole piece of food. And I look over at Grace and she has scratched her eye on something (probably hiding from Zeus's blood curdling screams) and her eye is all watery and gooky. And all night, the 3 other dogs hid because they were terrified of what Zeus was doing.

Remind me again why I have FOUR DOGS? Oh yea, cuz I'm the crazy dog lady!!!!

We have kept Zeus on the puppy muscle relaxers and he seems to be doing better. He has a little spunk back, but still isn't 100%. If he isn't better by Monday, I'm going to have to take him to the vet. Poor little guy....

Went and visited Audrey yesterday on my lunch break. She looks great, is still in pain, but she was doing remarkably well. She is such a precious little girl!

Other than that.... nothing exciting going on. I have a house full of 5 teenage boys. I dare y'all to walk into that bedroom they are in without gagging. It is like testosterone is just permeating in the air when you get that many teenage boys together. As my saying goes.... living in a testosterone zone. Lord, PLEASE bring me a little girl and SOON.

FIVE THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR:
1. That it is Friday!
2. That my brother is in town and I am going to visit with him, my Mom and Dad tomorrow.
3. That my husband made brownies. My dinner tonight was a brownie and milk. YUMMMM. And nutritious!
4. That God keeps me strong through this oh-so-painful adoption process.
5. That I have 3 cans of air freshener..... Blaine's room is going to need it after tonight!

I love ice days!

I haven't blogged in a week... been in an extreme FUNK lately. So I figured it was time to find something else to do with my time other than sit around feeling sorry for myself.

Monday I spent the day and evening at Children's Hospital with my dear friend Sabrina and her daughter Audrey. Audrey was born with bilateral cleft lip and palate. She had her first surgery when she was 4 months old, and this surgery at 18 months was her second. This surgery they worked on her hard palate and released her nose so that it wasn't pulled so tight. She did great in the surgery and for the first few hours after recovery. Now she is in pain, can only have fluids to drink (no eating) and her arms are in "no-no's" to keep her from touching her face. To fix the hard palate, they go in and put sutures in and pull her palate taught (like shoelaces in a shoe), stretching her palate until it is almost closed, resulting in extreme pain where the palate has been stretched. She is such a trooper, such a sweet little girl, and I am praying for a quick recovery.

Tuesday I went to work and waited for the ice/sleet to hit. Thank goodness it didn't hit until I got home from work. Tuesday night we heard all these sirens in our neighborhood. The guys were watching a horror movie (I HATE those!) and the internet was down.... so me being the nosey person I am, had to go investigate. Blaine being the trooper that he is, went with me. It ended up being a house fire. State troopers had the street blocked off, police galore, 4 fire trucks out front, more out back we couldn't count how many, nearby town's fire departments responded. So Blaine and I stood out in the 20 degree weather, in the rain and sleet (along with about 50 other people from the neighborhood) and watched the firefighters at work. I was in my pink fluffy pajamas, so we had to get out of there before the newspaper photographers showed up. Prayers going out to that family that endured this fire.

Today I woke up at 6 am to a text from the school that school was closed. HALLELUJAH! I love (I MEAN LOOOOVVVVEEEE ) ice days. It is like an extra vacation day from God. And a day that you can't leave the house to run errands, take the kids to do anything.... just watch tv, chill by the fire, and do things around the house. I cleaned this weekend, so I absolutely took advantage of being lazy today. I slept off and on until noon (and soooo needed it, haven't been sleeping well), watched a Chris Farley movie, am watching Oprah now.... I thank you Lord for this nice day off!

This week we have been picking out classes for my soon to be FRESHMAN and JUNIOR. (where does the time go?) I blogged before that I am TRYING to get Garrett to take some Pre-AP classes next year.... guess what? He was recommended to take Pre-AP Social Studies next year and HE WANTS TO! (doing the happy dance over here!) And he signed up for a soccer club at school, they meet on Wednesdays after school. I want Garrett to take a few more Pre-AP classes and am going to continue working on that one. Garrett is wanting to take FRENCH as his second language... and I am sure it has to do with "the ladies". :-) Blaine is working on his "Distinguished" graduation plan and everything is looking good for that. Next year he will start taking AP classes, he has met all his Pre-AP requirements this year. I am so proud of my boys.... when I was in high school, I did the very MINIMUM required to graduate (and barely did so). My boys are striving to achieve things I never did, and I am so proud of them. We are talking about colleges with both boys, Blaine has a few picked out. My boss is helping me with the process... since I never went to college, I have no idea where to start and he has been a huge blessing with that part of it.

Other than that, it has been the same ol' same ol'. I am still in an adoption funk... but continue to read "my revelation" to remind me why I am still doing this. So far it has helped.... but some days I just can't help but being grouchy about it.

Well, off to watch Oprah.... if you read this far, thank you... I had a lot of rambling to do!

not too chatty tonight

it is 11:00 and I need to get to bed. Just wanted to type a few things.

OBAMA TSHIRTS...... At lunch a co-worker and I went and ran some errands today. One of the shops we were in had Obama tshirts on the racks. Y'all, I was shocked. "Obama is my homeboy".... "Save the drama for Obama".... those were the 2 that stuck out in my mind. REALLY? Do people think wearing Obama is my homeboy tshirts is what he is all about? I don't know why but those shirts really bothered me. NOT because I dislike Obama. But because of the message it sends.... Obama has worked really hard to get where he is... and I DOUBT he wants to be your homeboy buddy! Am I missing the humor in this? Now you want to wear a shirt that says Obama HOPE (that was on a flag I saw flying at a house outside my office today)... then that is ok.... wear it all you want! I am all for supporting someone you believe in. But OBAMA IS MY HOMEBOY!? Come on...

I am in a crappy, I WANT THE PHONE TO RING MOOD today... so I won't bore y'all with that. It comes and goes in cycles. Tonight I am just irritated that we haven't gotten a call that has resulted in a placement for us. And damned tired of waiting to be honest!

And we meet our umpteenth caseworker tomorrow.... so wish me luck! I didn't even clean the house tonight. I am sooooooo over the white glove test for every new caseworker we get. As a matter of fact, I didn't even vacuum the floors!!!!! (I know, I'm a rebel! haha)

FIVE THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR:
1. My husband.... he is awesome!
2. A beautiful sunny day, in the 70's!
3. Dove chocolate...
4. That Blaine figured out how to get in his car today when he locked his keys in his car AGAIN. And I sure wish I could have recorded that 6'4" young man crawling through the hatchback of his little bitty sports car to get to the keys in the ignition!
5. Diet coke.... I can not live a day without my diet coke!

just my rambling about the inauguration

I didn't get to watch most of the inauguration because I was at work. But I did catch the end of it. I have to say, I got a little teary eyed watching Bush fly away today. I will be the first to say, I am not very smart when it comes to politics(unlike my friend Mel, she ROCKS when it comes to politics!). But watching him fly over the horizon onto a new chapter in his life, I had tears welling up in my eyes. I don't agree with a lot that Bush has done as President. But I DO believe he did the best he could, and made the decisions he thought were right. He made some tough decisions, and faced a lot of adversity during his terms as President. And it was a bittersweet day for me to see him go. And I wonder.... did Mrs. Bush get on that helicopter and kick her shoes off and sigh a HUGE sigh of relief? I picture them sitting on the helicopter looking at each other, not saying a word like old married couples do, and smiling, both a little relieved this chapter in their life is complete.

Now we move on to a new chapter. Let me just say, I am not an Obama fan. I think he is a good speaker and has a lovely family, but that is about all I am impressed with. I hope he proves me wrong.... President Obama has his work cut out for him, and I wish him the best. Our country needs a lot of help, and I just pray that he is the one to start the process to change our country for the better. I don't think one President can fix our country, but it has to start somewhere. We didn't get in this condition overnight and it won't be fixed overnight.

I ask that each of you reading this... I ask that you pray for our country and for our President every single day. Obama has his work cut out for him, and I pray for his guidance, strength and wisdom as he leads our country from this day forward.

FIVE THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR:
1. Coupons! I have saved $95 since Friday in coupons.
2. That my boss let us off work early yesterday.
3. That Blaine is finding a social life and staying busy with school activities and church.
4. That Garrett MIGHT have all A's and B's on his report card (still waiting on one class grade before we know for sure).
5. That Erin got her snow day she wanted!

Taking time to rest

This has been a crazy week, and I knew I was exhausted.... I finally got my sleep late day today, I slept until after 10! I haven't done that in FOREVER! I had so much I wanted to do today. I wanted to wash my car, take the boys to a place here in town and take their pics, clean out the hall closet, sew my dining room curtains since my makeshift velcro things I used to keep them together keep coming undone, wanted to take the boys to the movies tonight, sign Gar bear up for soccer, go to Hobby Lobby to get thread to sew a few projects....

You know what I did today? I had Blaine go wash my car (he is so sweet) and I sat my butt on the couch watching movies ALL day. I did one load of laundry, washed the living room curtains and took a nice hot soaking bath. But other than that... I have done nothing.

I knew I was worn out from the week.... but it wasn't until today that I realized just HOW worn out I was.

FIVE THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR:
1. Hubby and me having a quiet night together last night
2. Lazy Saturdays
3. Turtle fudge sundaes from Braum's (I am trying to telekinetically get that one to Robert so he'll go get me one)
4. That Blaine is not dating "that girl" anymore
5. A beautiful, sunshiney, winter day today... but warm enough I could open my windows and air out the house.

Will this week end?

Tonight was Garrett's poetry reading at a coffee shop here in town (I say Garrett's, it was the 7th and 8th grade drama students and Garrett was one of them). I was shocked at the amount of people that were there tonight! This is a small town, maybe 20 kids read poetry, but I bet there were 100 people crammed in that coffee shop! It was so neat to see! Garrett read 2 poems and got to do the closing. I was so proud. This child was in speech therapy from age 3 to 11. And the fact that he can get up and speak/perform in front of a large crowd just amazes me... certainly something I CAN'T do!

This week has been exhausting, I am so ready for the weekend!

FIVE THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR:
1. Watching my son recite poetry on stage in front of a large crowd.
2. That the week is ALMOST over.
3. The caramella coffee drink I had tonight that gave me just enough energy to make it through the evening.
4. For friends that love me, despite all my flaws.
5. Sleep late days... I am really longing for one of those right about now!