Goodbye Sophia

Well we finally found her a home. A place we never even tried, my brothers. She will hopefully have a good home. I will occanisonally get to see her. But most of all after more than 20 years of having a dog I am free. No more dogs, no more pets, just my fish, which is fine with me.

Here is her story. I have a 5 year old pure chocolate lab that I can no longer keep. Her name is Sophia. She is a good dog with a rough start and happy middle and now I am hoping for a better end. We in fact had rescued her. She was born July 5 2002 and gave to a girl I worked with as a present for her brand new baby. This girl could not take care of her baby let alone a dog and a hyper lab puppy to boot. She lived in an apartment and they did not allow pets so she kept the puppy outside in a small cat carrier. The puppy had to eat, poop, pee and play in there. Then when winter hit, with all the terrible blizzards we had in 2002 the pup was still left in this same carrier. That is when I found out about her. My husband and I who were owners of a golden retriever ran and got this cute dog. When we found her, she was in the before mentioned carrier with pee and water frozen to the bottom. We took her home and she has been with us since. We love the dog and have had a great time with her but as we are also parents now of two toddlers and just don’t have the time she deserves. She is a good mannered dog. She does not beg at the table, nor eat table scraps. She does jump and get excited when people come over. She enjoys laying around outside on warm days but does not care to be outside in the cold. She would not be a good dog to keep outside in a kennel. She is of course house broken. My children are far too hard on her which is another reason we have come to this decision. We have tried to find good people to take her but no one wants a big dog.

Snow Much Fun

We have had a lot of late snows this year. Our last one was Easter weekend. Wheres spring?

The slide is full of snow and Gregory sees it as a perfest oppertunity.

To clear it.

Baby it cold outside.

6 Pounds

6 pounds may not seem like a lot. In fact in would seem to be an accomplishment in preemies. But 6 pounds on a lady nearing 30 is by far no accomplishment. This past, so far past, month of March i have gained 6 pounds. I am not pregnant either. It has been birthday season. Mine, DH's, baby's, SIL's x2, father, FIL, friends, nieces anyone who could have a birthday and cake in March is. And I am showing no self restraint let alone no loss in pounds which has added to my 6 pound march gain.

I don't mind working out. I love to walk and want to be a runner but I hate floor exercises. And that seems to be where I am heading. Ugh...at least the cake, pie tarts and cupcakes were really good.

Gregory's Terrarium

My son is so special in so many ways. He is talented and intuitive. He is a joy to be around and I am so privileged to call him my son and my buddy. Living in rural Pennsylvania we have a lot of different opportunities, different sites and different experiences. His life and education is different than mine was. As I grew up mostly in Washington DC, I spent the other years of my life moving from other big cities such as Seattle, Los Angles, Houston and Oslo, Norway. His life holds some of the stable factors of my life by the fact we express and share our faith with him, my parents are involved with both children every week and the has a place to call home.

As I said I am now in rural Pennsylvania, Amish country. The Amish have great traditions, skills and knowledge. One thing they are good in and I am oh so far from good in is gardening. It does not matter if it is a house plant or a farm, if it stays with me it will die. I feel so bad for the fate of the flowers and fish, but that's another story, that enter our home. One day at our local country market I saw a sign for a gardening workshop. I hurried up and signed up. Who could teach me better than the Mennonites. There gardens and plants are BEAUTIFUL! In fact in the spring and summer our downtown is adorned in the most sensational hanging baskets overflowing with rainbows of flowers.

At this gardening workshop they were teaching you how to make a terrarium. That sounded great. So I told my buddy we were going to do something special just him and I. Some time for just us. I circled the day on the calender and we both anxiously awaited for it to come. Finally it was here!

The workshop was great. He did it all on his own. He scooped in the gravel. Laid the charcoal piled in the dirt and picked out his own flowers to put in there. It was all him. I just sat back and was amazed how big he is and all he can do. All we can to together. He made a great terrarium that has been sitting on our kitchen table for a month now and I am so pleased to say with no dead flowers!

I love my buddy and I love to do things with him.

Buzz Lightyear

Gregory loves Disney. He has never been to Disney World or Land, although we do have tickets. We are still trying to save up enough money for the airfare, food and splurges we will love to indulge in. I can't wait to take the boys and my husband who has somehow made it 41 years with out ever going. For valentines day DH bought Gregory a big buzz light year and he loved it. Nothing is sweeter than a boy sound asleep with a favorite toy.

Stop!

That is the name of the game, STOP SPENDING $$$$$! Usually we are not to bad about frivolous spending or extravagant spending but not lately. We are spending way to much money on big ticket items, although I love them we really shouldn't have. We are spending to much money on eating out. There is not one day a week I don't eat out. But I do work at a restaurant. However the days I am off my family wants to go out to eat. Once a week my folks come up and they also want to go out to eat. We once evaluated the cost of the 6 of us eating here or going out to eat and it was around the same amount of money for all of us to go out and have everything done for us as it was to eat here and buy all the ingredients. But I think I will re-look at those numbers.

So I am putting a stop to it. The flow of money is going to be redirected. It is going to switch streams from going out of our pockets and go into the house and savings.