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Bad Day Anyone?

Traveling is always fun…especially when you travel with the us! Each summer, I try to visit my parents in Colorado for a couple of weeks. So this particular trip I headed off with my usual crew consisting of my four youngest children, plus one of B-Boo’s friends. The van was packed full with a ton of suitcases, snacks, etc. We left behind hubby, who agreed to take care of the pets while we were gone. This included two snakes, 2 love birds, a rat and a hamster. The night before we left, we made sure to feed the snakes so that they’d be ok until we got back.

My parents live 12 hours from us. We head out very early in the morning and go as far as we can as fast as we can; which can take a while with small bladders and all of that. On this particular trip, we decided to stop in Farmington, New Mexico and pick up groceries at Sam’s Club. We called mom to find out what she wanted, finished shopping and headed outside; into the rain and to a very flat tire!

Luckily, we were in the same parking lot as Big O Tires…or not. They were closing in 10 minutes and it didn’t matter that I had purchased the tire from my local Big O, they refused to help. Frustrated and wondering how in the world I was going to get the tire off, fixed, back on and make it another two hours to mom’s…well, you get the picture! I was going to have to drag everything out of the van and try and figure it out! About that time, a gentleman came up to me and stated that all members of Sam’s Club get their tires fixed as a membership courtesy. I headed inside to talk to the tire people, who were busy at the moment. I waited and then spilled my story to the tire man who said that he wasn’t sure when he’d be able to help but to bring the tire in and he’d get someone to fix it. At this point, I lost it. Now, I don’t do that very often, but the thought of my groceries getting soaked, my kids sitting in the Sam’s parking lot, a flat tire and a long drive ahead finally did me in! On top of that, I’d tried to call dear hubby who was pretty short with me stating he couldn’t talk and hung up on me. Well!

Apparently my hysteria won the poor young man over, because he grabbed his tire stuff and followed me outside to the van. He took off the tire and told me to give him a few minutes and took the tire inside. By now, the kids were having fun coloring outside in the rain (ok, it was down to a sprinkle now) and so we waited.

See, now up to this point, you probably thought this story was about me, right? Nope! While we waited, I tried calling my hubby again. He answered the phone and listened patiently as I griped to him about what was going on and his ignoring me in my time of need. Then I let him talk. 🙂

Did I mention hubby was in a boot recovering from a torn Achilles tendon?  And that God has granted him enormous patience when it comes to putting up with his family and their pets?

Apparently he’d been standing at the back sliding door looking out in the yard when he felt something slither across his foot. He looked down to find the ball python had escaped from his cage and had made it’s way through the house, across his foot and into the backyard. Now I understand that most men would probably have said “Good Riddance” at this point, especially with a serious injury to their ankle; but not my man! He bravely spent the next 45 minutes chasing the python around our almost quarter acre back yard and even managed to capture her!  Then he had the patience to listen to me gripe about my problems and only when I was done did he ask how to lock the cage so the snake wouldn’t escape again! Now that’s what I call marriage!

About this time the tire guy came out with a fixed tire and even put it back on my van for me…and wouldn’t take a penny! I had the girls grab the groceries and help me get them loaded into the already overloaded van, at which point, B-Boo promptly dropped the berries on the ground, spilling them everywhere!

Did I mention I was having a bad day?

Some Moments You Just Never Forget

18 years ago my oldest son had his 3rd birthday. Over the years we’ve had many laughs over this  birthday. You see, this particular year he wanted a pinata. He was so excited about that pinata! We filled it with candy together and got it all ready for his birthday party. Finally, the moment came! We hooked it up to a tree, lined up the children and let them have at it! And then it happened; my poor son plopped himself down near the flower garden and proceeded to cry. When I asked him what was wrong, he replied through his tears, “They’re breaking my pinata!” My poor son had not realized that we’d have to break it in order to get the candy out.


This is him then 

Fast forward 18 years, the boy who’s crying in the above pictures is now 21. Last weekend we celebrated my 40th birthday. I was so blessed to have many, many friends show up. My family worked hard to throw me a wonderful “Death by Chocolate” party.  As part of the festivities, my husband bought a huge pinata for the adults to break.

 


This is him now (he’s the one smiling and taking the picture)

My husband had the birthday girl (that’s be me) attack the pinata first. When I was done attempting to break it (and apparently injure anyone who got in the way!), I handed the pinata over to my now grown son. He promptly killed the thing. As we watched the kids waste no time in devouring the candy scattered all over the yard, I flashed back to that day when the first ever pinata was broken in our back yard. I couldn’t help but look over to the side of the yard and remember seeing him sitting there in tears. I had to chuckle at how he didn’t wast anytime breaking this pinata! I looked up at my now grown son and he knew what I was thinking because he had gone back to that day, too. He told me that he’d thought about not breaking the pinata at all, but instead going over there and sitting against the wall again after all these years. At that moment, I knew we had added another memory; one that would not be forgotten, but instead reflected on year after year. Once in while, we are blessed with that special moment in time, the one that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside and brings just the slightest tear that you barely manage to hold back.  This is my warm and fuzzy. I love you, son!

You call this NORMAL?

My kids want a dog; they want one bad….so what’s a mom to do?

A few days after Christmas we decided to take a look at the local shelter for a small, allergy free dog. It looked like we’d found the right one. B-Boo (that’d be the teen daughter) had found a picture of an ugly rat dog and had decided that he was the one for her! So, I called the shelter and sure enough; they still had ugly rat dog, so we headed off to the shelter.

Well, as luck would have it, ugly rat dog (otherwise known as Joey) was on his way out the door with his new owner just as we were walking in. B-boo was mighty upset! Again, just as luck would have it, grandma (visiting for the holidays) had made a call on the way to find out about a poodle pup, so we immediately drove over there lest someone should take him, too!

Turns out there was a poodle mix girl pup that we immediately fell in love with! We’d gone to look at the boy pup, but for the next 30 minutes he was nowhere to be found. (That should have been a sign!) Anyway, we’re about to leave when the boy pup comes out of hiding. He’s almost a twin to the girl pup and J (our youngest son) fell in love with him. It was plain to see that a decision was not going to be made, so grandma chipped in some dough and away we went with not one, but two 3 month old pups!

 

Life’s been interesting. For instance, we’ve since found out that Joey (named after the ugly rat dog) is a whimp. He’s a sweetheart…but he’s a wimp. We’ve since been trying to *man him up* (a favorite saying in our family.) This is taking effort, but we are seeing improvements. Roxy, is a pain in the patooky! Seriously…she is so ornery! She will put anything in her mouth and run with it, no matter how big it is!

And how come’s mom’s always have to be right…even when you’re all grown up? I mean, really! When do I get to be right? Last week I was talking to my mom on the phone telling her how wimpy Joey is. Well, she used to raise poodles and so proceeds to tell me about how they used to be hunting dogs. I, of course, am laughing hysterically in my head at the site of Joey being a hunting dog! At any rate, I’d left the dogs outside in the backyard by themselves for the first time while I’d ran B-Boo to school. I was gone what…EIGHT MINUTES? I walked straight to the back yard, still listening to mom go on about how they are hunting dogs, and discover, MUCH TO MY HORROR, that my dogs were indeed hunting dogs! They’d managed to catch, kill, and eat a bird, spreading bird guts all over my back porch, in the little time I’d been gone! UGH! Those innocents had blood all over their faces, in between their toes, etc.

I vaguely remember my mother’s laughter as I promptly told her she was right, hung up the phone, and went to clean up the mess.

Fast forward a couple of days and we head off to the vet to get their rabies shots. Joey seems to be losing his hair, so we decide to have that checked out, too. The vet takes them back one at a time to give them their shots and take a skin sample of Joey. I just laughed when he told me that Joey made a lot more noise than Roxy…yeah, I know..wimpy dog. At any rate, Joey seems to be healthy so we take the dogs home.

No sooner than we get home, Joey starts going nuts. The dog is running around,literally rolling like an alligator catching prey! We’ve never seen anything like it! He stops long enough to start scooting his bottom along the yard, then starts the roll all over again. I call the vet to let him know that yeah, on second thought, Joey does itch. The nurse promptly tells me to bring him in; he’s having an allergic reaction to the rabies shot! Oh great! You call this normal?

Now, for those of you who know me, you’ll know this is just hysterical. I already have two children with severe food allergies….now I have an allergic dog to add to it!

Anyway, after a couple doses of benadryl and a few hours with the vet, Joey was able to come home. You’ll be happy to know he’s just fine now!

Whatever in the Whole Wide World

should I write about? (BTW…"Whatever in the whole wide world is something I say a lot). Anyway, there are so many choices! I could write about our crazy pets and what happens when you let your bunny loose in the backyard with two new puppies! I could write about my latest cooking experience. Hey, it's not easy to find a recipe for a delicious banana bread that does not contain eggs, dairy, wheat, gluten, soy or nuts! I could write about the wonderful party that my family threw for my 40th birthday…and how I'll be eating chocolate for the next 40 years!

What about how much fun it is being a parent of teenagers! Now there's something I could write about forever! I mean, will it ever end? We finally got one to adulthood only to have four more coming up! And what were we thinking, really? I mean, we have not one, but TWO teenagers right now! I honestly haven't' figured out which is worse, boys or girls, so God is having a field day showing me!

And then it happened! I was sitting here, minding my own business at 10:22 pm, thinking I've finally come to the end of my day when the unthinkable happens. It's calm, it's peaceful. Children are asleep, the hubs is quiet downstairs and the eldest daughter and I are finally done with her report on our new President's speech. She's off to the shower and I'm sunk into the pillow ready to type away. Yes? No! Because in that next moment, she lets out a blood curdling scream that could wake the dead! I rush into the bathroom to find her out of the shower screaming about some giant BLACK spider that is going to eat her in the shower! Amazingly, her father hears nothing, so I guess I am the one to be the spider killer of the night!

While she hides far enough behind me, I calmly creep to the shower, pull back the curtain and access the situation. Sure enough, there is a HUGE, BLACK SPIDER just sitting there waiting to be ambushed by said spider killer. (That'd be me, in case you didn't know!) I promptly say a prayer of quick thanks for my hubs who thought to install one of those shower heads hooked onto a hose while I grab it and aim it at the poor unsuspecting HUGE BLACK SPIDER! I quickly turn on the water as HOT as I can and let loose on the monster while my daughter questions my every move.

"Are you sure you're getting rid of it?"

"What if it comes back up?" (I'm thinking dear, that the scalding hot water alone would kill it, but I'll keep going just to keep you safe.)

After several minutes of a hot water flush, I turn off the faucet to wait and see if the thing will work it's way back up. Nothing, zilch, nada.

But said teenager wants to make sure it's gone…..so again with the hot water flush.

Finally, I think I've managed to convince her it's safe to shower, right? Sure, ok….but just in case…

I get to type up my first blog sitting on my bathroom floor with my laptop in my lap (now there's a funny) and listen to her take the fastest shower in her life!

And that, my dear readers, is what why we say,

"It's a Vivas Thing!"

The Case of the Missing Hamster

Monday, November 6, 2006

 

What a weekend!  Middle son’s hamster showed up missing on Sunday morning. He’d cleaned the cage on Saturday evening and forgot to lock it.  The little booger knows how to push the door open, which is why he has to keep it locked!


Here’s the story:

So we searched and searched and finally went to bed, telling our son the hamster was bound to show up in the
middle of the night by running across someone’s feet. Not so.

At 4 am, I was awakened by scratching noises. They’d gone on for a few moments I think, as I was between the land of gone and come back. As I drifted back to consciousness, I realized the sound was coming from the wooden TV table. About a second later, I realized it must be the hamster! I leaped up, turned on the vanity light so as to not awaken my slumbering husband….but the little critter had vanished. Bummer.

I decided to go back to bed and pray and try and get some sleep, all the while wondering how that little hamster got up all of those stairs and made it to the farthest room in the house! A bit later, I heard the scratching again. I crawled out of bed again, turned on the light, and …….don’t hold your breath….nothing.

I crawled back into bed, prayed some more, tried to doze. About 5:12 am, I heard it again…this time going through plastic…and I immediately freaked. You see, we have a poster of our oldest daughter that I still had not framed, wrapped in heavy plastic beside hubby’s desk in the room. I envisioned this hamster shredding away that poster; the very last poster of her competing in gymnastics….this was war! I jumped up onto the bed and pounced over hubby while yelling at him “WAKE UP! The hamster is in our room!”….made it to the light in a flash…and caught the little booger, standing up on his hind legs on the carpet at the end of our bed as if to say, “Oh Lord…she’s caught me and she doesn’t look happy!”

Hubby quickly shoved the door close so she wouldn’t escape! Then he went on one side and I on the other. He is now wide awake and yelling at me to catch the hamster….yeah right! The dern little critter was way to fast for me! As she
scampered between my legs and headed off to my closet, I grabbed my cell phone and called the hamster owner who was downstairs in his bed dreaming the night away.

I heard a groggy, “Hello?” to which I screamed into the phone,
“GET UP HERE NOW!!!”

1/10 of a second later he appeared in our room. (I didn’t know the boy could move that fast!) I yelled at him that his hamster was in our closet and he needed to get her out of there please. She was so wound up every time he caught her she’d jump out of his hands, so I ran downstairs and grabbed her ball, ran back upstairs, handed it to him and she jumped right in. He promptly took her back downstairs, put her in her cage and locked the door. He said the poor little thing was just guzzling down that water!

I gotta tell you; I asked the boy…what were you thinking when you ran upstairs? He said, he thought something horribly awful must have happened and he’d better get up there now. Poor kid…he’s probably traumatized for life. I still crack up every time I remember his look of sleep and surprise; I’ve been laughing ever since!