Me and My Shadow

We all have shadows, but I have a special shadow. Really, I do!!! I have this shadow only at home and I am always amazed how quickly this shadow can follow me and turn on a dime and suddenly appear when I move the slightest bit. And get this, my "home" shadow has four legs and a name, beat that will, ya!

My shadow's name is Fred and is my one and half year old Yellow Lab, who is part cute and part dumb. With his undesirable looks of having a yellow eyes and a liver colored nose, he would have never made it in the Show Dog World, oh and did I mention he was part dumb. So he has a loving home here with us and he has so lovingly attached himself to me because I am Mommy. I feed him, play with him, and hold him...in a round about way since he is a 95 pound puppy. He is all love though and in his love he follows me EVERYWHERE!!! He sits on the floor next to my spot on the couch, he sleeps on the floor on my side of the bed, he lays on the kitchen floor while I cook, and he follows me to the bathroom and lays outside the bathroom door and waits for me.

He also seems to check on me many times a day. I keep telling him I am ok, but he insist on giving me a good poke with his nose. When I give myself my shots (twice a day) he does not miss every move I make and he wants to investigate the medicine...hey, maybe he knew the Heparin was contaminated??? Fred has a love/hate relationship with the alcohol wipes....he wants to smell it, but only from afar and if I put it up to his nose he sneezes, but he won't run away, he just politely turns his head as his eyes bulge out. One time I wiped the alcohol on his nose and he started foaming at the mouth...it was mean and I won't do that again. But he still watches as I do my shots. The day after I had my cerclage done, I slept as the girls were in preschool and Jason worked, but Fred stayed next to my side the whole time. He even woke me up to see if I was okay because I had been sleeping for several hours straight and did not move. I cracked my eye open to see the big liver colored nose in my face. I smiled at him and told him I was okay and went back to sleep and he was there when I woke up.

Fred may be part dumb, but he is all love and protective of his family. He is not a barking dog so when he does bark he is sending a warning. One of his favorite activities is to sit on patrol in the front yard and when he sees someone or something that may not belong, he lets deep warning bark and then looks at us wagging his tail as if he is asking if he has done well.

I love my dog especially when I can entertain him by running up and down the hallway and he can keep up with me as I stop and turn and go the other direction as fast as I can, just because...well...he is my shadow.

Look into my eyes.....

What's that smell?

So yesterday my husband asked me to bake cookies for our friends. With the dough ready, I turned on the oven so it could preheat and went on to put the kids in the tub. I got preoccupied playing with bathtub toys with them until I smelled something...odd. So I told the girls to play nicely and I would be right back.

I walked out into the hall and saw my living room was filled with smoke. Then I dashed to the kitchen (and my house is not big) and saw black smoke pouring from the oven. ACK! I put my hands on the handle and talked myself into opening the over door. OK, 1, 2, 3...open! OH MY! There are FLAMES five inches tall in my oven. SLAM! "Oxygen feeds a fire...keep the oven door closed!" "Don't throw water in there...not sure what is on fire" I am staring, pacing, and trying not to panic while looking for the fire extinguisher...which I could not find!!!

I instant messaged my husband whose status said he was "Away", but I was asking where the fire extinguisher was anyway. I did not want to freak out. As I am trying to remain calm, I check the oven again and their were still FLAMES!!! So I start thinking I may start to panic. Do I call 911? No, I could not because my house was a mess and the flames were contained in the oven. I opened the garage door and the front door and my dogs ran out and down the street. I stood their thinking, very briefly of course, do I call my dogs back in, check on my girls, or figure out what to do about the fire. "Call someone, my confused brain told me, but stay calm." So I called my friend Nicole and told her that I was sorry that I could talk photography because my oven was on fire. She did not believe that my oven was on fire because I was so calm, but did offer that I should throw some baking soda on the flames. "Oh, that is right baking soda!" So I grabbed my large bag of baking soda and threw hand fulls of baking soda on the flames and slammed the door again. I then checked on the girls, who were still in the tub, and then went outside to coax my dogs home with dog biscuits.

My girls were starting to yell to get out of the tub, my dogs wanted to run back outside, but the flames were out! But baking soda was everywhere and my oven door was black, but the fire was out! Did I say that already?

At the end of it all, I realized that butter from the ooey gooey bread pudding, that I made the day before, had spilled out of the pan. When the oven was preheating the butter caught on fire...it was a lot of butter.

After I got the girls out of the tub, we had a little talk about what to do when something is on fire. Choosing not to call 911 because you think your house is too messy is not an option.

So I am cleaning my oven today and then I will bake the cookies for my friends later.

I guess I need to clean my oven more often...

Sacrifice

So there comes a point in life when stuff just does not matter...it is just stuff right?

We are family that makes a point to live below our means. We want to be debt free. We want to have money for our future and to have fun in the present. We want to live life and not be so consumed with material stuff. Hey! lets go on a trip or we can buy a new TV and watch the Discovery Channel and just watch someone else live life...we do not even have cable. We want to be able to help others and give without feeling like we can't afford too...even though we have the faith to know we will be provided for (bad sentence structure, I know). With that being said, I have to praise my husband.

He sold his beloved Landcruiser, The Whale or La Ballena. Yes, a vehicle is needed for a family in this society and he will get a different one. But it is worth being in debt for a vehicle, even if it is a "dream car"? My husband decided, No, it is not. I am very proud of his sacrifice for our family. One day he will get another one, but it will be bought with cash not credit, which will keep us within our budget. I could go on about budget, but that would be a different post. If you are someone that knows my husband then you know that having a Landcruiser is just part of who he is. He is even the Treasurer for the local Landcruiser Club. He sacrificed something that is a part of him for his family...to get us out of debt so that we can have a better future.

Have I mentioned how much I love my husband?

Bookcrossing

I think I am going to try this bookcrossing. Anyone want to join me? After I set my book free I will keep track of where it is and post it on my blog. Sounds like a fun and effortless thing to do. Either that or I need more excitement in my life, oh that reminds me I am having a baby soon...like I am going to have time to keep track of a book. But it still sounds interesting. IF I do not do this someone else needs to and keep me up to date on your book's travels.

Now go out and set those unused books free or you can take them to Half Price Books and earn a couple of bucks...

Creative Play or too many Disney movies

My girls have these Disney figures from the movie Sleeping Beauty. Today they were acting out the movie with the figures...they knew some of the words verbatim. Is that a bad thing? So then they asked to watch the movie, but it wasn't exactly just watching in a silent stare. They had their characters in front of them making them act out the scenes as they "watched" the movie. It was more interactive watching. I was impressed with their creativity...thinking that they could become playwrites, directors, or producers...as they choreographed their play.

They also have a lot of dress of up clothes which enables them to be even more creative, but they love to act out movies. Disney, Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake...whatever the movie may be. It is not like they sit around and watch TV or movies all the time. We don't even have cable so the only shows they see are on PBS Kids and then they only watch those once or twice a week. They usually watch a movie three times a week. There favorite character to be right now is a ballerina. They have a lot of creative movements and expressive dance. I let the creativity flow as much as I can...or as much as I can tolerate depending on the day.

I look forward to the day that they create their own little play or puppet show to put on. I remember my sister and I making up dance routines and putting shows on the front porch of my Mema's house.

Speaking of creative play, my five year old just came barreling down the hall in a pair of roller skates...oops crash...