I Still Remember

Happy Birthday...

I hope you've enjoyed your day - I hope you've had fun and smiled and laughed.  A lot. 

I still miss you and I think a part of me always will. 

Long Time

I foolishly thought when the house was finally semi-empty, I would have time to do things.  Time to write, time to clean, time to read... it's not happened.  These are two reasons:

Opie

And Lizzie

I did not plan to have Opie, but as I chronicled in an earlier post, I had a moment when I anticipated being here alone and, well, it seemed like a good idea.  Then we have Lizzie.  She was a stray, a tiny little puppy a friend found running down the middle of the road.  She picked her up because she couldn't fathom doing anything else, and brought her home.  She hoped someone would want to adopt her, so she posted Lizzie's picture on FB.   While she got lots of comments about how sweet and cute she was, no one wanted her.  I puppy sat her a few times over the summer.  We nicknamed her Micro-puppy because she was so small.  Shortly after Reb settled in Charleston, my friend confessed she was considering taking Micro to the pound.  She was just too much for a family with small kids.  Lizzie was having house training trouble and they were just in no position to continue to care for her.  I then ended up with an image of poor Lizzie in a cage, scared and alone.  It was then I decided to take her.  I really didn't need her but what the hell.

Lizzie was named by my friend's girls and I didn't have the heart to rename her.  Joshua calls her Elizabeth, so that works too.  She's part pug and part beagle and she's a hot mess.  She's sweet though and awfully cuddly.  We all crawl in bed at night and she curls up next to me.  Opie finds his spot at my feet and then rests his head on them.  The bed is definitely not empty and I'm definitely  not alone.  I spend a lot of my time begging pups to potty and they are constantly underfoot.  They are fun though and all they want is love. 

Awww...

Thursday

“The broken heart.

You think you will die, but you just keep living,

day after day after terrible day.”  

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

The Time Has Come...

We will leave in a few hours - 6.5 to be exact - to head to Charleston to move her into her college dorm.  I'm trying really hard not to be overly emotional.  I know I'll be emotional and that's ok - I just don't want to be overly emotional because, well, that's not good for her and it just gives those who have been giving me a hard time some sort of "I told you so" moment.  Books are ordered, almost every stitch of clothing she owns is packed, she has a new hair straightener, toiletries, comfortable bedding complete with a monogrammed pillow sham, and her Joshie Bear sitting on top of it all, the only one allowed to go with her on this journey. 

New Baby

Hard to believe he's four months old and even harder to believe he's been with us ten weeks!  He makes me laugh on a daily basis.  I really didn't want a new pup but sitting here one Friday  night I had a flash forward of Reb gone and in college and me all alone.  We had friends who recently had puppies, six of them, and they were trying to give them away.  After I said to Reb that I wondered if Ms. Barker had any puppies left I sort of hoped she wouldn't.  He was the last one and someone had expressed interest in him but the five pictures she'd tried to send wouldn't and so he was still unclaimed.  Dumb me... so now he's here... a fixture in my home.  He's scary smart though - he can sit, go down, give you paw and even do a barrel roll.  He was a breeze to house train and now sleep on the bed with me (Reb started that one).  On the 5th he weighed 26 lbs.  He's hit another growth spurt so there is no telling how much he weighs. I'd guess he's pushing 30 if not more.  He's just recently figured out how to climb on the couch and chair.  The vet thinks he's gonna be a biiiiig boy!  He's  a sweetie :-)

Our Opie...

Done :-)

Why Ten Years of Dance?

Here are a few examples...