Thinking

It seems like all week long I have thought about Emma. Last weekend I took a cell phone picture of her standing on her hind legs with her front paws resting on the chain link fence.

Emma behind the fence at the rescue

 I just cannot get her sweet little face out of my mind. I told Hubby last night that we have to take another trip to the rescue this weekend to go see her one more time. I had this deep down gut feeling that we would be missing out on a great dog if we didn’t adopt her. I know this is not what hubby wants to do, seeing as we just put down Dakota a few months ago. I told him let’s just go see and if it’s not meant to be then we will just come back home.  He wasn’t thrilled about spending New Year’s Eve going to look at a dog but he said ok.

Meet Boing Boing (now known as Waffles)

Today we went with J and his family for a day trip out to Marshall, Virginia to meet the dog named Roy Roy that we saw online yesterday.  

Roy Roy

We met Roy Roy and although he was a very cute dog, he was a bit too much for J’s wife. He was very strong and she had a hard time walking him. Sabrina, the lady who runs the rescue, said she has her other dogs at the rescue center in West Virginia & it was a 2 hour drive. We had no other plans for the day so we agreed to follow her to see the other dogs. We finally arrived after what felt like we were driving up endless hills. The rescue is located in the mountainous area of Capon Bridge, WV. As soon as you turned to go up the road that the rescue sits on, you can hear the sounds of barking from a ½ mile away.  This is also accompanied by the strong odor of dog in the air.

Boing Boing now know as Waffles

She showed J and his wife Boing Boing, he was a retriever/pit bull mix who was just over a year old. While they were looking at him, hubby and I went to see the other dogs she had. She brought out a few, Scarlet a 2 year old black/white pit bull, Nala a brindle pit bull who was a little over a year old & Emma a 4 year old tan pit bull. Hubby and I spent time w/ Nala who seemed nice & a little hyper, most likely due to her young age. Then we looked at Emma who was a lot calmer, she was excited but not nearly as “hyper” as Nala. I told hubby we should adopt Emma, he of course said no. He wanted to be “dog free” for a few months. Plus there was not enough room in the van to take 2 dogs back. They adopted Boing Boing & we headed back home.

Nala

Emma

A few days later he was renamed Waffles by their 8 year old. He said he named him Waffles because it’s one of his favorite things to eat for breakfast and it matches the color of his fur.

A Quiet Christmas

We had a nice quiet Christmas at home. Everyone enjoyed spending time together and the kids loved their gifts. We invited my hubby’s cousin J and his family over for lunch. I cooked up a ham, hash brown casserole, oyster casserole, a walnut apple salad & waldorf salad.  His cousins have been talking about getting a dog so we were looking online & happen to find this cute dog that was at this rescue in West Virginia called Love Shack Dog Rescue. We sent a text to Sabrina who runs it and set up a time to meet her the very next day. We agreed to meet her in Marshall, VA.

loving his gift

 

goofy group pic

An ugly ornament exchange

Several times a year we get together to do a girls night out which always includes lots of yummy food and wine. This is the 2nd year we did an ugly ornament exchange. The goal is to try and find the ugliest/hideous ornament to exchange with whoever your "secret" person is. We have so much fun and enjoy catching up with each other. I am really blessed to have such wonderful friends.

adgadg

Goodbye Grandma

Miriam Johnson

11/3/1923 – 11/23/2016

We had the funeral for my grandmother this afternoon. Just one day shy of what would have been her 93rd birthday. It's never easy to say a final goodbye to someone you love but it is something that is inevitable and you will have to eventually face. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to talk about the memories I had of my grandma standing behind a lectern in front of a crowd but somehow I managed to do it. She was a gift to us from God & I am happy that she was a part of my life.  

Here (below) is what I read at my grandmothers funeral service 

'Grandmother in the dictionary is defined in 2 ways. The first is ‘the mother of one’s father or mother’ the second is ‘a female ancestor’. Well I must say that although these definitions may be correct they do not describe MY grandmother. Throughout all my life I never lived close to grandma, the closest was about 200 miles apart so our visits were not frequent. I do have lots of fond memories of the times we did share. The grandmother I knew loved to write & send letters. I loved getting mail from Grandma and reading her letters. I have a few of them saved in a box. Grandma was also an avid reader, whenever we’d visit she always had a book or had just finished reading one. She was a loyal baseball fan, I remember I spent the night at her condo when she lived in Greenbriar and she was sitting in her Lazyboy chair trying to explain to me about which team was in what division. I remember just listening to her and thinking to myself how is it that she could spend all afternoon watching baseball on TV and not be bored. Obviously I didn’t appreciate baseball at the time. She was a crossword expert (at least in my eyes). I sat at the table with her once and tried to do one of them and it seemed like for every 5 I would manage to figure out I’d have to ask her to give me the answer to the next one. Of course she knew all the answers so there was no point in having the answers in the back of the book. It was actually quite handy to have my human answering machine sitting right across from me.  She also liked to quilt. I will always cherish the beautiful handmade quilt she made for Sara. I have kept it all these years & it is still in mint condition. She was one of those kind souls who had a love our furry 4 legged friends. I remember she would tell me all about Casey & how much joy and happiness Casey brought to her.  These are just a few of the great memories I have of Grandma. I know this is a sad moment in time for us but we should celebrate her life and remember the good times we shared together.
Life. Like one big running race. The horn signals the start and everyone takes off, on their journey, and not everyone has the same pace. She started the race before me but I eventually caught up to her & we shared a few good miles together. She picked up her pace and ran ahead of me and has already crossed the finish line. Well, I’m halfway through my race but I know when I cross the finish line she will be there waiting to greet me.'

family post funeral get together