Wedding, caterers, and diamonds, oh my!

My Sunshine is engaged! And I get my laundry room! Her very small bedroom is next to our bath, so the plumbing's there, it just needs a "little" tweaking to add some pipes for the washer. Hey, I had to think of something positive that would come out of losing my daughter to a boy from Rome, NY... 6 hours away!!!!!!!

He got her good, though. He came to visit, they went to look at rings, and he actually came home with one. She thought he wouldn't actually give it to her for at least 2 months, but when he asked The Hubs and me for permission to marry her, he also told me he wanted to give the ring to her in 2 days (that would have been this past Monday). So, I helped by getting her to the venue at which they want to wed with the ruse of taking pictures of them there. Meanwhile, I went ahead of time and dropped off roses and chocolates that Bryce bought and left. When they arrived, he gave her the goodies, told her all the ooey gooey stuff, then presented the ring. She was shocked! She wanted it to be a surprise in a quiet romantic spot, and Bryce pulled it off. She laughed and cried and laughed and cried and I showed up and really did take pictures.

It's going to be a busy year, but I'm excited for her and will be praying that her marriage has God as its center and is as joyful as mine has been to my Hubs.

Crazy is as crazy does

My daughter Sunshine has been gainfully employed for the summer at a large pet supply chain store. Every day she comes home, sighs and groans, "Work was SO boring!" As a teacher, I would LOVE to have a day like that, so I can NOT relate. The other day, however, brought a break in her otherwise boring routine of scanning pigs' ears, cat litter, and giving free milkbones to ugly mutts who don't eat them anyway and drop the slobbery treats on the floor for her to pick up.

A lady approached her with a baggy with exactly 5 pieces of dog food in it. She went on to explain that they had adopted a puppy who would only eat this one type of food, but the lady's husband (ain't it always the husband's fault?) threw out the bag and they could not remember what make and model of food it was. She was hoping that my daughter would recognize the dog food and lead her to it. Yeah. Right. If you've ever been in one of those pet superstores, you know there are hundreds of brands, flavors, and blends for everything from "Ferret-flavored for Pitbulls" to "CAT LITTER CRUNCHIES FOR PUPPIES NAMED ALLIE THAT STILL AREN'T HOUSEBROKEN EVEN THOUGH HER OWNER HAS BEEN WORKING WITH HER FOR NEARLY 3 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!" Oops, sorry. Anger issues.

Of course my Sunshine had not a clue, so she asked a co-worker whom Sunshine describes as "manish." Manish "Linda" is very nice... too nice. She's one of those people who within 5 minutes of meeting you will tell you about her mother's hysterectomy, her son's ADD diagnosis, and why her underwear keeps riding up. So Linda takes the baggy, opens it, and EATS a piece of the dog food.

The customer stood there dumbfounded, while Sunshine actually wasn't shocked, sadly.

Linda calmly chomps and gulps down the kibble and states, "It tastes like Science Diet."

HOW WOULD SHE KNOW?????????????? I mean, does this woman go home each night and snack on all the different varieties of dog food in the off-chance that some customer will come in and ask, "Which dog food tastes the most like real lamb?" ???????????

In the end, they never did figure out what the dog food was, but the customer was impressed with Linda and commented, "Now that's what I call going above and beyond the call of duty."

I'm really glad Linda doesn't work in a pharmaceutical lab.

Puppy Graduation!

Allie graduated last night from her first puppy class. She looks so happy, and don't I just look like the proud mama? Actually, I was just glad it was over. Then I lost my sanity and signed her up for the Intermediate class that begins in September.


My next step toward the nut house? Doggy day care. I have to go back to work in month and little Allie will only be 8 months old and is full of peepy, I mean, puppy energy. And yeah, we still have the house-breaking issue. And the chewing issue. I met a girl last night who told me she uses a doggy day care 5 miles from my house, and it's $10 a day. My husband said, "You CAN'T be serious." Yes, honey, any time I'm willing to spend that sort of money to save my sanity, it IS serious. We'll see. It would be 9 months at the most, but hopefully only about 4, until she gets some of her "issues" worked out. Until then, paper towels and disinfecting spray are my best friends. That, and the words, "LEAVE IT!!!"

My sibs.... I love them. Notice how I hide my fatness by standing behind my skinny sis. And notice my bro's shirt. If you're EVER in Buttzville, NJ (yup, it's a real place), you HAVE to stop at Hotdog Johnny's. Best dogs, birch beer, and buttermilk this side of the Mi-double snake, i-double snake, i-double p, i.

King Kong's got NOTHIN' on Allie

Check out Allie's YouTube debut (My Destructo Puppy). Be sure to watch it until the end; she's bad, but cute. I can't help but love her in spite of herself. And yes, I actually was able to save the pillow!

Invasion of the Texans!!

TC' s coming to visit, TC's coming to visit!!!! Yiiiipppppeeeeeee!
Yaaaahhhhhhhoooooo!!!!!!

See you next week, my seester!!

I've adopted a peepy, not a puppy.

I'm loving Allie. I'm not loving the house training.I have never in my life bought so many rolls of paper towels. I'm afraid of what the people at the local WalMart think: "So THAT's how they're getting their fiber."

This pup reminds me of a baby doll my daughter once had: Baby Alive.

It was one of those little lifelike dolls with batteries that made it's mouth move and you could actually feed her her own baby food and give her a bottle. And the 'best" part was that she would then immediately poop and pee it all out and you could change her diaper, just like a real baby! Ugh. What propaganda these toy companies feed our children. Things like: "changing diapers is fun!" Well, this pup should have been named Puppy Alive. Feed her and give her water and it goes immediately through her internal plastic tube and comes out the other end.


She's very sweet, unless she's trying to steal one of the other dogs' food, then it just gets ugly. The other day she had our 14 year old maltese mix pinned to the floor with her jaws on the poor old dog's neck. Of course, Maggie DID start is when she snapped at Allie for getting just a LITTLE too close to her treat. And then all H-E- double-toothpicks broke out and it looked like the canine version of professional wrestling. Both survived and we've been more watchful of whom we feed treats to and when.

Allie's done pretty good on the chewing aspect. She is 6 months old, so we didn't have the initial little puppy teething thing. But Allie has managed to taste our remote control, my purple flipflops, my blue leather sandals, my hubby's black plastic shower sandals, our couch pillow, 3 Beanie Babies, 2 plants, and one basket. And a few cats thrown in for dessert. It's not that I haven't gotten this dog toys to chew on. I refuse to add up the receipts for fear I'll go into shock and then I'll have to be rushed to the hospital and that'll be MORE money gone. But truly, our house looks like a mangled stuffed animal mine-field. You must come visit with a strong stomach. You will see headless bunnies, earless bears, and blind Beanie Babies. It's a sad sight.

Well, it's our evening "Go poopy!" time. Yeah, I actually say that, over and over and over and over and over again, when I take her out in the evening, until the blessed event occurs. I'm sooooo thankful we don't have close neighbors. They'd either have me locked up for insanity, or they'd shoot me. THEN who would clean up the puddles???