Happy Chanukah

To my Jewish friend(s)...

Happy Chanukah!

Use care while lighting your menorah,

don't want you to burn your fingers, just

Ahhh geez... more leftovers tonight!

Well last night it was the leftover white wine and tonight, I'm finishing up the leftover red wine...

Once again, to mes amies blogspot, Cheers!

Bottoms up!

So how was your return to the work world?

OMG, I am exhausted after my return to work after the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend.  Don't know about y'all, but my day was packed with meetings and email ketchup (catch up).
  

I stayed an extra hour to get some things done so at least I'd feel like I had accomplished 

S-O-M-E-T-H-I-N-G!

Before I know it, it will be 8am and the start of another day of meetings... UGH...who books meetings at 8am or Friday afternoons anyway?  (Well I guess I am guilty of it when it's the ONLY time the 'Invited Guests' can all make it...hehehe... but I did NOT book this 8am meeting!)  Like a spinning record going 'round and 'round, here we go again.

So it's a lil relaxation tonight, perhaps even a small glass of wine (gotta finish the Thanksgiving leftovers, right?)  Only thing is, what's on the boob tube since DWTS's season is over????

I hope your day was a little better than mine and that you 

are not nearly as exhausted after it as I am.

Cheers mes amies blogspot!

Happy Thanksgiving Turkeys!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

I am thankful for my blog readers.

And now for Max, as promised, how he came into our lives.

This is Maximillion, our kitty with the name longer than he is!  We call him Max, it suits him well.

Max was purchased from a pet store but before I go there, I need to tell you about Rusty, our kitten we had before Max.  Rusty was the best cat of all, he acted just like a dog!  Honestly, he did.

Rusty was an outside cat that came to us via our third child, Lisa, on our Anniversary.  Apparently neighbors around the corner had a cat that had a litter of kittens and they needed to get rid or ummm... find a home for them.  Lisa loved animals and little animals especially.  She knew about the kittens weeks before they were ready to be let go.  She'd go up and play with them.  She even asked us if we could have a kitten.  Of course the answer was, "No! Who's going to care for the kitten?  Feed it, clean up after it, etc.?" " Oh I will, I promise, I will." says Lisa in her most earnest child voice.  She even sounded CONVINCING!  Anyway, the answer remained No.

So along comes our Anniversary and what in the world do you think Lisa want's to get for our present?  You guessed it, a kitten.  So small, so furry, so playful, so cuddly, soooo cute.... and what does this child do?  Well with the skills of the best salesperson, she bring the kitten of her choosing up to our house and says, "Happy Anniversary Mommy! Don't you just love my present for you and Daddy?"  Now who can resist seeing a little red furry ball of kitten that's meowing and wanting to be picked up?  Ahhhh, Lisa, you kill me!  "Let's go show Daddy and see what he says."  Of course, knowing my hubby, anything I want is okay. 

Kids, what are you going to do with them?  Persistent pests, rug rats, conniving kids... ;)

Needless to say, we took Rusty in and he was the best.  You'd call him like a dog and he'd meow and come running.  All the neighbors knew him because he was so friendly.  He'd even stop perfect strangers  in their tracks as he'd walk back and forth across the sidewalk in front of them until they stopped and then he'd lay down, belly up, meowing for them to scratch his belly... just like a DOG!  Certainly a dog lived inside this cat's head.  Rusty even ended up 25 miles away in a vet's office over one weekend.

How the heck did that happen?  Seems someone heard him meowing and opened their door.  He went in and made himself at home.  When dinner time came, they tried to get him to leave but he wouldn't.  So they let him stay overnight and in the morning let him out only to find him hanging around.  So they called the only open vet office they could find, next county over, and took him there since Rusty had his county license  tags on him. Everyone in the neighborhood new Rusty because he was just do doggone friendly!

Oh well, we got Rusty in May.  Fastforward to the morning of December 23.  I was getting the kids ready for their last day of school before the Christmas holiday break.  The phone rang and it was our neighbor across the street.  Her nanny had just arrived and was concerned about a cat that she saw laying in the curb at the corner.  She thought it looked like Rusty and knew the kids would be heading for school soon and didn't want them to see it if it were him. (See what I mean EVERYONE knew this cat?)

Hubby went down to the corner to see and oh so sadly, found it to be our beloved Rusty.  His head smashed from being run over by a car.    I watched from the house and when I saw him lifting up the cat and starting to walk home, I yelled, "Is it him?" and all he could do was shake his head.  I quickly ran upstairs and got a blanket and ran to him saying, "Quick, let's get him to the vet."  But hubby insisted it was too late, he was gone.  I asked to see him and hubby refused saying it was horrific.

Here we were, two days before Christmas and our beloved dog/cat Rusty was gone.  In his short life he had brought  us such adventure and fun.  The entire gang of six were crying our bloody eyes out!  Christmas was going to be so horrible this year.  Our hearts were broken.

We wrapped Rusty in a blanket and placed him inside a plastic bag.  We let the kids say goodbye to him and I quickly got them on their way to school, letting their teachers know of our morning happenings.  They could not have been nicer to the kids.

When I got back home, hubby and I dug and buried our beloved Rusty in the yard.  Then I went to work.  When I got there many animal lovers knew exactly how I felt and how deep the loss was.  My boss said, "I know what you need to do.  You need to get another cat right away."  I said, "Oh no, we couldn't do that." but she insisted, "It's the best medicine for you and the family, trust me, I know."

Never having even thought to replace Rusty, I was thinking that would dishonor his memory or something to that affect, I called hubby and told him what my boss suggested.  He agreed to begin an earnest search for a kitten, but it was the DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS EVE!  After calling every pet store in the area, he found ONE pet store that had kittens.

Christmas Eve morning, in the sleeting rain, hubby and the two youngest went in search of a new kitten.  Lisa wanted a 'White' kitten this time.  As they waited in a small line outside the store for it to open, Lisa kept saying she wanted a 'White' kitten..... and hoped there was a 'White' kitten inside when the doors opened.

Lo and behold, there was a 'White' kitten.  The smallest of the bunch and it was all backed up into the far corner of the cage.  Not the most friendliest one, that mattered not.... she wanted the 'White' kitten.  So the 'White' kitten was purchased and brought into our crazy home.  There were smiles in between tears but there were smiles once again on my children's faces.

Max filled a void left by Rusty's sad passing.  Max brought smiles to faces that were filled with tears.  Max rescued us.

And on a side note, my boss was right afterall, getting another kitten was the best medicine.  We were able to enjoy our Christmas holiday, excited for Santa and the new kitten and whenever we thought of Rusty and became sad, we picked up Max and delighted in our new pet.

And that is how Max came into our lives 15 years ago.  Reggie followed  January of the next year being a year younger than Max.  Reg quickly got bigger than Max and they fought like 'Cats and Dogs' but they loved each other too.  We know Max will leave us someday, I just hope we have enough time in between.

Maxie, I love you little kitten, even if you act like a typical cat...you're white belly is cute and Lisa brought another winner into our home.

~THE END~

How Reggie got his name.

...The yet unnamed pup had entered our home, lives, family and our hearts that afternoon.

Once everyone was home from school and work, we had dinner and everyone was all abuzz with trying to figure out what to call this adorable white furry, fluffy, friendly little pup.  Being in a house with six people, it's always good to do it following a democratic process.... pick a name and vote.  Only thing is, we humans didn't really have a vote in his naming...you'll see.

We placed the pup on the opposite side of the living room with dad and asked the kids for their ideas to name the pup.  Fluffy! Furball! Snowy! Frosty! Champ! Snowflake! so we tried calling the pup using each suggestion and no response...pup stayed there kissing and jumping on daddy, smothering him with love.

I took a look at this pup, saw that he had big brown eyes and knew he would grow into a big white dog and immediately thought of my father-in-law.  He had the darkest brown eyes, was a real hellion in his day and everyone (outside of the family, jk) loved him.  So I said to hubby, I have an idea.  He reminds me of your dad and hubby laughed and said WHAT?  I explained the big brown eyes and said the last time I saw eyes like that was when your dad was alive.  Let me try this.  Hubby gave in.

So, with puppy kissing and jumping on dad, I said "Reggie, come here."  Pup stopped kissing and jumping, look in our direction, the floppy ears went up and the furball came galloping towards us! OMG, this dog reacted and came....OMG, I can't believe it.  We all started laughing!

I said that was just plain weird, let's try it again. So back to dad went the pup. Dad started playing with him and we tried Fluffy! Furball! Snowy! Frosty! Champ! Snowflake! no response.  Okay, here it goes.... "Reggie!"  Pup's ears went up, he turned and looked at us and came running over to us.  WOW! he did it again.

Hubby said, "That's funny.  I'm okay with that."  I said, "Wait a minute, I didn't name any of my boys after your dad and now you want to name a dog after your dad? Oh no you don't.  You better call your mom to make sure it's alright with her.  I don't want to offend her or him."

So we called Catherine and when we told her our story, I could hear her burst of laughter on the other end of the phone.  She said, "I think that's great!  Your dad loved animals and he'd be happy to have you name the pup after him."  And so we did....

Reggie's papers have him listed as Reginald Esman <-- my father-in-law's first and middle names, followed by our last name. 

That afternoon was the first of many days, weeks, months and years of pure joy as we welcomed him into our hearts and home.  He will live on forever in our hearts, just wish he could have done the same thing in our home.  Reggie, I loved you and miss you so much.  RIP our faithful companion for you did your job well.

How we came about bringing Reggie into our lives...a true love story.

Reggie, our White German Shepard and faithful companion of 14 years, came into our home, lives and mostly our hearts in January 1997 when he was just a pup of 8 weeks.  We had been without a dog in the house for 6 years.

Our previous dog, Gypsy, a Silver Siberian Husky was my husband's before he met me.  I was always a little jealous of the love he had for her over me...but afterall, she was his girlfriend and love before me.  She was beautiful.  She lived for 18.5 years but eventually her sight, legs, bladder and bowels all went and we made that decision to let her go and be out of her misery.  Still hard to do but it was time, she had a great life after my hubby rescued her from an abusive, alcoholic who beat her as a pup.  Oops, this is about our sweet Reggie, I digress.

Part of our heart wrenching decision to let Reggie go was the fact that his body had not failed as much as Gypsy's.  You see, from his 'waist' up, he was still here and 'with it', right up 'til the very end but the vet assured us that the lame leg was just the beginning of a rapid decline which would cause him much suffering and we were making the best decision.  Now, back to the beginning...

In December of 1996, I started hinting that we should consider a dog again.  It had been years since we had one.  Yeah, we had Max (our 1 year old kitten) but a cat is not the same as a dog.  (I'll have to tell you Max's story of entering our lives  in another post...that, was a real tear jerker!)  Reason behind my 'hinting' was two-fold... bring happiness to the family and (selfishly) bring my husband out of his deep depression.  Hubby suffers from a neurological disorder that causes excruciating, constant pain (fka RSDS nka CRPS - that's right...yet another story!) and as the pain level increases and he cannot deal with it, so too does his depression.  Winter is a horrible season in our house with the shorter days.  I needed something that would distract my hubby and force him to think of something other than himself.  What better than a pup who needs training, feeding, taking out and exercise?  You see, Reggie was a saviour to me.  He saved my hubby and the entire family his unconditional love.

Knowing that Christmas is NOT a good time to get an animal (although Max's story will show you we did exactly that but again, there's reasoning and sadness around  his story...another time)  we waited until after the Christmas and New Year holidays to bring home an animal.

Hubby, for some reason, decided on a White Shepard as the dog of our future.  He found a local breeder, visited and fell in love with this particular pup.  White, furry, floppy ears and big paws, this pup was so cuddly and lovable.  Hubby decided he'd be a perfect fit in our home with 4 kids, 1 cat, a dad and mom.  Hubby hit the nail on the head... this pup fit us like a couture glove.

Mom went with hubby to pick up the pup.  It was mid-afternoon.  On their way home, they stopped with the pup at my place of employment so I could meet him.  OMG, I was in love at first sight and when they placed him on the floor and he came over to me and kissed me, there was no turning back.  This pup is perfect!

Then mom and hubby drove home.  We did not tell the kids ANYTHING.  We wanted it to be a surprise.  Hubby went in ahead of mom.  The two youngest kids were sitting at the dining room table doing their homework.  They looked and said, "Hi dad."  Then hubby opened the door again and mom entered with the pup in her arms and put him down.

Mom has always said the look on the kids faces and their eyes opened far and wide was PRICELESS.  They were smiling ear to ear yet confused... "Whose dog is that? Yours Nana?"  and dad said, "He's ours!"  The kids came running over to see the pup.

The yet unnamed pup had entered our home, lives, family and our hearts that afternoon.

This is getting long so I will do another post about how Reggie got his name.  If you like this part, you'll love that story too.

The best dog in the world - REGGIE!

Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes... I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again. 

Our faithful puppy of 14 years (actually, one week shy as his bday is next Sunday), Reggie, has perfectly performed his duties as Man's Best Friend and it's now time to take him to the vet and put him out of his pain and suffering.

I miss him already.  

Thanks for all the happiness you brought to our home/family Reg, and for the unconditional love.

Quit your bellyaching...

Did you ever have one of those days that you just felt u-g-l-y?  Well yesterday was one of them for me.

Took a walk as soon as I woke up...no stopping for coffee...no drinking water... no sirree Bob,  hop outta bed, put on easy walking clothes, click on the pedometer, find a hat to cover the bed head, oh I  did do a lil bit or preening... I washed the face and put on my eyebrows... never leave home without them!  Needless to say, I didn't want to run (err walk) into someone I knew but then again, that was not the purpose anyway.

When I got home, I did my fb thing, had coffee & breakfast, treated my houseplants to some preening and decided it's time to get ready for the day's adventure. 

As I exited the shower, I glanced at myself in the mirror...ugh or more appropriately ugly!  Pig nose has returned, I hate the pig nose!  Geez, how ugly can one get?  Well yesterday I didn't think I could get any uglier.

I persisted and continued to try to lessen the uglies, reapplied the eyebrows (hmmm... do they look symetrical or like two different brows?...oh who cares?), added a bit of eye make up and blew out the hair... stared in the mirror and thought, bad day...bad day... oh well.

Went to the room and started to try on clothes for my day's adventure...omg, I can get uglier...either a fairy came in overnight and shrunk my clothes or I am just bigger....damn those fairies!  No I know why nothing fits right.  I tried on a beautiful sweater and it was tight.  Starting lecturing to myself about how nice this sweater was, how expensive it was and how nice it would look on a smaller figure...then the light bulb went off!

My epiphany to 'Quit your bellyaching' and get on with it.  Who's to blame for those tight pants?  Fairies, no although I'd love to blame them...it's me.  I began to think positive thoughts and get the uglies outta my head...

• Ok you've already taken your walk...you've made a step in the right direction...continue with that...you'll be that smaller figure in time.
• Ok, put on something that fits hides this muffin top... gotta love Spanx with lace trim.
• Ok, more camo needed, put a sweater over the 'secret'.
• Alright, now top it all off with a loose coat.

Well, you ask, did I pull it off?  Did I get outta the uglies?

Tell you the truth, I have no idea but the good news is...
I didn't have to look at me and not a soul ran away as they looked at me!
So I guess I wasn't as ugly as I felt.

Today will be better... maybe I will be half as ugly today as I was yesterday...
pretty high goal...ok, let's shoot for 1/10.  Color me beautiful! LOL

Happy Sunday, enjoy!

P.S. (In some parts of the country, muffin tops = love handles!)

Second Successive Night... Mr. Sandman

...bring me a dream  (bung, bung, bung, bung)

Make him the cutest that I've ever seen (bung, bung, bung, bung)

Give him two lips like roses and clover (bung, bung, bung, bung)

Then tell him that his lonesome nights are over.

Mr. Sandman, I'm so alone

Don't have nobody to call my own

Please turn on your magic beam

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.

I had another dream!!! Just as illogical as the one 

the night before, just as entertaining!

I like dreaming... I dream in color... 

I remember details of my dreams...

It's so nice to have dreamed a little dream again.

Here's to tonight's... or rather tomorrow morning's 

dream.

YAY!!! I had a dream....

and what a doozie it was but the really cool thing about it is
I HAD A DREAM!

I've been so sleep deprived for so long that I haven't gotten any good sleep so...

having a dream means
I hit REM
and was fast asleep! YAY for me.

My dream was so crazy and mixed up and  perfectly made sense while I was going along, however, in the real world as I reveiw all the silly details...none of it makes any sense nor does the path taken from one section to the other... but in the dream, there was no question...it seemed logical....that's how I know

I FINALLY GOT SOME SOLID SLEEP! 
YAY...now, if I could build onto that and get a few days of solid, sound sleep... beggers can't be choosers.  :-)

Election Day - GO VOTE

One of the best things about being an American is having the ability to vote for your government representatives...vote those in that you believe will do a good job for you... vote those out who have abused or have done nothing for you....

Thanks to all the American men and women who have fought for our freedom and giving us the ability to vote.

Whichever way you vote, whatever party you belong to, whatever you believe...

do your American right and go out and VOTE!