Before and After

Well....I have been wanting to get a new "do" for a long, long time. I got it cute before Christmas and then just was kinda letting it grow. Then it got long enough where I could wear cute pig tails...then those weren't cute anymore. I orignally wanted to just wait until after our trip to the Philippines this summer because I knew I would want to put my hair up and with the humidity being worse than here I was sure I would be a friz head....

But you know when you get that feeling like you want a change?? I just wanted to go ahead and get shorter(um...hair that is) and just deal with it when I go to the Philippines. I mean....they are all going to be staring at me anyway because I am so beautiful so I figure it won't matter if my hair is all crazy! hardy har har

So here are some pics.......

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Rene at Farasha is so talented! Didn't she do good....although I was cute when I walked in the salon I was smokin' when I walked out! hardy har har. I was excited this morning that I was actually able to fix it like she did! I love it!

Farewell...

3 days before Christmas we picked up this beautiful white poodle from the Henry County Humane Society. It is a no-kill shelter that finds permanent homes for animals no matter how long it takes. After our puppy Stella had to go to another home we were dog-sick and I started searching petfinder.com to see what was out there. I thought we would try getting an older dog so we wouldn't have to clean up the poop and pee and poop and poop. When I saw Pongo on the shelter's website I fell in love. I put in an application and waited. The process takes about 2 weeks and isn't like going to the pound and picking out a stray. They check your vet history and ask you about all the other pets you have had in the past. We were elated when we got the approval to come pick him up!!! He was absolui

this is the "Pongo sandwich"...whenever we would try to snuggle he would come lie in between us and roll over so we could scratch his belly!

He immediately attached to me but was so friendly to all! Sophia was his second favorite...much to Nate's dismay! He decided that Cricket was now his dog and when Pongo was loving on us he would go over to Cricket and give her attention...which was nice for her since HE was taking all our attention now! Anyway...back to Pongo. Well we thought he was a perfect match for us but I started to notice his defensive behavior when visitors would come over. He started growling at some and even went after a child scratching him on the face. This sickened me and I quickly evaluated how we treated Pongo. He then became "the dog" and not a little person in a doggie suit. He was always very obedient and would lay down on command. This was very helpful in training him to stay out of my preschool room during the time the children were present. He would just lie on the back of the couch until the children left. Well one day as we were lining up after a bathroom break he got down from his spot on the top of the couch and was stretching (still on the couch). Kylie(who has 3 dogs and knows how to approach one) went to him to pet him. I was watching (thank goodness) and saw Pongo turn to bite her. I yelled and he stopped not getting her. This sickened me so! I emailed the shelter and asked for advice. I called my mom and cried. I called my sister and cried. I knew we would have to give him back. I told all the parents when they picked up their child that day what had happened and cried. It was so sad.

I figured I could just put him in my room during the preschool hours but then what about when friends stopped by. What about when I babysat? It was either keep Pongo and have no friends or give him back. We felt so torn because you just don't "give up" on your dog...but I didn't know what to do and this was such a huge liability!

The next morning and after the shock of that incident I started to think we could work with him and find a way to keep him. A couple days later the shelter called me. They suggested and requested that I bring him back. They were worried about him biting another child. They work very hard to match their animals with the right homes. At the time Pongo was a perfect match for us but now he wasn't. He showed no aggresiveness toward children while he was with his foster family....and if he did they would have never placed with us. I was on my way home from the gym when they called and I cried all the way home. Then the hardest part was yet to come....telling Sophia and Nate the bad news. We all cried(except Nate:) but he was sad). I was worried how Sophia was going to do....would she actually be able to say good-bye. Cheryl( the shelter volunteer) called me that night to see when we could bring him back to the shelter. She said the sooner the better so we wouldn't change our mind. I really felt supported by them and that they wanted to do what was best for Pongo and us. So we decided to take him the next evening. I didn't know if I could do it or not. I prayed so hard that we( Sophia and I) would have the strength to say good-bye. I was so impressed at how SOphia handled it. I was also suprised and how much I cried....I don't usually do that...but I was so attached to that dog. I usually don't feel emotions that strong which suprised me...it feels good to cry and I am glad I did....helped to relieve the stress.

We got to the shelter where the volunteer was waiting to take Pongo to her house for the night. I didn't want him to spend the night at the shelter and requested he stay in someone's home where he could sleep on their bed....something he did before we got him....and I wanted him to be as comfortable as he could. What I really wanted for him was to go back to his "foster mother" since he was familiar with her. At first it didn't look like that was going to happen. He was going to spend the night somewhere else and then go to her house the next day...well I got my wish. This volunteer took him over to her house that night and she said Pongo ran right up to her and jumped into her arms! He definately remembered her!

As with any stressful situation in my life it takes a few days for it all to sink in. I stay in shock for a while and then get "sad" one day and I can't figure out why....and then I remember. I hope we can see him again...we all do. The kids ask when we can. I sure wish his foster mother could keep him forever but I am sure they will find him a perfect home. She already has 6 dogs of her own! Her children are grown and out of the house and she is a vet-tech.

One funny thing Sophia said as we were crying together and talking it out was how we have had such bad luck with our pets...she said it all started out with our first gerbil! I made the joke that it was all my fault for squishing him and that it has all been downhill since!! We would love to get another dog but this time it will be a puppy so we can train it. I am not sure I want to go through all of that again but I am sure we will. We plan to wait until we get back from the Philippines. Would hate for the dog to stay at a kennel for 3 weeks!

This past week I was missing Pongo snuggling with me at night so I got Cricket in the bed with me just like she use to do. I started rubbing her belly and I could tell she wasn't totally comfortable and really wanted to get back into her bed. She settled down at the end of our bed but all her noises -snores and gurgles-kept me awake! I couldn't sleep! I put her on the ground and she wobbled back to her bed. She will be 14 this year. She is our old girl and we love her! That will be a sad day when she dies!!

Sno-Fia

Lisa's nephew calls Sophia that so I thought it would be cute as the subject line for a post about her!

Sophia loves to talk. She likes to talk to you...not just blabber on about nothing. She likes to know what you think. Lately she has been asking me questions like this: "Mom....what is your favorite part about ________?". Fill-in-th-blank with whatever is relevant at that moment....Christmas, birthdays, Sundays, weenend, homework, driving, shopping, pets, etc. It is sweet that she is asking these questions and she genuinely wants to know...it can be annoying at times....but mostly sweet(please don't tell her I am writing this because it will make her self-conscious and then she will stop!)

Sophia has a little phobia about being in the bathroom by herself....especially when she is taking a shower. It drives.me.insane. Last night I went there with her until she got in the shower and then I left. She was talking away thinking I was there and then she paused and said....."Mom? Mom? are you still in here?" and if I don't answer she will start yelling for me. It is a little comical sometimes;) Anyway.....last night I had Nate go in the bathroom to wait for his turn. Most of the time he protests just to make her mad....but she has been nice to him lately and helping with some of his phobias so this was a way for him to give back to her!

So I was on the computer in the other room when I heard them talking and then I heard Sophia ask, "So Nate....what is your favorite part about showers?". I wish I had written down the rest of the conversation. Not sure how he answered or if the subject changed but I chuckled when I heard her ask that question. She was just trying to engage him in conversation so he would stay!!

10K

Last year my friend Sarah and I ran the Chattahoochee Road Runner's Club 10K. We decided to try and do this one again in '09. This makes the 3rd we have run together and hope to run more.

This one last year was a lot of fun but the miles seemed.to. drag. by. We were a lot slower(well she had some intestinal issues that slowed her down....I just had some short legs or something ). I just wanted to beat my time from before (65 minutes...it was her first one) and I did with 63:03 minutes. That year we were the last to start the race because of being in the bathroom when they said "GO!" so who knows how many seconds we could have taken off if we had drained our bladders beforehand!!

So this year we were better prepared! I still hated to get up that early but of course we were glad we did once we got there. Sarah did not eat 2 packs of oatmeal and toast which made her bowels very happy. I still had short legs so that leg-stretching machine is going back. We also went to the bathroom before we got to the registration area which meant no standing in the horrendous-ly long line for the porta-stinky-potties. We picked up our numbers at the registration table, pinned them on, ohh-ed and ahhh-ed at the blue shirts we would get at the end and then did a little warm-up jog to the starting line. We stretched and then people-watched. There were some serious runners there for sure!!

One benefit of starting dead last is you get to pass all the slower runners. It was exhillerating in that aspect and we really relt like we were fast! ha! This time we started with everyone else and got passed by all the fast-er runners!! We felt a little trampled:) But we did catch up with some of those "fast-er" runners....endurance wins the race everytime! ha!

At the first mile we were very excited that it was only 9:30. Sarah turned to me and said "yeah! let's shoot to make the next one in under 9 minutes!". My reply, "uhhhh.....we still have 5 more to go!". We did average between 9 and 9 1/2 minute miles and both finished in under 1 hour. If they were handing out congenality awards we would get them for sure with all the hi-5's we were giving out to the police men, race volunteers, water people and on-looker-cheer-people that were along the course.

Sarah could have run a lot faster if she wanted but she was being nice and waiting on me! I think I like it better when her bowels are acting up! hardy har har! Just teasing Sarah!! I believe I did so well because Sarah was running 4 seconds in front of me. It was the push i needed to keep up my pace! One great aspect of this race is the last 3/4 mile is downhill!! Sarah did leave me behind towards the end.

On the way home we had fun trying to figure out our pace for each mile. That isn't as easy as it sounds....well maybe it is for some but we kept trying and coming up with numbers that we thought were right and then shaking our heads. I thought we should call up my mother and ask her....hardy har har! I can see the wince(is that the right word??) on her face as she is reading this!

I would love to run a 1/2 marathon this year....but it was hard enough fitting in time to run in preparation for this 10K! How would I do more??!!?? I love to have goals to work for so I just might....you know what would make me do it?? Go ahead and register!

maybe I will......

Snow!

I am still in shock that we got 4 inches of snow Sunday....especially when it is 70 degrees now! We had so much fun trying to make snowmen.

I thought it was so cool how it just rolled up like sod! The bigger the ball got the more pine needles and leaves and dirt if grabbed from the ground!

Here i am trying to get snowball #2 on snowball #1 in order to make the snowman! It was heavy and when i put it on top it fell apart!

This is what we managed to get....can't really see it though!

Frankie and family

We had a great time seeing Rachel and the kids...oh and Frankie too! From L-R Sophia -9, Mariam 6.5, Kayla 11, Luke 12.5, Josh 4.5, and Nate 7.

Not sure what Nate and Josh were doing here....that Josh is so hilarious though! So glad they only live 4 hours away!

Ahhhh! It's snow!

We went to visit my brother and his family in Knoxville TN last weekend and woke up Sunday morning to about 1/2 inch of snow!! Sophia was in HEAVEN! Her older cousins just rolled over in bed wishing her squeals hadn't woken them up!! She promptly went outside in her PJs ( which is just a T-shirt and thin pants)to play. About 5 minutes later she came in to get on a jacket, hat and gloves. This time Mariam(6 yo cousin) joined her.

Nate wasn't that interested!:)