The Dog Whisperer

After spending an entire morning watching a DVD of The Dog Whisperer,
here is what I have learned:

1) Exercise, discipline, then attention...(this is what the dog whisperer lives by)

2)There are no bad dogs, just bad dog owners

3) My dog/puppy needs him. Do you think my husband will let me fly him in from CA?

"Great" Aunt

I have decided this:

if Clara and Teddy want to call me "Great Aunt"

it Has to be preceded by

"MY FAVORITE",

and then I'm cool with that particular moniker!

Alarm-ING

Be glad that you do NOT live next door to me.
After 20 years in our house, at 3:00 am this morning,
our alarm system decided to go haywire.

No, we did not turn the alarm on*....

No, we had no idea how to get the alarm to stop.....
keep in mind that the outside horn alarm is going off as well and it is as loud as the air raid drill siren. After 30 minutes of trying the code, pushing every button we could think of,we finally went into the basement and --wonder of wonders--there was an off switch.

Why we didn't think of THAT 20 minutes into the earsplitting alarm is a mystery to both of us. Probably because we are both OLD and we were woken out of a sound sleep.

When we were finally back in bed, husband says:
"Do you think it odd that we didn't even CONSIDER it might be a real alarm?"
ME: That would be hard to do considering we haven't alarmed the alarm for over 15 years."
Husband: "OH"



*we have not used our alarm because we have forgotten the code. When it was first put in, it was right at eye level for our 5 year old and everytime he walked by, he would push the fire alarm button. We never had it attached to the fire house just for that reason. Eventually, when we could use it, we figured we didn't really need to. So we decided to just ignore it. If we ever sell the house, I guess we will update it but for now, it is off and will remain off. My heart can not take that much excitement at 3:00 am!!!!

Dinner

Would you expect that when you go to a fund raiser
-where the tickets were $250 per person-

that you would:

1) be served that meal at 10:00pm and
2) it would be cold?

I think not, too.......

One TV show I really like

Although my husband will tell you differently, I do not watch much TV...True, I have it on alot but that is because I like the noise in the background. But one show I really like and would recommend is this:
Sunday Morning

Thanks to my baby sister, I have become hooked on this show. It is so informative and has so many things on it, I love to watch and see what they will cover each week.
I have learned alot from this show.

As much as I enjoy these 2 shows
House
and
Monk
I don't turn them on every week because I forget when they are on....if I see them, then I am glued to the TV.
I also love to watch HGTV and Animal planet but I don't go out of my way to see anything particular on these stations.

So, if you are free on Sunday morning before your day gets started, give it a try. It is on CBS and I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do.

Another dog story

I know I know.....unless you have or had a puppy recently this is probably becoming tiresome reading about the puppy but this was funny even to me....

I went to Obedience class --with the puppy!- and as we were working, I couldn't get him to sit without backing up...tried and tried and finally the trainer came over "to show me how".

You would think I had never taken a dog to obedience before....she marched Clancy around the ring and he sat EVERY SINGLE time for her in the correct position. As she gave him back to me she commented that maybe I should be a "little more forceful and show him who is boss."

Well, I told this to the next door neighbor who is 26 and has lived next to me for 20 years and his comment was:

K: Gee, Mrs. O. I bet you wish you had a nickel for everytime someone has said that to you.
Me: Well K......it was pretty interesting
K: you'd probably have...what? a nickel?
Me: ummmm.....probably!

This is only funny if you can picture ANYONE telling ME I need to be more forceful about anything!

Let's take a moment.....

My heart is sad for all the parents that woke up this morning and their lives are irrevocably changed forever by a young man with a gun.



My thoughts and prayers are with all of those whose lives were changed today.

Happy 87th Birthday, Motherinlaw!

>


Hope you have many more to come!!!

Can your dog do this?

I heard a funny noise and couldn't figure out what it was.....so I looked in the laundry room and saw this:



The funnier part was trying to get him out.....

Something I found funny

I wish I was more computer savy....there is probably an easier way to do this but I did find these very funny. Hope you enjoy.

http://www.jibjab.com/what_we_call_the_news

http://www.jibjab.com/nuckin_futs

A funny thing happened on the way to Honduras...

The beautiful thing about family is you get to know them REALLY well over the years.
They get to learn about you and you get to learn about them....good and bad...
whether they are eccentric or funny or nuts or whatever.

I have vacationed a lot with my inlaws....most notably at Camp

I have my own eccentricities....my inlaws will tell you I am a neat freak at camp among other less favorable characteristics!!!but I am accepted....at least by some of the family members that we vacation with...others....not so much ---
~~
While in Arizona, my 86 y/o motherinlaw was with us.. she is an awesome lady. She drives herself all over the country...and does it very well...just recently she flew from Mexico to Santa Barbara, rented a car and drove to San Diego and then drove from San Diego to Tuscon, Arizona. Once she got to her destination in Arizona, one of her sons wanted her to come on vacation with them down in Honduras.

Now, for most of us, we would have been EXHAUSTED, but not her.
She jumped(ok-- fast walked) in her rent a car and drove to the airport to make the proper arrangements.....but she had forgotten that she had picked up a mattress (the size of a chaise lounge but lots thicker) in Santa Barbara that had belonged to her younger brother(who has been dead almost 10 years and had been stored in her daughter's garage all this time.) This mattress was in the back of her rental car when she got to the airport.
She was bringing it to Arizona to decide what to do with it.

(I know, I know....most of us would have pitched it.....10 years ago!)

So, here she is at the rental car place when she realizes she still has this mattress with her.
MIL: "Can you store this for me until I get back at the end of the week?"
RENTAL CAR PERSON: "Ma'am, we don't do that sort of thing."
MIL" " well, you used to."
RCP: "yes, ma'am, we used to but not now."
MIL: "Can I leave it here anyway?"
RCP: " No Ma'am, that won't be possible."
MIL: "I don't have time to take it back home. "
RCP: "Well, ma'am you can take it as luggage to your destination."
MIL: "Really?"
RCP: " Yes, it doesn't cost anything."

...so they tied it up, put a name tag on it and she took it to Honduras with her--as LUGGAGE-- with the thought that someone in Honduras would want it.

If I tell you she came home to AZ with it would you be surprised?

Apparently, the people of Honduras know a bad deal when they see one!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all!


I am having Easter-cooking for 12.

My sisterinlaw and I switch Easter and Thanksgiving and it is my turn this year.

When our kids were little, we decided that they needed to have their own holidays at their own house. Since we always spend Christmas at grandma's(because she has all the tableware and space for 22-or 32- or 42!), we do the other 2 biggies. Usually we do every other which means in one year we each do the holiday. It has worked out really well for us. We switch when we need to and now that our kids are grown we rotate with another sisterinlaw.

This all leads up to this.....

You have to remember to tell all parties involved when plans change.

On Thanksgiving (06), I was having it. It was going to be a smallish group-6 to 8-so no sweat. The other sisterinlaw we rotate with decided it would be a good idea to combine her group and have a larger celebration.
No problem...I would just transport the stuff (not the turkey) and it would all be good.
While doing the Turkey Trot the morning of Thanksgiving with a bunch of relatives coming for dinner, one nephew happened to overhear this:
"I'll see you later back here."
D: "What?"
T: "I'll see you later here(his house)."
D: "What? Isn't Aunt N*** having it? That's where I was invited."
T: " Well, we switched and we're having it."
D: " Must've missed that memo."

so, had he shown up at the house, he would have thought something bad had happened. I had cooked a small turkey (for leftovers for us)and it was on top of the stove, made a vegetable dish for the vegetarians in the family (the daughter and the niece in law to be:))and left some home, 2 pies were on the counter (I made 6 so I left some for us) and the table was partially set.
I am sure he would've freaked if he had actually shown up and seen the mess I left.

Sorry about leaving you out of the loop, D. Won't happen again! and yes,

Easter IS at the house---really.

See you later.

The West Girls

I should probably let my younger sister write this as she is quite the writer and has a better way with words.
but......

There are 3 of us girls....

I am the middle and V is 17 months older than me and T is 17 months younger than me.

We were all towheaded little blonde girls...stair steps if you will...
(don't you love the hair?? Mom, whatever were you thinking?)





and we are probably best described as indescribable.

In many ways we are very much alike.
We are bossy
We are bitchy
We are always right
We are outspoken
We always like to have the last word
We love to tell people what to do
We like things done OUR way
We are blunt
We are friendly and outgoing
We are from West Virginia (although, none of us live there currently)
We are all, interestingly, in the medical field (nurse anesthetist, xray tech, nurse)

Many have said we are a force to be reckoned with.

Certainly our husbands have a club of their own and I don't think I want to be around when they are talking about living with a West girl!--and they can write their own damn blog about us!!!

Our dad was a state policeman and that sets the tone for how we were raised.
A very blunt, smart, likable fellow unless you were a boy wanting to date one of his daughters

There is nothing like the memory of Dad meeting our dates at the door in his underwear (tidy whities) and requesting the time they would be bringing his daughter home. Let me tell you, it is a wonder we ever went out at all....and forget that sneaking around stuff.....that would be like not happening--at least I wasn't willing to attempt it....the sisters will have to fess up themselves if that is in their background.

I guess you could say that we have alot of similar characteristics....
We are (according to some) bright, blonde, fit(ok I am stretching that a bit for me.....) we have integrity, we are organized..sometimes to the point of obsession, we are good mothers, wives, daughters, friends, sisters, aunts, inlaws, and we are usually law abiding(comes from living with a policeman).

Interestingly, we are very intimidating to those who don't know us...

When my nephew(Mr. Opera) broke up with one of his girlfriends,
the comment was made that
she didn't think she could have an aunt like me....

hmmmmm .... was that because I gave her the standard 20 questions that I give all of my kids friends, nieces and nephews friends/ significant others, etc.??????


Her loss.


My niece in law(B) had the same feeling but I think I've grown on her after all these years!

I am not sure why they feel this way.

My dad always said you could put us in a room with a bunch of sledgehammers and we would come out with a life history on each one.(Ok this is a WVA reference!)


To be fair....we all probably care about this a bit but not so much that it will curtail our comments to you. I am not hard to read....an open book I am. NO hidden agendas, not manipulative, not mean....just blunt and friendly(my word..nosey..everyone else's).

We are good guests (thanks to mom-- we clean up after ourselves)
We always come with something when invited over
We are thoughtful
We help out even if your blood family won't
We are nondiscriminatory friends
We would give you the shirt off our backs if you need it
We would help you down the slide if the plane goes down
We ask(and mean it) about your kids/family
We are not shy
We talk to strangers....lots of them

So, if you find us all a bit difficult to deal with or be around, I would suggest you think about what your life would be like if you didn't know one of us or someone like us.


I always tell my husband his life would be very boring......




........ he says he would like to try boring just once!

icky puppy story

Is there anything ickier than your puppy who has pooed and now has a sock hangin' out of his rear-end and there is NO WAY to get it out unless someone (guess who that would be???) pulls it?

I need to go wash my hands.......again.

The Grand Canyon

What do you expect to see when you go on vacation to the Grand Canyon?


Let me be the first to tell you the LAST thing we expected was SNOW!!!!!!!!

Here is a picture of us on our first day at the Grand Canyon.


Notice you can't see much of the Grand Canyon due to the snow.


Now, we knew it was going to be cooler when we got to the Canyon....
we even planned for it--I took a very warm, fuzzy warm up suit plus a windbreaker-- as that seemed to be the correct attire.
My sisterinlaw took a wool sweater, cotton sweater, jeans, wind breaker;
my motherinlaw took 2 sweaters-although, she ended up with her daughter's windbreaker as we couldn't find one of the sweaters;
the husband had NO IDEA it would be cold in the Canyon and only had his little yellow sweat shirt
and we all had on socks and shoes---believe me---some people did not..

The first day we were there--

--it was 27 degrees, snowy, WINDY--

something you don't want on the top of the canyon!!!--

When we got up for sunrise--see the picture- -which was @ 6:23



it was 14 degrees......


Were we cold? You betcha.
Did we mind? You betcha.....we HAVE the correct attire--back in our closets at home.
Would we do it again? IN a heartbeat...



cold or not it was an awesome trip.