No Stinky Here!

At least.......not yet.

A friend of ours has such a huge heart and takes in all sorts of orphaned animals.

However, this time, I think she took in more than she could handle.

A neighbor had been having problems with an adult skunk spraying their dogs. The neighbor went out and shot the skunk not knowing it was a mama skunk and she was only spraying to protect her babies from their dogs. Once he found out that there were babies, he felt bad and wanted to find a home for the babies. So, naturally, he thought of my friend.

She invited us over the other day to come see the babies.

Oh, my, lord. Are they ever cute!!!

Light had no fear of picking them up. (yes, that is blue stuff around her mouth...think blue snowball).

Yes, she's kissing a skunk.

I love where I live. Simply love it.

Later,

Happy 10th Birthday, Light of My Life!!!


I love you.

Reason #176 Why I Love My Daughter

Well, we all know she rocks. She truly does.

Tuesday morning, when I was getting ready for work and she was sitting on the couch waiting for our neighbors to pull down to the end of the driveway (indicating it's time for the bus), we were watching part of the Today show.

They were talking about Sarah Palin's new book that was coming out and made a mention that it was 400 pages long.

I said, "What on earth could she have to say that would cause a book to be 400 pages long?" and my incredibly clever daughter replied,

"The book must be large print."

***************

Speaking of my incredibly clever, talented and simply gorgeous daughter, she has a new post up at her blog.

It's poetry. Please be gentle to my budding poet.

Click HERE to go there.

Later,

Reason # 342 Why I Love My Child

When asked by an elderly lady if she was a bee, she replied...


...."No ma'am, I'm a MONARCH butterfly."



Halloween costume, 2009

Ever seen a butterfly....excuse me, a MONARCH butterfly....with attitude?

How was your Halloween?

Later,

Boys Will SOOOOOOOO Make Passes.....

.....at this girl who wears glasses.

I'm in trouble, aren't I?

Light had to get glasses. We went last week for the appointment and they told us it would be 10 days before we would get them. They came in 3 days later but I didn't get a chance to pick them up until yesterday.

I wanted to get a couple of photos to post and this is one I got.

All I simply said was, "Hey Light, look at me" and the second she turned towards me, this is the shot I got.

Damn, I'm in so much trouble when she gets older.

Anyone got a shotgun?



Here she is when she first got them.

Here's my silly 9 (not 19) year old girl!

Later,

A Link and Two Photos

Yeah, not very creative, I know.

I have Monday and Tuesday and next Friday off. Light is out of school on Mon and Tues and on Fri, she has a field trip that I wanted to go on, so I'm looking forward to next week.

On Tuesday, she is going to the eye doctor. She seems to be having problems seeing the board at school. Since literally EVERY ONE in our family has glasses, it's inevtible. I just wanted to hold off for a few more years.

Oh, well, at least she looks cute in glasses. At least she looks cute in mine when she tries them on.

***************

The Flip Flop Queen posted a new blog post over at Flip Flops in the Sun.

Go check it out. It's really cute and fun. I had post it for her this morning but she told me what to say and how to post it.

Bossy little thing!

***************

Here's a pic of Nikki taken last night.

She's still a dream dog.


And here's my favorite little man, Max. The original dream dog.

What have y'all got planned for the weekend? Anything fun?

Later,

G-O T-E-A-M!!!

The week before last, LOML went to Jr. Cheer camp.

This is where I pay 30 bucks for her to get a t-shirt she only wears once and stays after school for an hour and a half learning cheers that over half the girls in her "group" forget halfway through their performance.

But...it puts a smile on her face and here in our tiny town, it's almost a given that she'll be widely accepted by EVERYONE for being a cheerleader.

Antiquated? Yes.

Anti-Feminist? Yes.

Fun for her? Sigh....yes.

So, I let her.

She's been dancing since she was 2 1/2 so I can't say that this wasn't inevitable.

Especially in football country.

I was a cheerleader for one whole year. I barely remember it. I was in the fifth grade.

I did dance for 7 years though.

Not that I look like a dancer anymore.

LOML has thighs that could crack a walnut and calf muscles that make you weep for the sheer perfection. She has a dancer's body.

She did have a blast. Her cheerleader coaches (varsity cheerleaders) let her group do a stunt.

LOML got to be 1/3 of a group that held up one of her friends while they did a cheer.

It was so awesome. She was a "spotter".

Here she is in the stands at the game on Friday night. They got to perform at a pep rally at the elementary school that afternoon and later that evening, they got to perform before the game started and during the first quarter.

She's the one staring at the camera with a bewildered look on her face.



Sorry for the bad quality. I didn't have my tripod with me so I didn't get a good shot. This is when they were doing their dance before the game started.

Here she is doing her cheer in the first quarter. Notice she's not hamming it up for me (not like her BFF, L, right next to her!). She's all serious about this.

Here's a vid of her dance.



And here's a vid of her cheer.



I'm such a proud mama!

Later,

Mama Dawg

Summertime

Well, as usual, I'm late on these things. I wanted to get this up before the first day of fall, but alas, it was not meant to be.

We had a pretty good summer here. Granted, I was at work, but still. LOML had a good one. She practically lived at the pool. Turned brown as a berry and that's WITH 60 s.p.f. and multiple applications! She has the same kind of skin as I do. Or, the same kind as I used to have. After having LOML, for some reason, my pigment changed. I blame all the changes to my body on the pregnancy! LOL!

Anyway, when I was cleaning out the back porch one day, I stumbled across this tent that we've never put up or used.

LOML has never been camping and I've only been a few times. The thought of putting up a tent terrified me as I always saw in movies and whatnot how hard it was.

While LOML was off somewhere, I decided to pitch the tent in the yard to the side of the house as a surprise. I figured if we could practice camping in our yard, we'd finally be able to get up the nerve to try it out in the actual wilderness.

LOML doesn't quite understand the whole concept of camping as she decided that it was absolutely necessary to bring in photos and floor chairs and books and whatnot into the tent.


Who am I to correct her?

And to let you know the outcome of the evening.....we were back in the house by 1:30 a.m.

But not because we got scared.

But because Max heard a frog or saw a bat fly in the night or felt an invisible cat walk by him or something and WOULD NOT SHUT UP!!!

He has it in his head that if we're anywhere outside, he has to protect us from EVERYTHING!!! Including the wind.

Poor thing, I know he was only wanting to protect us, but still....c'mon, man. Give it a break! LOL!

We did have fun though. We might try it again in a couple of weeks when the nights are a bit cooler.

Also, for the first time, I brought out the Slip N Slide. For some reason, we have two of these. LOML had never been on one before (my bad, I kept forgetting to get it out for her to use).

I know you're supposed to put them on a flat surface, but it was more fun to do it on a hill. With the end being on the down slope of the hill! LOL!

She had invited her friend M over to play and then they got it in their little heads to play on this. Yes, they are outside in nothing but t-shirts and undies. Remember when you could get away with that?

They had a blast. LOML never really got over her nervousness of going down head first. She would never get a proper running start so she'd always stop halfway down the slide! She would then get to the end by doing flips.

At least she's creative.

This is LOML and Mike after that afternoon of hard play.

Well, hard play for her. Not so much for the lazy cat that sleeps 20 hours a day.

What's so remarkable about this cat is that literally, for the first four years of her life, he WOULD NOT BE IN THE SAME ROOM AS HER.

Now? Look at him! He's really asleep, too.

He lets her make him dance and lets her dress him up in doll clothes.

Where is my old curmudgeon Mike?

Here she is on a Sunday morning before church. The night before, she got it her head to put in curlers and sleep in them overnight.

She wanted curly hair for the next day.

Sigh......she's growing up so quickly. To totally embarrass her, she is now wearing a friggin' BRA!!!

GAH!!!!

And I won't even tell you about the other developments that have occurred. No need to have her commit hari kari before she's 10.

How was your summer?

Later,

Mama Dawg

It's Like Noah's Ark But Not

One of my favorite things about living out in the country is all the animals that surround us. From wildlife like deer, skunks and snakes to domesticated animals (if you can call the kittens that) like dogs, kittens and horses.

We have a friend that lives up the road from us that houses her nephews horses in addition to the 2 older dogs, 2 rescue puppies and 3 rescue kittens.

Needless to say, LOML and I are in HEAVEN when we go over there. And we go often.

In fact, we've been to her house 3 times in the past week alone.

Between using her computer, watching cable TV and playing with the animals, LOML thinks this is equal to going to Disney World.



This is one of the rescue kitties. I love the "evil" squint he has going on. There's another one that looks just like him and the third kitty is grey and white. Of the three, the grey and white one is the friendliest. The others aren't unfriendly, but they just prefer the company of each other rather than humans.

Here's LOML feeding one of the horses an apple slice. This was the first time she had been up close and personal with a horse.

I love the expression on her face after she felt him gently nuzzle her hand and take the slice. Priceless!

Here's a short vid of her feeding the horse. Please excuse my parenting skills. She has this bad habit of talking like a baby sometimes when she's nervous and it drives me crazy!

Here she is holding one of the kittens.

I love seeing her so open and free with all the animals. Makes this animal loving mama's heart proud.

Of course, the cat looks put upon, but oh, well. That's what you get for letting her capture you!

And here she is playing with one of the puppies.

Look at that fat belly! And yes, I am referring to the puppy!

I wish I lived further back on some land so I could have a menagerie like this.

One day....

Later,

Mama "Old McDonald" Dawg

4th Grade

Gah, it's here already.

Yesterday was the first day of school for LOML. 4th grade.

Yeah, I said it. 4th grade.

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.

Here she is eating her breakfast at the kitchen table. Notice the sleepy eyes? Yeah, it's like 6:30 in the morning. I'm usually getting to work at this time and she's just getting ready for school.

I took yesterday off of work to see her off. I've done that every year (except kindergarten when we were evacuated due to Hurricane Katrina) and I wouldn't miss it for the world.

It was raining yesterday morning but cleared up just before she got on the bus. By the afternoon, it was gorgeous outside.



Here's Nikki saying good-bye. She was fascinated with being able to peek in the windows of the car.





Here she is. Off to her first day of 4th grade.

She's HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I soooooooooo wanted to run down the driveway and tackle her in a BIG HUG, but I refrained......barely.

If you click on the pic, you can see the HUGE smile on her face.

The first day of 4th grade went wonderfully. She loves her teacher, she gets to sit next to her friend and she already has homework!

Yeah, that was actually one of the highlights of the day. Already getting homework. It's actually not due until Monday but she couldn't wait to do some work.

Fingers crossed it stays this way FOREVER!

4th grade.....*shaking head*.....I can't believe it's here.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Reason #286 Why I Love My Daughter

We had a mini-Indiana Jones movie marathon. I say mini because we only watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Temple of Doom.

It was LOML's idea and one that I wholeheartedly got behind.

She loves Indiana Jones so much, that after we watched the Indy show at DHS, she bought an 8 x 10 and a 4 x 6 picture of Indy to frame and hang in her room.

But the real reason I love her love of Indy?

When we got to the part where Indy has found the entrance to the temple to get to the ark, he threw down his torch and right before he said those infamous words, my 9 year old girlie girl hollered out:

"Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?"



My heart burst in pride.

I love you, my Indiana Jones quoting girl.

Love,

Mama

'Tis the Season

Wonder what LOML is up to now that school's out for the summer?

No clue.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Dancing Queen

Soooooo....Friday night was LOML's 7th dance recital.

Other than the fact that the song to her tap routine was pretty lame and the cowboy "jacket" was god-awful tight on their little arms, it was a wonderful recital.

Well......at least as far as my kid was concerned.

I'm not one of those parents that enjoy dance recitals. I'm that parent that wants all three of my kids dances to be right at the beginning so we can be home in time for dinner.

But, that's not ever gonna happen.

Luckily, I only have to sit and watch about 3 routines before I have to get up again to go help her change into her next outfit.

There's something to be said for the small miracles in life.

Anywho, you now get to see photos and a short video of my completely AWESOME kid at her dance recital.

And yes, you have to watch the video. Why? Because when I visit your site, I watch yours. So there....phhhbbbttt!

This is her first dance. It's a tap dance and was set to "The Hamster Dance" song. The most annoying song on the face of the earth.

This was her idea for a pose. She's so clever.

Here's the full effect of the outfit. Yeah, not my favorite one.






Here she is dancing away!

This is her most awesome jazz outfit. They danced to "Old Blue Jeans" by Miley Cyrus and they rocked the house. These are her own jeans. I love how they saved us some money on the costumes by letting us use our own. I love this outfit and I love this dance.

At the last minute, they made a change and decided to put LOML in the center of the routine! She did more than hold her own! She TOOK CHARGE!

Here's the short vid of her dancing away. Isn't she awesome? She's got that dance NAILED, baby!

This is her sweet ballet costume. They danced to "Breathe" but don't ask me who it's by. I have no clue.

Here she is...posing with some random lady in the background. I love how the laces on one of her shoes is undone. She is soooooo me.

Here she is with her great-grandmother. I call her Mee-Maw but LOML calls her G.G. (for great grandmother). G.G. is 84 years old and managed to come out for her recital. That's dedication, y'all. I love her to pieces for this.

Thanks for watching!

Later,

Mama Dawg

Our Easter

Yeah, I don't have a wittier title. Sorry.

We had a nice Easter. On Saturday, LOML went to my aunt's church. They were having an Easter Egg hunt for kids in the neighboring area.

Funny story.....the preacher there (who's new) knew my aunt C back in school. Per her, he was her first kiss.

LOML knows this story and when we were over at my grandmother's house the next day telling my aunt M all about the egg hunt, I mentioned that my aunt C had said that she knew him back in school and LOML spoke up and said in a "knowing" voice, "Mmmm, hmmmm, yeah, we know how they know each other".

I about died!

(LOML is the one with the black leggings)

(Here she is on the jumpy thing. I hate these things.)

Later that night, we came home and dyed Easter eggs.

(Me thinks perhaps the doggies might be a wee bit interested in what she's doing. Look at that concentration.....on LOML AND the dogs!)

(Here's our set up and the blank canvasses, so to speak.)






(This is my favorite egg color...well, at least one of them!)

(Done!)

Later that night, LOML decided that she needed to leave the Easter Bunny a note advising him (her?) that we now have Max the dog and that he (she?) might want to be careful when hiding the eggs.

(Her haul...behind the candy is an I Spy book, Brain Quest 4th grade, socks, a c.d. make-up, notebooks, a new frisbee.....etc...)

(Here she is finding an egg on my car.)

(Here we are all dressed in our Easter finest. Since losing 25+ lbs and going down two dress sizes, I can finally wear a dress again! Yay me! I fell in love with my dress immediately. I adore LOML's as well.)

After church, we headed over to my grandmother's to show off our dresses and to hide eggs with my aunt C.

(Here's LOML finding some hidden plastic eggs.)

(Found another one!)

(My aunt C was sneaky and hid one behind the window screen.)

(Here's one pooped out pup. He was up all the night before chasing that damn bunny!)

Happy Tuesday!

Later,

Mama Dawg