Yay!

A few weeks ago, Whitney called me to share with me that she was going to be a momma!  She's due in Feb of 14.  Yay!   I'm so excited for her. 

She's nervous and excited too...

I can't believe she's having a baby.  I mean...isn't she only 12?  Didn't time stop when she left our house?  Oh..it didn't?  Man...

My girl is having a baby!  AHHH!!!  I can't even wrap my mind around it.  Time is moving too fast! 

:)

Family Fun

4th of July was a busy day – we had so much fun.  During the day, we went to Aunt Vicki’s for our annual family 4th of July party.  We had lots of yummy food, swimming and conversation.

That evening we watched fireworks and set off some as well w/Shannon & Johnny. They had more delicious food, and were totally awesome company.

The following day, we were invited out to a house that Sarah, Aunt Sandy & Aaron had rented for the week. 
We stayed the night and had an absolute blast!!!  We swam…a lot..went on a boat ride, swam some more, sat around the fire and enjoyed our time together.
Cadence lucked out and was asked to stay the night, again, to play with Madison.

On the way home, we stopped at my Gramma’s for fireworks at her campground.  We got there in late afternoon, so we sat around talking and catching up.  We went out for dinner and headed back to the campground to wait for the fireworks.  Because of the rain, they cancelled them and have rescheduled them for next weekend. 

It was also a special weekend to me because Whitney joined us.  I love being able to spend time with her, though sometimes, it makes me mad about what we missed out on for the last 7 years.  But, we have a whole future to make up for lost time.
I hope your 4th was as fun as ours!

Dog Stuff

Thanks to my dad, I have always been an animal lover.  Bringing home strays was almost like a hobby to my dad…one that drove my mother insane – haha.
I think the dog that I can think of the furthest back was Holly.  She was a husky/GSD mix.  She was smaller, probably 35-40 lbs.  She was so sweet.  In true husky fashion, she loved running.  I think I was maybe 10 when she had taken off – not that this was a new thing on her behalf – but unfortunately, she was hit by a car and died.

About that same age, I talked my parents into letting me get my own cat.  Oh sure, we had dozens of cats in and out of the house, but I was allowed to name and keep my very own.  I named her Precious.  The only way I was allowed to keep her was if I got her fixed.  So I saved my babysitting money (yep, I was babysitting at 10 yrs old!) and took her to the vet and got her fixed.
She was the most awesome cat. Ever.  As I said, we had a lot of pets during my childhood, but she was special b/c she was MINE.  She died when she was 8, which is far too young for a cat.  She inhaled a cleaner and it burned her lungs.  The emergency vet had told me she had a 50/50 chance of survival when I dropped her off at 4 in the morning.  They called me about 15 mins after I walked back in my house at 5:30, to tell me she didn’t make it.  I picked up her body a few hours later and buried her near my house.  It was a terrible few weeks…that cat had gotten me through rough stuff during my hs years.  I expected her to be around a lot longer.
Besides Holly & Precious, we had Buzzy, Snoopy, Puppy (I think after a while, you run out of names b/c you have so many – haha), Josephine, Yarborough (my dad was a big racing fan), GiGi, Cherokee, Ms. Kitty, Cutie, Shotgun…huh…I’m starting to blank out on names…I can picture them…but their names escape me.
I carried my love of animals into adulthood and had no problem finding strays to bring home.  The first, Bubby, was a terri-poo that I saved when I was 19.  When Dennis & I moved in together, he came with me.  No doubt my mom was thankful for that.  We saved a dog named Sammy, who was supposed to be for our elderly neighbor, but ended up being too strong for her and so he stayed with us. Finishing off the original Fabulous Four, were our cats, Doobie & Toni. 
Life was good…then our neighbor passed away and we had to move b/c her family was selling the duplex. 

We moved in w/some friends of ours, where pets were not allowed.  The Fabulous Four went w/my parents.  Bubby & Sammy got out of the yard and even though I had signs up, ads run, and pounds called, we never found them.  I can only hope a family found them and fell in love.
After about 6 wks, we moved in w/my mom & dad.  My great-grandfather had just passed away and his house was empty.  We decided to move to FL, to his house, where we would be a mile away from my grandma.  She hated cats.  So we couldn’t take Doobie and Toni with us.  We found them great homes, they went to friends of my sister.

We had gotten a puppy, Sandie Paws, and thankfully, she was allowed to come with us.  She was our baby!
Upon moving back to OH, we rescued Scooby…a few months later we saved Quinn & Bella, two strays from the same litter, that our shitty neighbors had dumped.  My sister found a cat wandering a bad neighborhood and brought her to us…Sativa.  So now we had the Fantastic Five. 

Getting 3 dogs fixed at once was an expensive bill that I knew would really hurt us.  We had just moved back from Fl months before and I wasn’t working yet.  We were trying to figure out how to pay for this when someone told me Planned Pethood might be able to help us. 

I contacted them, explaining how we came about 3 dogs in such a short amount of time and could they help.
They did – all 3 dogs fixed for free!  We started volunteering.  First by walking dogs that were kenneled, waiting for a foster home to open up.  Then by fostering.  That was pure insanity.  The most dogs we ever had at once was 12.  our 4, 5 pups and 3 foster dogs.  The puppies were temporary, only for the weekend, but whoa – it was stressful.  However, we didn’t have kids and we weren’t getting pregnant and I needed to focus on something so I would quit being heartbroken by negative pregnancy tests.
Foster, after foster were brought home and adopted out.  It was a nice feeling to know that we were helping these stray dogs, found on the streets or in the pounds, from being put to sleep and find forever homes.
During all these fosters coming and going, we adopted one, Gizzie, making our bunch the Super Six.
Because my pregnancy was high-risk and I was doing shots all over my stomach, we quit fostering for awhile.  We did a few dogs after Cadence was a couple years old, stopped again until just recently.
Dog rescue is a passion to me.  I think about it all the time, wishing I could do more.  Recently, one of the people that I have met long ago, suggested that a group of rescue people start our own dog rescue.  How exciting is that??!!!
Excitingly, we have started working on getting Black Swamp Pound Dogs up and running!
Check out our facebook page – like it, share it and keep checking back for updates. 
Black Swamp Pound Dogs Facebook Page

Most important, Thank you Dad for giving me the heart for this!

Oblivious

I know some people don’t know how to handle upsetting news about others. For instance, you say ‘my dog died’. Usually a pat on the back & “I’m sorry” is a common response from acquaintances. Friends will give you a hug, also tell you ‘I’m soo sorry’ and ask how you’re doing ‘for real’. Either friend or acquaintance may share what it was like when something similar happened to them.


The last sentence annoys me sometimes. I mean, I do it, I know I do. As a matter of fact, when I hear myself doing it – I try to stop mid-sentence without making it look obvious.

To me, I’m not sure which is worse, just saying I’m sorry or saying ‘well when it happened to me, I did this’. If I’m on the receiving end of this, I feel like, well maybe I shouldn’t drag out my sorrow b/c this person didn’t. Or maybe I’m not feeling sad enough b/c this person mourned for so much longer.

When I’m on the giving end, I think, would I want to hear this? I mean, I’m not trying to be mean or rude in the least, but I really doubt they want advice about how I handled my pain b/c sometimes, it almost feels like that means I’m playing down their pain. Like, oh if you have animals, they die and it’s something everyone deals with it. This is how I handled it…You’ll be fine.

I know that is not what is meant. I know that you’re trying to comfort the person. Instead, I now try to comfort them with their memories of their lost loved one, and saying, ‘I remember how hard it is, if I can help, please let me know…I’m always here to listen.’

And while I’m ranting, I hate to hear ‘You’ll be okay/You’ll get through this..’ Well no shit. I know I’m going to survive this, but it doesn’t lessen what I’m feeling and right now, I just want to…cry, yell, be mad at the world, etc. So do NOT tell me I’ll be ok!!

Someone that I've recently become acquainted with texted me to let me know that the u/s tech believes her new pregnancy had quit developing. My heart broke for her. She’s previously suffered 2 miscarriages. We’ve discussed our miscarriage experiences and how people react to them many times.

When she told me what had been said at her u/s, my heart broke. I do remember how terrible it is. I let her know if she needed to talk/cry/yell, I would gladly listen. That was all she needed to know. She didn’t need to know what I did when I had my miscarriages, she didn’t need to know how I felt during those times.

I shared with mutual acquaintinces so that no one would ask her how her appt went (it’s like getting punched in the stomach – you’re putting on a brave face and then some unknowing person tears it off with a simple ‘Sooo..do you have any u/s pics?’)…one person responded “Well, it just wasn’t meant to be.”

I.HATE.THAT.RESPONSE.

It wasn’t meant to be? My child, whom I’ve been growing in my womb wasn’t meant to be born? Why? Did he/she do something wrong?

I know, deep down they mean well, but when you lose a parent/friend/family member, and you tell me this news, I'll reply “I’m so sorry, but their life just wasn’t mean to be.” Would it be ok to reply that way?

Some people don’t believe that miscarriages mean anything. There was a chromosome defect, and since they were never born they weren't a ‘real baby’, it’s better this way then them suffering in a cruel world with a defect.

Right, well it was my child and oh hey – I see you have 2 or 3 of your own that drive you crazy – but I’d like that feeling. The overwhelming, these kids are gonna push me over the edge, feeling. It’s a lot better than – I have no child to cuddle with, kiss their boo-boo’s, read to or watch grow.

I’m thankful for my girls. EVERY day I thank God for them. They are my life. I prayed for so long to have them. I went through 3 miscarriages before I finally was able to give birth to my beautiful Princess.

Think before you speak…don’t be the oblivious party to sad news….I stood in an emergency room disrobing for an exam while bleeding so bad it was running down my legs. I felt the worse pressure I had (up to that point) ever felt. As I was trying to breathe through the pain, out dropped my baby, right onto the floor. A pile of blood, tissue and baby being scooped into a large specimen jar is all I remember. My baby..in a jar. Not in my arms being comforted and kissed. In a jar. In a lab. Dead.

You’re right, ‘it wasn’t meant to be’ makes total sense.