One Wedding and Two Dogs

It has taken me a few days to post about this past weekend. I have had a SUPER hectic week at work this week. It's History Camp at the museum and it has been utterly ridiculous. I have been too tired to even think when I get home. I will have to post about camp next week when I have a few moments to relax and reflect on what I learned there. This past weekend was a wonderful weekend full of family and friends. I spent all day Saturday and most of Sunday at my parents swimming with the pups. Poor old Oscar had to stay inside. His old back just is giving him fits and he wasn't up to the swimming fun. He was pitiful. He would get up on the stairs inside my parents house so he could look out the french doors to see what we were doing. It broke my heart because he loves it so. The other two, had a blast, however. Brutus more so than JR, which is odd because it was the other way around last year. Here is old Brutus patrolling for random sticks to get out of the water. He needs to swim, because ole' chunk-a-lunk has gotten a little fat. So fat, his life jacket barely fit!

 And sweet JR looking for anything dangerous in the water before gingerly proceeding into the water. {he melts my heart, FYI. Him with his Eeyore face!}

 And Brutus with his find of the day. An old football that was left out from last summer. As you can see, the leather has begun to come off, but it was perfectly deflated enough that he could grasp it in his mouth. He would have had me throw this into the water for him to retrieve all day long if I would do it. As a matter of fact, I couldn't get him to even come inside. When I tried to take the boys inside, Brutus would run from me and jump in the water and swim to the other side and just look at me with a look that said "Yeah, I'm Brutus. I don't want to go inside. I'm gonna stay here as long as I want. What are you going to do about it?" He is definitely strong willed! 

 And last but not least, one of my oldest and dearest friends got married this past weekend to the most wonderful man. I have known this girl since we were about two years old. She was probably the number one reason I got spankings when I was little every Sunday after church. Apparently, we liked to talk and act up in church. But somehow our parents always allowed us to sit together!! Weird. I am just so happy for her. She looked amazing. I loved her dress. The night was just perfect. And me being a sap, I just love weddings and what they signify. I wish the two of them all the love and happiness!

 Isn't her dress gorgeous? Very Princess Kate. ;)

And here I am with the beautiful bride. I heart this woman. She is an awesome friend and has been for the 28 years I've known her. Love you, Becki!

Birthdays, Turtles, and Snakes

I have to say that I had a great Memorial Day weekend. I went home to Blountstown on Friday because it was my mother's birthday. Here she is with her birthday candle blower-outer helper, Barrett. Barrett helped me decorate mom's cake. Can you tell? 

Barrett was in love with those cheap little cake decorating letters. He thought they were the coolest thing in the world. Guess Sissy got some cool points for that!

Saturday I went to a bridal luncheon for one of my best friends. She is getting married next weekend. I can't believe that the wedding is almost here! She found a wonderful man to marry and I am so happy for the two of them. I can't wait to see what a beautiful bride she makes. While I was at the luncheon, my mother, aunt, and cousin went to St. George Island to go to the beach. Since it was too late in the day for me to drive down and join them, I decided to go to Panama City and go shopping. (what else? haha) That turned out to be trip number one to Panama that day. Later that night, a group of friends went back to Panama to go to dinner and watch a movie. We had a wonderful evening of laughing and fun. On the way home, we got to listen to the musical stylings of my cousin Stacey. I tried to tune it out and sleep, but for some reason that wasn't happening!

Sunday I worked my little butt off with my daddy. We have a swimming hole behind our house and daddy had it drained so he could clean up the grass that was growing in it and remove some of the mud that has accumulated over the years. Even Oscar joined in on the cleaning up fun. I shouldn't have let him out there due to his back problems, but he had so much fun, I couldn't resist letting him swim and play in the mud.

Above is what the creek looked like on Saturday. And with two water pumps going, this is what it looked like on Sunday:

And after walking around in that mud all day, I looked like I had just gotten some tribal tattoos done on my legs!

It was a messy job, but the creek will be so pretty and sandy after all of our hard work. Later that night, we went to our friend, Brett's house to a half-and-half party. His wife came home out of the blue three weeks ago and demanded a divorce. He is letting her keep the house, but he wasn't going to let her keep half of the meat they had recently gotten from having a cow slaughtered. So we feasted on steaks! I like the way he thinks. He has a fish pond on his property, so later that night we went out to get half the fish out of the pond. (ha ha) We threw out a large cast net and came up with tons of catfish, bream, and what else? An alligator snapping turtle. This thing was huge! Of course, the kids wanted to get close to the action, but this guy was super mad. I wish I had taken pictures, but I didn't. Sadly, this is not where my story with scary reptiles ends.

Sunday, a bunch of us went down the Chipola river to go sit on the sandbar and relax. It was a gorgeous day!

Let me set the scene: We were all sitting in the water kind of like the above picture. There was me, Brett, and Keith sitting with our backs to the current. In front of us was Brad, Stacey, and Barrett. Barrett was splashing around in his little blow up ring. We were all talking and laughing. I looked behind me and about two feet behind me was a snake coming right up in between me and Brett. I about died! I stood up and looked at Brett and yelled SNAKE!! I have never witnessed a bunch of grown men get up so fast. Stacey snatched Barrett's ring and drug him to safety all the while his poor little head was hanging down into the water. She didn't even look back to see if she was drowning him in the process of trying to get him away from the snake! Needless to say, we had a critter filled weekend, made some good memories, and had lots of fun. Hopefully we will get to do it again next weekend!

Again, sorry for the randomness of this post. It was a random weekend!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Just wanted to wish my beautiful mother a very Happy Birthday today! I cannot expressed how blessed I am to have this woman be my mother for the past 29 years. She has made sacrifices for me, loved and nurtured me, and made me the person I am today. I am truly blessed to have a mother like her. So Happy Birthday, Mimi! I love you!!



Productive Day at Work

Yep. I have been super productive at work lately.....doing arts and crafts! I have been searching high and low looking for activities for our kids to do at History Camp. This is one of the crafts that we will be making on Victorian day, a spool puppet. I had to try it out to make sure that little kids could do it. If you notice, my puppet is decked out in his orange and blue finest, getting ready for football season. Ha ha! And no, I did not draw the scary robot face on him. My co-worker, Ephraim decided that he needed to be decorated and drew that horrendous face on my precious little doll I spent 30 minutes making. I found this craft in a very cute American Doll book that tells about each of the American girls. It gives different theme ideas for old-fashioned parties, crafts, and recipes. I love this book. It had some really neat ideas in it. Hopefully one day the good Lord will bless me with a little girl so I can take her to the American Doll store. I need an excuse to go and pick out cute doll stuff, since I am a little over the age range! So this is what has been occupying my days here lately, History Camp planning. Can't wait til the kiddos arrive! I have another craft for Victorian day and that is to draw each kids silhouettes and put them in a frame. I tried to get Ephraim to let me draw his outline, but for some reason he wouldn't let me do it. I can't imagine why, it's not weird or anything to stand in front of a light and then let someone draw your profile! The things that go on here at the museum are hilarious. I do believe I have one of the funnest jobs in the world! Oh yeah, I have been practicing on the old 1880 pump organ that we have here in the museum. The lady that usually plays the pump organ for the campers is unavailable this year. So since I play the piano, that leaves me. Somehow I got volunteered for this job!  I have to admit, playing the pump organ is super hard! I am not coordinated enough to play the keys and constantly pump the pedals back and forth with my feet to keep the thing playing. I feel sorry for my co-workers having to listen to me practice. I think I want to find some Phantom of the Opera music to play for the kids, since it is super creepy listening to that organ play. So yes, I am super productive at work these days.

Birth Pains

"Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come." Matthew 24:7-8


I have to admit with all the May 21st rapture talk, tornadoes, floods, wars, tsunamis, and earthquakes going on, it's hard not to see these things as birth pains getting ready for the second coming of Christ. Just this morning waking up to see the tornadoes rip through Joplin, MO is enough to break your heart so soon after the destruction in Alabama. All you have to do is look around at this depraved world and see that Jesus is desperately needed. We are told to keep watch and to do what is right and what is good until the day that we are either taken from this earth or the Lord returns. We never know when either of those scenarios will take place. "However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven of the Son himself. Only the Father knows." Matthew 24:.36 So, don't get too caught up in the hype like the guy from California and all of his 5-21-11 rapture stuff or the 2012 doomsday predictions. Just keep being obedient to the Lord and like the parable of the two servants later in Matthew 24, you will be rewarded, not assigned to the place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Do what you can to witness for the Lord and help those who have been touched by all these disasters.  Pray for these people and remember that these things have to take place because it is written in the good book itself. My prayers are with everyone who has been touched by these destructions.

It Doesn't Take Much ...

...to make me a happy gal! I usually go to the store every morning and gather up a bunch of goodies to take with me to work that day. My usual granola bar and juice for breakfast, a Coke Zero for the afternoon, maybe a pack of crackers, and if I am splurging a candy bar or some candy. (I know I should really buy this stuff at the grocery store, but I like to have my options every day. Ha Ha) That's when I happened to look and saw this:

I have loved Chex Muddy Buddies ever since our chance meeting at a Vacation Bible School one year when I was younger. I. Love. Them. What's not to love? Chocolate, peanut butter, powdered sugar, and cereal. However, I hate making it from scratch. It is somewhat messy. So you can imagine my happiness when I saw this bag staring back at me from the convenience store display. Love at first sight. Told you it didn't take much to make me happy.

And speaking of VBS, I am bummed that I don't get to help out this year with the one at my church. The museum I work at does an annual History Camp for kids and of course it's the same week. I have always loved Bible School. It's just something about watching kids learn about Jesus that is so precious. But this year, I still get to love on some children and watch them grow a love for history (not even close to some Jesus, though!). I am thinking about making some Muddy Buddies for a snack one day for the kids, so that will make me happy!! I am looking forward to our camp though. Each day has a different theme from a period during the county's history. The days are: Native American day, Pioneer day, Antebellum/Civil War day, Victorian day, and 20th Century day. I am super pumped. However, I've got to learn how to do the Virginia Reel, so that I can teach the kids on Antebellum day. And if you are unfamiliar with the Virginia Reel, it's the dance from Gone with the Wind, in which Rhett bids for Scarlet to dance with him at the Confederate Bazaar. Should be fun times. I hear that the boys (3rd-6th graders, I might add) always throw a fit to "have to touch a girl" to do this dance. I can't wait!!

Anyways, this is a very random post. I just realized that. And on Oscar news, that dog is amazing! He has bounced back so well. He is like a young pup again. I guess that his back had been hurting him for a while now and now that he is on that medicine, it's like he realizes that he can move without pain. It is so awesome and I am so thankful that God was merciful to me and helped my little baby out! 

**And this is for my cousin Stacey who has a hatred for my history stories:

It is said that the first viewing of Gone with the Wind was not in Atlanta, it was actually in Thomasville. Mr. Whitney that owned Greenwood Plantation was one of the investors in the movie and it is said that he showed the first viewing of Gone with the Wind here in Thomasville at the Showboat Theatre on Melhana Plantation. It is also said that his plantation, Greenwood was the inspiration for the fictional Twelve Oaks Plantation. And you can see why.

Poor Pookie

Oscar will be seeing a lot of his bed in the next few weeks. He gave his mother quite the scare over the weekend. He became very lethargic (even more so than he normally is! ha ha), didn't want you to touch him, yelped whenever he would try to move from a laying down position. He just looked like he was in a lot of pain. It totally scared me to death. At one point, he crawled under the bed. When I went to check on him, he would not lift his head, make any kind of movement or anything. I even rattled a bag of Chex Mix Muddy Buddies to entice him to look at me for a treat. Nothing. I reached under and grabbed his leg. Still nothing. My heart just sank. I just knew that he had crawled under there to die, because he had me that worried. So picture me, half way under the bed, frantically trying to reach him to pull him out. When I got him out, he was of course still alive. He just didn't want to move. So I put him up in the bed and wrapped him in his blanket where he stayed until the next morning. He woke me up several times during the night whimpering and yelping whenever he would try and change positions. It was so pathetic and pitiful. My poor heart was broken. Oscar is my baby. I have had him for over a decade and I couldn't bear the thought of him not being around for several more years. I took him to the vet yesterday morning. As it turns out, he has Degenerative Disc Disease, which is very common with dachshunds. What he was experiencing was the onset of this disease. But with steroid and joint treatments, he should do just fine. He is already feeling so much better on his medication, so it will be hard to keep him quiet and still for several weeks so he can heal. I took him to work with me yesterday. He was pitiful when he first got to work. He just laid in his bed. An hour or so after taking his medicine (and yes, I stopped at McDonalds to get him a sausage and egg biscuit to hide the medicine in) he was a new dog. He wanted to get up. It was like he realized he could move without being in pain. So, when I had a lovely family come in for a tour, Oscar went with us outside to tour the five historic buildings out back. I think the museum needs a mascot because Oscar was the center of attention and everyone just loved him.

I just have to thank God for helping him and that it wasn't a serious enough problem to warrant back surgery or even worse, to put him down. I was so worried about either of those options. God has been so merciful to me and to Oscar with this. I felt dumb praying to God about my dog, but at the same time, I knew God knows how much Oscar means to me and Oscar is His creation as well. Plus, God's eye is on the sparrow, right? Right now, Oscar is happy to not be in pain. I was thinking that he must be on some good medication and that maybe I could use some. Ha Ha! So that has been the dachshund drama around my house lately. At least this time, the drama didn't include a x-ray looking for my diamond earrings like it did with the younger two dogs!