I haven’t been blogging and I’m missing it horribly!  I’ve been working on a LOT of websites and getting my portfolio up and ready for a great possible business opportunity.  Plus I’m watching an extra kid every day plus a new PUPPY!  I promise that I have much to tell you and lots of stories to share and will get back to my blogging love soon.  I can’t wait to tell you about many things.

I’ve also been VERY distracted by this book series:

If you haven’t read them, I recommend it! They’re the books that the HBO show True Blood is based off of.

The last cuddling straw so to speak was the other day when he misinterpreted my intentions.  In this particular instance, I got up before he did and wow was he happy to see me.  The dog tried to hump me!  Yes you read that right.  I swear this is a really good dog and is awesome with the kids but all of a sudden he thought I was his girlfriend or something… and he’s neutered!  I probably sound shocked and shouldn’t be.  Hercules has tried this on people (adults) who crawl across the floor… that scenario doesn’t happen that often so it was still a shocker!

So I continue to be sad and miss my Boo.  We discussed whether or not we should get another dog but decided we didn’t want to send the wrong signal to the kids that Boo could be replaced.  I think my husband is tired of seeing me cry every evening when I look around for my snuggle time and realize that Boo isn’t here anymore.  He encouraged me to go ahead and look for a new dog.  I realize that no other dog will “replace” Boo but I could really use a cuddly friend to love.

Last night I went and looked at THE most adorable little black pug puppies.  I fell in love but I just couldn’t get myself to commit.  I’d worry so much that with her being so tiny that she’d get hurt… plus I don’t usually do the “puppy” route.  I prefer to adopt rescue dogs.  Every dog I’ve had since I was 18 has been a rescue dog.  Everyone wants a cute little brand new puppy but the adult “rescue” dogs have a harder time finding a good home.  Also I could care less about pedigrees and would never breed a dog (I spay and neuter all my pets), mutts are great for me.  But I DO miss my lovely pug Boo.

I was searching online for the perfect dog and I may have found her. I’m going to go and meet her this week (she’s about an hour and a half away) and I can’t wait to see if she’s “the one”.  She about 1-2 years old, house-trained and full of love.  She’s also part pug!  She was found in an abandoned house and needs a forever home.  I can give her that!!!!  If she’s as sweet as they say I bet I won’t be able to say no.

Maybe she’ll be able to pull me out of my lonely funk.  It’s so funny to be surrounded in my home by so many people and to still feel lonely.  Boo left a big hole in my world.  For a little dog she had big shoes.  I know I can love a dog again and I know that Boo was one of a kind… I just need to find another one of a kind that wants someone to love them because even if she’s not “Boo”, I know I can love again.

In trying to explain her death to my children, I decided that honesty was the best policy.  When I didn’t know the answer, I’d say “I’m sorry Honey, I don’t know”.  But there were larger obstacles facing us.  I realized that because I’ve never chosen to make religion a big part of our lives, and have never attended church with my boys, they had no idea who “God” is or what “heaven” is.  I’ve not given my children a foundation.

I’m not a religious person but do consider myself “spiritual”.  I believe in something but even I don’t know what that “something” is.  Faith is such a personal thing and I’m such a logical person that I personally have always struggled with my own beliefs.  I’ve studied many different denominations/flavors and have never found something that I could wrap my heart completely around.  So in the teaching of my children I chose the “ignorance is bliss” attitude and never discussed these things with them.  That made us even more unprepared in trying to explain Boo leaving our lives forever.

My 4 year old took it especially hard.  He’s still struggling with the whole “Boo’s never coming back” idea.  “Where’s Boo?”  “She’s in heaven”.  “Where’s heaven and can I go there?”  Uh Oh.  And then he wants to know if he’s going to die.  Well yes, someday you will but not for a LONG, LONG time God Willing.  “Who’s God”?  Uh Oh.  “Mommy, I don’t want to die”.  “You don’t need to worry about that for a long time Honey”.

This error in my parenting takes a far back seat to anything else I do wrong.  I used to think that losing my patience when a day goes especially bad or serving corn dogs for lunch were my errors.  Those have nothing on this one.  I have not provided my children with any foundation.  They only have questions with no answers from a Mom who is uneducated herself.

I remember thinking my oldest needed an introduction into religion when he was around 4 (he’s 12 now).  We began in Sunday School and sat with our son listening to stories of how God “smited” those who worshiped another God.  Yikes!  Not exactly the “kind, loving and just” God we wanted to introduce our child to for the first time.  Then we attended the service in the actual church where the pastor (minister, preacher, I never know who’s title goes with which denomination) invited all of the children up to the alter for a story.  My then 4 year old was eager to join in.  This was a huge church that we’d tried, one with jumbo monitors up in the corners so those in the nosebleed sections can see.  We were sitting in the back of the church and the members who were seated next to us encouraged us to let our little one participate so we reluctantly agreed.  On the jumbo-tron, we watched Random running around the group of seated children.  We turned a bit red.  Then he disappeared, UH OH!  The Pastor called out to the audience “someone’s child just disappeared beneath the pulpit”.  Crap, that was MY kid!  We left in a hurry and never went back.  We also didn’t like that they wanted us to disclose our salaries to them and have a certain percentage direct deposited from our bank account to theirs just to become members.  Ummmm… I don’t want to pay for their castle of a church!  I’d be happy to meet with them in a courtyard of flowers and benches.

My lackadaisical approach to religion and my lack of faith (lack is the wrong word… my questioning of faith?) should not have interfered with providing my children with at least a foundation of belief.  They lack the basic knowledge to allow themselves comfort when something bad goes wrong.  And knowledge is power and faith is healing.  They need to know, they need to be introduced to ideas so that they can be comforted by what they believe.

What’s a mom to do?  I guess find a church.

I remember the first time that I saw Boo.  It was a cold morning in Arkansas and we were visiting my husband’s family.  We’d arrived very late at night, just the night before.  I stepped out onto their front porch with morning coffee and noticed a dog “statue” on the edge of the driveway.  I thought to myself, “awwwww, how cute” and looked away.  As I turned to go back into the house, I gave a brief glance back and noticed the statue’s head was now turned towards me.  WHAT!?  I sat down on the front steps and called her over to me.  It was love at first sight.  She snorted, gleeked (flung droplets of spit) with that huge tongue and cuddled against me and we each gained a new friend.

It turns out she had been Robert’s Grandmother’s dog.  When Grannie passed away, Robert’s brother had taken her in but there was not really a bond there.  They were happy to let Boo come home to Texas with us.  Boo fit in immediately and became an integral part of our family.  My kids loved her and even our big dog Hercules seemed to not only tolerate her but develop a fondness for her.

Boo bonded with me immediately and became my little shadow.  If I went out of town, she never left her bed.  When I’d come home she’d race through the house as fast as her little pug legs could take her in her joy that her friend was home.  Whenever I sat or laid on the couch she was right there as close to me as she could get.  We called her my “growth” because she’d try so hard to attach herself to me by being as close as possible.

She was my protector of all things noisy.  She’d attack a lawn mower or vacuum cleaner in order to keep me safe.  She hated thunder storms and would bark with each thunder clap.  Ironically, the only time she could get her entire tongue in her mouth was when she barked… and just for a split second.

Watching her try to reach an itch on her back was several minutes of pure entertainment at a time.  She snuggled by my side on the couch every night and just wanted to be up close to her people.  Even with her tongue hanging out of her mouth, she was a true lady and a great family member.

Her tongue was another source of constant amusement to our household and all that visited here.  The first question everyone would ask was if she could get the whole tongue in her mouth…. the answer “No, it’s about 4 inches too long for her mouth, but she tries really hard”…..  and we usually backed that up with a warning of “Careful, she can lick you from there!”

Boo was definitely a Class Act.  She tolerated the poking, prodding and chasing of children like a saint.  I blogged about her once before, about how I never expected my job duties of being a stay at home mom to include being a dog bodyguard (it’s one of my favorite posts, so I hope you have time to read it).  But yes, I was her protector and she was my faithful friend.

In the end, she died with her tongue in her mouth–she finally managed to do it, after all.

Boo will be missed for a long time to come.  There is no replacing her.

Rest in Peace my “Boo Doo”, my faithful friend.

My oldest son came home with it first but suffered the least from it.  That child rarely gets sick and him missing one day of school was a shocker.  But at the time we didn’t suspect swine flu because we thought he’d be feeling much worse than he was.  In hindsight, we should’ve taken a clue from the fact that half of his grade in school was out with it in previous weeks but we weren’t that smart.

Nathan is by far the worst and is going back to the doctor for a third time Monday morning.  He’s been on steroids and is just not getting better.  Our pediatrician DOES listen to the CDC so he didn’t qualify for Tamiflu.  He’s over 2 and has no history of respiratory problems.  Ian and I both qualified for the Tamiflu and are getting better. Ian only just qualified by his resent “Respiratory Distress“.  Poor Nathan is just miserable and has to suffer through it, this picture was from Thursday, his very worst day.  Although he’s had similar hours each day if not entire days.

He’s now developed a weird spot on his lower leg that we want the pediatrician to look at.  We called this morning and she thinks it’s just a hive but we’re worried parents and worried parents take their kids into the doctor as many times as they want to until they feel better!  If you have any idea what it is, we’re open to suggestions and maybe you can save us yet another co-pay!  He only has the one but its been there for 2 days and changes slightly each time we look at it.  He told me he wanted ice for it but then put the ice bag on his head, so I don’t know if it bothers him or not.  We can push on it and he doesn’t wince or cry and it doesn’t appear to be making him feel itchy.

Just wanted to let you all know that we’re still here, even if we’re not kicking high, we’re kicking.  (kids get timeout for that).  I’m on the mend but still worried about my littlest guy.

Some things just aren’t meant to be and some things just are…. We’re meant to be sickies right now and my blog is meant to take a back burner.  Here’s some proof that some things are meant to be to tide you over until I’m back to gabbing blogging.  A friend posted this on his Facebook and I searched for and found it on youtube.  I sure love youtube!

These approximately mile long caverns (they may be longer than that, in fact I bet they are but our tour was about a mile deep into the caves) were discovered in 1963 when a road crew was constructing the present day I35 freeway which runs right down the middle of Texas.  Robyn, Ian, Nathan and I set out to see some deep, dark caves.  We’d brought warm jackets since it was a cool and rainy day and assumed that the caves would be colder than the outdoors.  NOPE!  They are hot and humid!  But armed with helmet flashlights, the boys were eager and ready to go and explore these 10,000 year old caverns.

We began our tour on a train-like rail car that lowered us down into the caves.  We were greeted by teeny bats.  Ian thought it hilarious that his Mommy was not a fan!  I swear that the bats knew I didn’t like them as they darted around MY head all the time but left everyone else alone.  I ducked and swayed and tried to avoid those flying rats with all of my might.  Robyn and Ian were especially big fans of the bats.  Robyn thought they were cute because they were so tiny, only about the size of the palm of her hand.  “Cute?”, I have to disagree….  unless they turn into Edward from Twilight, or Eric from True Blood, I wasn’t so pleased with them!

Our tour guide told us all about the first man lowered into the cavern.  He was the smallest in the road crew and his name was Jack.  They lowered him down in the hole by having him tied to a drill bit.  Ian was quite engaging with the tour guide and she was extremely patient with him.  He did come up with some excellent questions though and all through the trip, he was concerned with “Where is Jack now?”  “Is he still in here?”  Were those (pointing at stalactites and stalagmites) formed by the ocean?  How old are they?  I can’t remember the exact answers, but Jack is deceased, yes the formations were formed by water, sometimes it was the ocean and they are from before the ice age.  They’d found fossils of mammoths, camels, saber tooth tigers, dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals inside the caves.

When “Jack” was lowered into these caves that first time, armed only with a weak flashlight strapped to his head, this is what he saw:  Poor guy thought he was seeing a bear and a huge one at that!  They now call this rock formation Winnie the Pooh, but with better light, it really looks more like a Samurai.

It was amazing as a mom to see how enthralled my boys were by the whole experience.  It’s definitely something that we’ll need to go to again.  Ian asked constantly for days after wards if we could go back to the caves.  Even Nathan, who is only 2 was enchanted.  Both boys were a joy and Robyn and I had a wonderful time.

We finished the day with a small (and tasty) little cafe in historic Georgetown, Texas.

Next story will be the telling of the Live Music Capital of the World, Austin, Texas.  Where Robyn, my sister Jill and I let our hair down and had a fun-filled evening bar hopping on historic 6th street!  An action packed evening filled with people trying to save our souls and policemen galore!

Our evening began with some YUMMY Mexican food on the San Antonio River Walk.  I believe the restaurant was named “Zuna” and provided us with an excellent view of the River Walk.  The food was served like a piece of art.  Here’s our edible art.  It was so good!  I had chicken with a Chipolte sauce and Robyn had Prawns.  We both had garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus.

This is where we’d decided to be young and wild again.  I had a Corona with Lime and Robyn had a glass of wine.

After dinner we hit the River Walk proper.  We even stopped into an Irish Pub with the intention of getting a drink.  Did we?  Nope, we thought it too loud and crowded… Can you say “OLD and BORING”?  That’s us.  LOL

Next we wandered the paths and went on a gondola boat ride tour of the River Walk.  It was packed full of history and our guide was hilarious.  One of the first things he pointed out to us was that in the event of we were to fall off the boat, that the boat was equipped with emergency flotation devices.  Then he followed it with, “but if I were you, rather than dirty our flotation devices, I’d just stand up and climb back into the boat!”.

He pointed out things like areas where Miss Congeniality was filmed, locations of the oldest and most prestigious buildings along the River Walk and where the battle where Santa Anna began.

Here’s your history lesson:   The Alamo was defended by 189 Americans and Immigrants (many Mexican nationals) in 1836 but after a 3rd siege in as many days by an army of 1500 Mexican soldiers, sadly the Alamo was  defeated.  The call of “Remember the Alamo” was a turning point in the Mexican-American war.

After our entertaining and informative River Boat Ride, we returned to our Haunted Hotel expecting to attempt again to party like we were young and wild.  But alas we were sidetracked by a yummy ice cream shop!

Upon entering the Famous Menger Bar, we ordered another drink (this would be #2 of the evening by the way!) and sat down to await the “ghosties”.  The bar is famous as the place where Theodore Roosevelt recruited the Rough Riders.  The bar itself was constructed to mimic a Pub in England and still has it’s original cherry wood walls, ceiling, booths and beveled mirrors… Just gorgeous.  There have also been sightings of “ghosties” there so we were hopeful.  The author of “The Histories and Mysteries of the Menger (and manager of the hotel) showed us a photo of a ghostly apparition captured in the bar.  After sipping on the same drink for an hour we decided we were no longer young and wild and went to bed.  Poor Jet-lagged Robyn hit a wall and her lack of sleep caught up with her.  I had no such excuse but admittedly was pretty tired myself!

In the morning we toured the Alamo itself, there are no pictures allowed inside but the displays were really amazing.  They had flags from every state (and Country) represented by those who fought so valiantly at the Alamo.  There were very few from Texas but many from Mexico and other countries like Germany, Sweden and other states such as Missouri and Arkansas to name a few.

The Alamo also began what was the beginning of my Australian friend posing with Texas Police officers.  Her cute accent and beautiful face could get her anything she wanted!  People kept walking up to me and telling me what a lovely friend that I have.  I couldn’t agree more.

There’s part 2 for you!  I’ll be adding part 3, which was an adventure to “The Live Music Capital of the World”, Austin Texas…. and where we really did get a little wild and carefree!  Oh wait!  That’ll come later, next was a trip to caves where we hung out with bats…

This is part 1 , day 1 of our adventures.  Some of my posts this week in recounting our explorations may seem like a Texas history lesson for you, but I learned a lot about this great state while acting as a tour guide for my friend.

Our hotel reservations were for a hotel with a reputation for being haunted.  The Menger Hotel was built in 1859 and is only 100 yards away from the famous Alamo, where 189 brave men and women stood to defend Texas.  There are wonderful stories and mysteries of shutters closing all by themselves, stacked glasses becoming unstacked and apparitions in the elevators, hallways and rooms.

The hotel itself is a beautiful San Antonio historical landmark.  The lobby and hallways are filled with museum-worthy artifacts, turn of the century furnishings and amazing art.  Everywhere you turn, you find a treasure that makes your mouth drop.  The elegance of the hotel has attracted historic figures such as Theodore Roosevelt, Mae West, Babe Ruth, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.  It really felt like a step back in time but with modern amenities and conveniences!

It was so surreal to imagine that the first guests probably arrived on foot or horseback.  Although the parking situation is so bad, I kind of envied those past guests!  The men that ran the vallet service had such chaos to deal with but did so with smiles and kindness but what a mess! 

The 3 story tall ceiling of the original lobby has an amazing and beautiful stained glass window that lets in colorful natural light.  Our room was just across the hall from this ceiling and we paused to look at it many times.

We requested our room be in the oldest section of the hotel to increase our chances of ghostly visitors.  They advised us to take lots of pictures in the event that there might be something near that we couldn’t see.  I clicked and I spied and I sneaked and I clicked some more….  I’d jump out into the hallway to grab photos at random moments….. I even got caught by a group of men returning to their room in my jammies… or were they ghosts?  hehehehe

But even if I didn’t capture any ghosties (as my Australian friend called them) on camera, I DID have one claim of a paranormal experience.  There are a zillion “normal” reasons to explain my experience, the most likely being that I WANTED one to happen, but let’s ignore that and just assume that this was a “ghostie”.  Here’s my tale:

I awoke in the middle of the night for an unknown reason.  As I lay there with my eyes still closed – I realized I was cold…. at the same moment the little hairs on the back of my head raised up and I had a split second of awakefullness that made me realize, “I’M IN THE MENGER, MAYBE IT’S A GHOST!!!!”.  I leapt straight out of bed, fully expecting to see an apparition, but alas nothing.  Perhaps it was an overactive imagination or maybe, just maybe it was a ghost passing through my room….. who’s to say?

Fact or Fiction, Haunted or Not, Spirit or Imagination…. it was a great night!

Please don’t leave me!  LOL

Here is my excuse!

BTW…. the dog “Boo” is old news, the pretty lady is the cause for my fun. 

I swear that I pick matching clothes for the 2 youngest boys each day, but at some point my 4 year old Ian will redress himself for one reason or another.  Then my 2 year old Nathan (aka “Trouble”) tends to “accessorize” in very unique ways.  I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had to take my children out in public looking like this:

Now this outfit was courtesy of my sister, so perhaps the lack of fashion sense runs in the family and is a hereditary sort of gene.  Perhaps there’s no hope for them at all and they carry a predisposition towards fashion failure.  (for the record, my sister dresses great!  LOL).

Then there are the costumes that I can’t get my child out of.  I hope that the stares people at the grocery store give me are an acknowledgment of my tolerance as a parent and not one of pity for my “poor” children.

Yesterday, Ian took the cake.   Actually all 3 boys had a fashion disaster of their own yesterday.  One after the other, they produced outfits that made me say “Huh?”.

Ian spilled apple juice on his shirt and nice matching shorts.  He asked to go change his clothing, which I agreed to…. my mistake!  Here is what he came down in (and yes, we did end up having to leave the house once in this ensemble):

I apologize for the quality of the photo.  There are two possible contributing factors… 1 my camera was dropped and this may be as good as it gets.  I think I’m in need of a new camera.  But the most likely possibility is that Ian is on Steroids AND Albuteral breathing treatments for his recent respiratory issues.  This child of mine, is NOT my normal child.  He’s a jumping bean, he’s moody, he’s out of control, he climbs onto my head, plows through people, hollers, screams, jumps off the walls (when not jumping off my head).  He’s really a different kid than I’m used to.  Asking him to stand still right now is like asking the sun not to set.

Since the photo quality is so bad, I’ll point out that it’s important to notice that he’s wearing a paisley silk dress vest with striped dress slacks that are at least 3 inches too short for him.  Don’t forget to take a gander at the pasty white pot belly peaking out where the vest is too short!  If the image had been clearer, you might have also noticed that his red underwear are peaking around the waistline of the pants.

Then came the knock down, drag out “boot fight” between Ian and Nathan.  Who should get to wear Mommy’s high heeled boots?  Nathan loves to “accessorize”.  I often find him in high heels or hats or sunglasses, you name it.  Nathan might be a lot younger, but he’s a tough cookie.  The winner was hard to predict.

Alas, Nathan prevailed.  I told you he’s one tough cookie!  I can assure you that Mr. Steroid boy did not take the loss very well at all.  I think I still have the headache from the screaming that created!

The “fashion hell” day ended when my 12 year old son came home from school.  I just rolled my eyes in despair when I noticed what he’d chosen to wear that day.  I didn’t get a picture, but he wore a gray and black HORIZONTAL striped shirt with black VERTICAL pin striped shorts, white socks and black Vans.  Aye yie yie.  These boys will never get girlfriends!

Guess it’s a good thing they’re “mommas boys” and that I don’t mind keeping them forever.