Fact for the day

Because I'm supposed to be cleaning...and I'm not...here's an interesting fact for the day.

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

On this day in history

On Jan. 12, 1915, the United States House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.

Wow, I guess it's we've come a long way, huh?

Jeff Foxworthy on Minnesota

Some of you from the mighty north might have seen this already, but for those who haven't, enjoy!

Jeff Foxworthy on Minnesota

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through
18 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by,
You might live in Minnesota.

If you're proud that your state makes the
national news 96 nights
each year because International Falls is the coldest spot in the nation,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you have ever refused to buy something because it's "too spendy",
You might live in Minnesota .

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March,
You might live in Minnesota .

If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't work there,
You might live in Minnesota .

If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the
middle of his forehead,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time,
You might live in Minnesota .

If your town has an equal number of bars and churches,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you know how to say....Wayzata...Mahtomedi ... Cloquet
Edina... and Shakopee,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you think that ketchup is a little too spicy,
You might live in Minnesota .

If vacation means going "up north" for the weekend,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you measure distance in hours,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you know several people, who have hit deer more than once,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you often switch from "Heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you can drive 65 mph through
2 feet of snow
during a raging blizzard without flinching,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you see people wearing hunting clothes at social events,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you install security lights on your house and garage and
leave both unlocked,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you think of the major food groups as beer, fish, and Venison,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you carry jumper cables in your car, and your girlfriend knows
how to use them,
You might live in Minnesota .

If there are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at Mill's Fleet Farm
at any given time,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you design your kid's Halloween
costume to fit over a snowsuit,
You might live in Minnesota .

If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter,
and of course, road construction,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you can identify a
southern or eastern accent,
You might live in Minnesota .

If your idea of creative landscaping is a plastic deer next
to your blue spruce,
You might live in Minnesota .

If "Down South" to you means Iowa ,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you know "a brat" is something
you eat,
You might live in Minnesota .

If you find -10 degrees "a little chilly",
You might live in Minnesota .

Just some fun pictures

I'm still learning how to use my mac. Tonight I downloaded Picasa (not really sure that it has anything I didn't already have though) and re-discovered some recent pictures I'd already forgotten I'd taken. LOL

Dog nails 101

Bethany asked a good question about dog nails. Does the quick grow with the nails? Yes, Bethany, it does. First I needed to get pictures of the dog nails. I had to laugh, because when I told Zurri "Down", all three of these guys collapsed right where they were. Even Dudley who's high on morphine! LOL


Below is a picture of Roman's nails, looking at them from underneath.


And here's a picture of Zurri's nails (standard poodle)


Also, "DoberDawn" has a good description of how to dremmel nails, along with diagrams!

He's Home

Dudley is home, acting like nothing is wrong, but that could have so something to do with the morphine shot he got a couple hours ago! LOL The mass was sent off to the the magic lab place, and we'll hear back sometime late next week as to what type of cancer it is.

Thanks for thinking of him!

He's out of surgery

Well, Dudley's surgery is done, and I'll be picking him up around 3:00 today. Poor boy is going to come home with a headache! Now, to keep ZURRI from trying to clean his ear every 10 minutes...

It's national De-Lurking week!

Ok, I know from my hit counter AND the number of subscribers on my page, that there are a lot of lurkers around here! If you're one of them, drop me a note, will ya? It's nice to know who's bored enough to be reading my blog. LOL

Surgery tomorrow

Not for Angela, not for me or Dean, but for Dudley. A few weeks ago I noticed a small red, slightly raised, inflamed spot under Dudley's ear. I kept an eye on it for a few days, and it was unchanging so decided to wait and see what it did. Although it looked sore, it didn't seem to be bothering him. After a few days, I kind of forgot about it. (I know, bad dog mom!)

Fast forward a couple weeks when I had Dudley to a new groomer. She was showing me how to do some grooming techniques on him. When we got to his ear, and shaved off some of the hair, this is what we found. That was 3 weeks ago, and it's about doubled in size since then. It's now about the size of a golf ball.



Anyway, we had a biopsy done, and found it is what we feared, a fast-growing cancerous growth. We were told it's a benign type of cancer, however, those of you who know Dudley know that since he was about a year old we've had a TERRIBLE time keeping weight on him. He is skin and bones. We've had done all kinds of blood work and other tests, hoping to find a reason for his inability to gain weight, but found nothing. In my gut, I always knew there was a problem lurking that we just couldn't see yet. We've been warned by a vet friend that sometimes, even though a growth is benign, messing with it can cause the system to go haywire and what WAS benign now no longer is. We're praying that's not the case with Dudley!

So tomorrow, as soon as Angela is on the bus, I'll be dropping Dudley off at the vet. Here's a couple pictures from today of my guy.

Whew!

This morning Zurri was bothering me. Ok, not Zurri herself, but the fact the poor dog was a mess! Her topknot was so long she couldn't see and yesterda was seen bumping into furniture. LOL Time for a haircut! So, I spent all day working on the poor girl. First brushing her out, then bathing, then blow-dry with the HV dryer, then a haircut. This dog is the most patient dog EVER!

Once her haircut was done, I decided Roman needed to be done too. Well..he got 1/2 done. I'll have to finish the rest of him tomorrow. Once haircuts were done, it was time to dremmel everyone's nails. All our dogs are really good about this, but it does take training first! Those of you who run out and buy a peti-paws nail trimmer, don't think you can just take it out of the box and do your dogs nails. It usually takes several days to a couple weeks to train your dogs to get used to the noise and vibration before you can even THINK about doing their nails with it! (by the way, a Pedi-paw nail trimmer is just a dremmel with a cool cover on it that makes the grinding a little easier to control.)

With hair and nails done it was picture time. I realized I hadn't gotten our annual picture of the dogs in front of the tree! Usually Angela is in the shot too, but she'd already gone to bed by the time I got this brilliant idea. So, here are the results of our photo shoot tonight. LOL

Happy New Year!

With a babysitter at home (big brother Tyler!) Dean and I went out for Moonlight bowling. This year it was MY turn to not be designated driver. LOL We had a great time together and enjoyed having an evening out!

This is what happens when you don't realize you have the camera pointed the wrong way and the flash goes off in your face! LOL

2008 in a blog

2008 was a great year for us!
In February Angela was granted her Wish. It started out with her Pre-wish party. What a day that was! A week later Angela and I had a mother-daughter spa day in preparation for our big trip! Before we knew it, the day had arrived for our big trip. This was probably the most amazing thing our family will ever experience, and we are eternally grateful to the Make A Wish foundation of MN for granting Angela's wish!

On the last day of our trip, Dean, who'd been a two-pack or more a day smoker, enjoyed his very last cigarette. I'm so proud of him. I know this is something he'd wanted to do for a very long time, but it's also a daunting task. He also had some major dental work coming up, and he'd been warned that due to his smoking he would have a lot of trouble healing. Well, here we are a year later, and he's still smoke free! He still has days when he'd really like to have a smoke, but he keeps on keeping on. Way to go Dean!

On March 12th I had a run-in with the ice, shattering my wrist and landing in the operating room to have an awful lot of titanium installed! On March 15th Dean turned 51. We had a family dinner out with is twin brother and other siblings. Unfortunately I was in a lot of pain from my accident just a couple days earlier and wasn't up to enjoying the party. Just one week later, while my fingers were still the size of bratwurst and I was still pretty high on pain drugs, Dean had is oral surgery. He came out of surgery pretty loopy, and making lots of comments to the cute young nurses. Good grief, I didn't realize I he was such a dirty old man! LOL Getting him to the car was pretty interesting since I only had the use of one arm, and not only was he off balance but he was halucinating. When we got him home he told Tyler and I all kinds of things. What an eye opener. LOL

April brought the beginning of the great sidecar customization. After purchasing the sidecar, I spent a year wondering if I should do this to my bike, and wondering if I would regret it. The results would far surpass my expectations!

In May Angela received her birthday present a couple weeks early. She got the bike of her dreams! We put a lot of miles on this thing over the summer! I also got to play with power tools in May, in preparation for a big family reunion at our house. Sadly, power tools are great entertainment for me. Also in May, Angela got to tell her birth story on stage! Yet another time for mother's tears.

In June Angela turned 12! (please read my blog post for that day, it was pretty funny!) And she got the coolest birthday present a kid could ask for! And even better, it made her the coolest kid in the whole 5th grade! We also had our annual family vacation up in Walker, MN. We've been doing this trip for 13 years, and sadly, this one was probably the last. Also in June, Angela graduated from elementary school, and was voted to perform at her school's talent show. Needless to say, mom cried a few tears that day!

June also brought one of my life goals, and epic journey with a group of women. The memories will be with me forever, and I have plans to take another trip with the same group in April '09.

In July Noah turned 21. OMG..I'm mom to a 21 year old! Ok, well he's not the first one, but still! This totally freaks me out. Sadly I'm short of Noah pictures! He's very camera shy and avoids the thing at all costs.

August brought a "vacation" for Dean and I. This was the most exhausting vacation I've ever been on! 2,000+ miles on a motorcycle in 5 days isn't exactly "relaxing"!

September would find Angela and I in New York to see her picture on the big screen in Times Square. Yep, more tears for mom!

October Angela was officially declared a swimmer. And she also got her very own bowling ball.

November pretty much disappeared before I ever knew it was here. I was in a play that was HUGE, with too many performances. LOL

On December 3rd Tyler turned 20 years old. Wow...20. For those who know his story you know just how amazing this is.

We hope that 2009 is as good to us as 2008 was. We have lots of new things coming up! I'm hoping to start back to school next fall to get my BS in Sonography. Dean and I have decided that when I'm done with school we'll consider moving "south". (we'll be looking at several different options over the next couple of years!) The deciding factor will be Angela's educational and funding needs. In the mean time, we'll just keep on keeping on!

2008 : What do you remember?

You Remember 70% of 2008

You were paying attention during 2008. And you remember what happened really well. You'll be able to talk about 2008 for years to come... Even when most people have forgotten what went down.

How Much Do You Remember 2008?

10, 9, 8, 7

That is me counting backward from 10 in an attempt to NOT explode!!! Our old printer wasn't compatible with the new MAC, so I bought a new wireless printer. WHY does it have to be so complicated to get this stuff hooked up? And WHY doesn't MAC have 24 hour support services? WHY WHY WHY??? Ok, other than that, so far I'm loving my mac. Really...loving it. I'm still trying to figure out some of the basics, but I'm getting there. Now, to get this printer connected to my wireless network!

Contacting us

We have recently purchased a new computer, and are going from PC to a MAC, and are having trouble transferring our email address book to the new computer. This isn't much of a problem to us, except where our dog people are concerned. I know several of our readers are owners of our puppies, or are interested in our puppies. I also know there's a good chance I've missed recent emails from you. If you've recently tried to contact us, and not heard back, you know that's not typical for us! If you have tried to reach us, please try again at info@dandldoodles.com ! THANKS!

Movie Review: "Marley and Me"

When we found out this movie was coming out, Dean and I decided we'd go see it as a family on Christmas day. As it turned out, Angela went to her dad's for the day. I'd just like to say, "BLESSINGS sometimes come in disguises!"

If you've never read the book, read it! The movie follows the book very closely. I read the book when it first came out about 4 or 5 years ago, and the last 2 or 3 chapters must be read with a box of tissues. Dean then took the book with him to read on a flight to Arizona. When he got to about chapter 5 he put the book away...for good. "Why would I want to torture myself?" he asked?

The day before we saw the movie, we started hearing the rave reviews, AND the comments that this was advertised as a family movie AND IT'S NOT! It is VERY emotionally heavy, and you will spend the last 15-20 minutes in tears. If you've recently had to put a dog to sleep, I would NOT recommend seeing the movie, or you'll find yourself reliving it. Instead, wait till it comes out on DVD in a few months, and you might be ready. I did see several families with young kids (7-12 years old) in the theater, and after the movie I saw those same kids leaving the theater sobbing. I think it's too heavy for most kids that age.

With all that, I HIGHLY recommend the movie. For those who are thinking about getting their first dog, and wondering if they're ready, this movie will give you a good idea as to how much work a dog really needs, and what happens when you wait till your dogs is an adult to do any training. LOL It will show you all the really bad things that puppies and untrained adult dogs can do to your home. But, it will also show you the love that dogs feel for their people, no matter how naughty they are. It will show you the support people get from their dogs when they don't even realize it. It will show you the bond between a dog and his boy (or girl, as the case may be.)

And in the end, it will show you the heartache that comes with pet ownership. Watching made me want to go home and give all my dogs away so I never have to deal with "that" part of dog ownership again. It also made me want to go home and hug my dogs, and love on them even more than we already do.

So, go see the movie, but instead of bringing your kids, bring a box of tissues!

If you see "Marley and Me"

If will make you want to come home and spend some cuddle time with your dogs. I'll do a full review of the movie tomorrow, after I've stopped wiping away the tears!

Long Johns and Cowboy hats!

Could it get any better than that?

Why Men Shouldn't take messages

This one, sent by my brother Jeff, had me laughing out loud. Why men shouldn't take messages:

I know you won't believe me...but

LOOK WHAT I MADE!!! I know I always say I hate cooking, and I NEVER bake, but those who know me well will remember a time when I was in high school, and I made these all the time. Some will even remember just 10 years ago when I was making yeast breads all the time. But, regardless....don't you wish you could smell the internet? And wouldn't taste be even better??? Now, what do you think? Should I just smear them directly on my hips?

Updated to add: Well, the truth comes out. I SUCK at cooking! These were the most horrible things I've ever tasted. And...to make matters worse..I gave them to my neighbors too! The rolls themselves could have been used to build the retaining wall in our back yard. And the glaze? Yeah, the mortar to hold the wall together! It's going to be months before I can look my neighbors in the eyes again. Sadly, this is the way my cooking and baking always comes out. These LOOKED good, so I figured I'd finally beat fate! Instead, the rolls beat me.