Doesn't Anyone Out There Want Ziggy?

Ziggy has a big head, yes, but he also has a big heart and lots of love to give! Some human thought it would be cool to have a pitbull. This one probably had big parents so they thought he'd be big too (he is, around 75 pounds). So they brought home a cute little pitbull puppy that would make them look tough. Then the dog started to get bigger, eat more, and take larger poops in the front yard (amazing how people don't think about these things when they get an animal...you know, the whole it-has-several-years-to-live-and-won't-always-be-this-cute thing). Then due to neglect he got mange and started scratching and chewing on himself, and slowly began to lose his hair and where his shiny coat had once been he was soon covered in gaping, crusty scabs. So what's a person to do?

Well, dump him, of course! So someone did. And he lived on our road for a week in 100+ degree weather before he found us. And followed us home. And the rest is history...

Well, kind of...the story hasn't ended yet! Ziggy is better now. He's been neutered, vaccinated, and gained a lot of weight! Ziggy needs a home. Ziggy doesn't like cats. We have four cats and of course we don't want life to be miserable for our current animals, so we are trying very hard to find Ziggy a home without cats. He loves people and so far has been great around other dogs. He likes to drink out of water human bottles. He likes to ride in the crate in the back of the truck. He was afraid of stairs the first time he saw them but once he learned he could go up and down them he quickly became a stair-walking pro. He likes everyone he meets. He jumps up and down when he sees the leash. He loves to go on walks and will lean on you when you stop for a break.

Please help Ziggy find his forever home!!

Things That Only Happen in Texas

Last weekend we were in Lowe's in Gun Barrel City looking through the books and books and books of wallpaper borders that they have. This is not a fun thing to do, even if it's for the very exciting purpose of decorating a baby's room. The books are huge and most of the stuff in them is ugly, but we continued to flip through one after the other in hopes of finding that perfect wallpaper border.

I had more patience for this than Charles did, and he soon abandoned me at the wallpaper border book stand and sought help in the form of a 40-something, east-Texan woman with brassy hair, tight jeans, a smoker's cough and old Reeboks. Here is the conversation that took place:

Charles: Are these the only wallpaper borders you have?

Her (now to get the full effect, you need to imagine an east-Texas drawl - and don't forget the smoker's cough): We have these over here that are in stock.

Me (leaves the wallpaper books and joins Charles)

Her: What are you having?

Me: A boy.

Her: Oh, well we have lots of boy wallpaper and this stuff is already in stock.

Me: How long does it take to get here if we order it?

Her: 7-10 days, but we already have this stuff in stock.

Charles: We're doing the baby's nursery and not sure exactly what we're looking for yet.

Her (leading us to the in-stock wallpaper): Oh, we got lots of stuff. If you're having a boy we have all this war stuff over here.

She promptly leads us to a huge selection of war-themed wallpaper borders. As in, tanks busting though buildings, camo backgrounds decorated in AK-47's, fighter jets dropping bombs and battleships. You get the idea.

SERIOUSLY!! Why would someone think I would want to decorate our baby's nursery in violent WAR wallpaper!?!?

To get an idea of what it looked like:

And unrelated to the story above, some other things that I realized today (as I was sitting in traffic trying to get home) that you never see in Texas:

* Tweeker blinkers

* Lowered trucks (well, like the kind they have in CA)

* Lifted trucks (again, like the kind you see in CA)

Just Because...Twinkie

Because Jesika Asked for One...

My Pregnancy = A Study in Human Behavior

You wouldn't think it, but being pregnant brings out the most interesting characteristics...in other people. Some things I have learned about others while I have been pregnant:

1. You can't please everybody. No, wait...make that, "You can't please anybody!" Seriously! A perfect example: at my baby shower, I had one person tell me I can't drink the glass of iced tea I was drinking because caffeine is bad for the baby. Later, that same night, another person gave me a hard time because I wouldn't drink a glass of wine and insisted that it would be good for me and that it was recommended that pregnant women drink a glass of wine a night. In this situation I wasn't annoyed by either one, but it's just a classic example of how you can't please anyone. Except my mom and mother-in-law, they think I am perfect! :)

2. Everyone has an opinion on proper child care. Miraculously, even people who don't have children! I take it all in because who knows what will work and what won't when I have my baby, but it's shocking how many experts are out there. You want to keep your baby in your room until he's sleeping through the night? One person says that will spoil him you'll regret it. The next says it's abuse to let a baby cry it out in his own room down the hall and he should be sharing your bed. You can't win! It's amazing anyone turns out okay.

3. It's okay to tell a pregnant woman she's fat. Well, I for one will never tell another pregnant person she looks like she's going to pop, but it's amazing how people you barely ever see to begin with all of a sudden think it's okay to tell you it's good to see you get fat, call you names like fatso and orca, etc., etc. This one does bother me a bit, but only after I had heard it like five times, because then I started to think it must be true, and that was confirmed when I looked at myself in the pictures from this weekend (see above - I actually think I was talking about Norman but this seems appropriate here)! But oh well, baby is happy and comfy and that's what matters right now. And back to Weight Watchers for me in January! :)

4. People are excited for you when you're pregnant. I mean, genuinely. People you might not expect to show an interest ask questions and get excited for you. For example, since I have been pregnant I haven't been going in to the local deli in our office building for my daily caffeine pick-me-up, so I probably haven't been in there in at least four months. But when I went in today the lady who owns it was all smiles and full of questions and congratulations to find out I was expecting. Babies bring people together!

Baby Showers and Optimus Prime

Well here I am, back in Texas again!

We had the BEST time ever in California. It was so much fun to see everyone and so hard to leave.
A quick rundown for those who are interested...

Thursday I went up to Orange and saw Jesika. Not only did I get to meet Jesika's new ride, River (hopefully Kalvin is back now!), but she also introduced me to A Cherry on Top. Frozen yogurt topped with all of the goodies I could fill in one cup. YUMMY. And the start of at least 5 additional non-baby pounds that I picked up in CA and probably won't be losing until December! Then we had lunch (see????) with Linda, Ken and their beautiful baby boy, Bryce! He has the greatest hair. Linda was awesome and told me all of the must-haves for a new baby. THEN, we went to Downtown Disney and got to hang out with Lisa and spend money in Sephora (and I bought pretty blush and when I got back found out I had accidentall grabbed the GOLD one...nice).

Friday we went to Hernandez Hideaway (more food) and had lunch with Karen and Nancy and I was reminded how much I miss my Elfin Forest riding buddies. From there it was on to the wedding rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner (eating again!!) at Richie and Jeanette's house.

Saturday AM Yvonne treated Polly, July and I to pedicures and I also got my nails done which was good because they looked like coke-head nails. And then, of course, the wedding! The wedding was great...I think the first keg was gone before the ceremony even started (not that I was able to contribute to that). It was fun to see so many people show up to share this special day with Richie and Jeanette. Jeanette was gorgeous, of course, and the weather was perfect. My favorite part, aside from the whole point of the wedding (you know, the whole gaining an awesome sister-in-law thing!) was to watch all of the drunks. There were quite a few getting pretty rowdy. OH YEAH, and one other wonderful part of the day was getting to see SARA!!! :)

Sunday was our baby shower and visiting with Valerie! I knew that it would be fabulous but I don't think I knew HOW fabulous. Valerie, Sara and Lisa (they put this big bash together) thought of everything. I mean it. No detail was overlooked, from the perfectly-wrapped party favor candy bars (thanks for Sara and all her errand-running and foil-wrapping skills) to the cutest ribbon clothesline you have ever seen strung with baby clothes to the cake that looked like a piece of artwork that I was afraid to eat! So many of our favorite people were there and it was so amazing to get all of the gifts, which were so obviously picked out with love and thought. I had so much fun looking at everything again when we got home that night and folding up the little onesies and putting them all in the suitcase. I can't wait to have a chubby little baby body in those clothes! And now I can't wait to UNpack everything and put the clothes on little hangars and put the little shoes and boots on the shelves. So, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who planned this and who was there!! It was so much more than I ever expected and Charles and I keep talking about how awesome it was and how fabulous everyone is.

This morning we had breakfast (thank you Sara for coming to see us again!) and then, it was pretty much off to Texas...

But not before Charles tried out the Optimus Prime mask that came in his Transformers DVD.

I Love Tony Romo!

Yesterday we watched the Cowboy game (well, most of it...I fell asleep for the end). I love Tony Romo! So does Charles. Charles tried to get close to him last year by becoming a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.

I Am SO Ready for it to be Tomorrow Already!

OK, so in all honesty I was never really addicted to MySpace...in fact I hardly ever logged on. But right now it's kind of late and I could either be watching The Wire with Charles (I hate that show) or playing on the internet, and aside from a couple of horsey forums I have nowhere to go anymore! Then I remember this, so here I am...

Today was kind of crappy. Our rescue dog, Ziggy, learned he could jump out of his run and went after my cat. At least she gave him a very bloody whooping across his nose before he chased her into the tree...

Then we put up some lovely white trash fencing to keep him in and so he tried to jump out of the other side, and managed to hang himself by his collar from a T-post. I started to panic but luckily he slipped out of his collar. But THEN we had to make the fencing even MORE white trash by stacking an old trash can over that end of it so he can't jump out...nice.

The whole reason I was outside in the first place in a place where Ziggy could see us and the cat (which gave him the idea to jump!) is because we were looking for a rabbit's nest. Janga found a baby rabbit that one of the cats had brought into the front yard. It was so tiny that it's eyes were still closed. It was covered in slobber and had a teeny bit of blood on one leg, but otherwise looked so perfect and precious! Well...we called the rabbit rescue place that is like 2 hours from here and they told us that it had a 1% chance of surviving at that age. 1%!! Apparently cat slobber can kill a baby rabbit from all of the bacteria it has in it, AND rabbits that age require a very specialized diet. We tried to find the nest but had no luck (I have NEVER seen a rabbit nest, I thought it highly unlikely that we were going to find one tonight and that turned out to be the case). So we tried to do our best by it and ended his life quickly and mercifully (well, Charles did...thank goodness for him).

Well, tomorrow's a new day!

Oh, and the picture is me and Coach, the horse I rode in Oregon. I thought a picture of me riding a horse would cheer me up and it did!

Jesika and Norman

I am adding this picture because I am back on here in honor of Jesika!