Taylor and Doctor Vet...

I had quit a traumatic experience this week...

During a normal routine day (if there is such a thing) I went to the back door to let the dogs go outside, and noticed my pin cushion on the ground. I picked it up and shook it at Taylor, assuming she had drug it out from somewhere. She is famous for finding slippers, stuffed animals or other soft items and dragging them out, but so far (knock on wood) she hasn't chewed anything except her toys and hasn't torn anything up. She has been so good that way, as far as puppies go.

So as I shook it at her and told her "that's not yours"... she dropped her ears and ducked her head, looking for forgiveness as Morgan stood next to her tall and proud... so I knew it was doings.

Then it hit me... oh my gosh, this is my pin cushion... and there are NO pins in it!!!

I frantically got on my hands and knees and looked all over the floor. I only found 3 or 4 in the living room. There were another 2 in the hallway. But there had been 20 or so in the cushion... where were the rest of them?

I looked at her... surely not?

I called my strong silent mysterious man at work, and he wasn't very happy with me, and no words of wisdom to help me in my panic.

So I called Doctor vets office, would there be anything I could give her if she had eaten the pins to help them through her stomach... these were my thoughts.

I had to wait for them to ask Doctor vet who was with another critter when I called.

It was only a few very short minutes, but it seemed like a lifetime as I continued to search the floor and outside for the rest of the pins.

Finally, Doctor Vet called me back. He said get her in her right away... we have to do xrays and find out for sure if she ingested anything.

So I load her up, and take her right over.... trying to be strong, but worried, frantic inside, and totally guilt ridden. How would I tell the teenager if something bad happened? It was a horrible drive...

We arrive and they swiftly take Taylor into the back room, and ask me to wait in the waiting room. This frightened me more than what I had already imagined over the past 30 min. It was proving to be difficult to keep my composure as other pets and their owners came in together.... my thoughts were all over the place. What if I had to leave without her? How would I even be able to do that? We have only had her in our family for a very very short time, and I knew I really liked her, but lets face it, she is high maintenance... a real pain at times. Oh my gosh, I suddenly couldn't imagine my life without her!!!! I couldn't stop the tears.

I walked outside to call my man and catch him up on the events.... he was really really not happy with me now! And me crying wasn't making any of that any better. I was at the vet alone, with my man mad at me, not knowing if I had killed my dog. And knowing he is really not a fan of vets... and his philosophy on pets that we don't spend good money on vets to fix them up... we take them out back and shoot them.

(I know it sounds pretty drama queen, but this was my reality at that moment).

After another century of waiting, Doctor Vet called me into the back room. I knew this wasn't good. If she was okay, he would have brought her out to me. This was bad, this was very bad!

He took me into a room alone, and explained in great detail the xray process, and how one xray from a lateral view might cause him to miss something as thin as a pin if it were turned in just a certain position... and went into more detail of how he performed the other 3 xrays. I finally said just give me the news!

He said there are no pins in her stomach!

Phew!! Really? So what was the bad news?

He was so concerned about how many xrays it took to be for absolute sure there were no pins.... He wanted to explain it all to me, I guess so I would be sure and pay the bill before I left. And... she had so much food in her stomach... we were feeding her too much. I told him she was a pig and blocked the other dogs off the food dish, but he said we would have to work harder at cutting her back.

So $170 later... we drove home together. I hate to think of the decisions I would have had to make, had she ingested the pins. I was just very very happy, she didn't.

So, after school I tell the teenager and he says "Mom, you can't leave your stuff out like that, you could have killed her"!!!!

I am just happy everything turned out okay, well... it could have been much worse anyway. It was a traumatic day. It made me realize we can't let our guard down. These animals are a huge responsibility, to me, but to our entire family. I thought I was being careful with her, but I guess not careful enough... we have to close doors and keep her out unless she is with us.

I love her, and I am so happy she is safe and sound... well safe. We are working on the soundness.

Birthday Holiday WEEK long Extravaganza!!!

I am not sure where to start.... it has been a very long birthday holiday week extravaganza! It started way back OVER a week ago when my strong silent mysterious man thought we should go browsing for his birthday present.

It was supposed to just be browsing, but he tried on EVERYTHING in the store, three times each!

I don't like the idea of buying your own birthday present, but it is a good thing to know what you want, and be able to pick it out. Especially, with a big ticket item like a guitar. So reluctantly I bought the guitar (thinking I would save gas from having to drive back into the city, just so for the idea he didn't buy his own gift).

Knowing we would all be in different places on his actual birthday, the teenager and I decided to have a party for him last Saturday, so we could do the whole dinner, cake and ice cream and present blowout!

The teenager (having no idea Dad actually knew I bought the guitar), being the jokester he is decided to give Dad his "new guitar case". Keeping the guitar out and waiting until after dinner to give him the rest of the gift.

Dad had to play along, that was part of the promise I made him give me by getting his present early... 1) he couldn't look at it until it was given to him, 2) he had to pretend he didn't know about it, and 3) absolutely no sneaking it out of the closet to play it when we were gone.

The teenager gave in and gave him the guitar right after the case... he is like his Dad that way, can't keep a surprise!
So he seemed to like it...
He was giddy with excitement....
And it played beautifully...

We went to birthday dinner...

Sang the Happy Birthday song, ate cake and ice cream...

And a good time was had by all... even aside from all the joking and teasing.

Then at some point shortly after, he discovered the strings on the guitar were not centered on the neck. This was not right, so back to the city to exchange the guitar.

Since he had another one in mind, it would just be a matter of swapping it out... no money would have to exchange hands, so we justified doing it after church on Sunday.

When we arrived at the guitar shop, the second choice guitar seemed to have the same string issue, not as bad... but still the same, and I wasn't going to spend that kind of money for something that wasn't right.

So he began the trying on process again! It would turn out to be hours. So in an attempt to save my sanity, I thought I would step outside of the noisy, head banging, thumping sounds in the store for some quiet hummmmm of the traffic outside, the hesitant feeling I had about doing this on a Sunday, was beginning to catch up with me and take over.

As I stepped outside, I looked over at our car and something wasn't right... we had a flat tire... not low, completely flat!!! That did it! I was outta there, this wasn't right, and we shouldn't be there, I no longer had any warm fuzzy feelings about the birthday gift.

After more deliberation, and me almost in tears over the entire situation, and even more deliberation because the guitar he was now looking at was even more money... we finally left with the "Stevie Ray Vaugh" version. It was hard for me to be happy for him, mostly because I felt terrible about being out on Sunday shopping for guitars, but I tried to put on a good face. It was his birthday present after all, and he IS very deserving. And it was a very nice guitar, it would hold it's value blah blah blah blah.

We got the tire fixed, made it home... the ordeal seemed to be over! I thought...

Monday morning, my strong silent mysterious man informed me he couldn't sleep all night. He was tossing and turning and didn't feel good about keeping the SRV guitar he had brought home the night before. He just couldn't keep it.

So Monday after work... back to the guitar store. We would just return everything. We walked out without a guitar.

Tuesday, he went back to our local guitar shop less only a couple of miles from our house, where he frequents often and is on a first name basis with the guitar guru. He tells him about the adventure, and this guy pulls out a vintage re-make Strat.

To make a really really long story a little shorter. I was back to the guitar shop while my man was at work to pick it up.

We both felt much better about the guitar, the sale, the whole situation was much smoother. He knew the min. he touched it, that it felt right. It didn't take hours and hours of deliberation like before.... this was how it was supposed to be.

So I layed out the gifts awaiting his arrival home from work...

He played it, he loved it....

This is his "minney pearl" look...
I think it all turned out the way it was supposed to...

It is a beautiful guitar, and sounds even better than it looks...

After all the birthday trauma, there is love at home. Who wouldn't love to be serenaded by a strong silent mysterious man like this.

He is a happy birthday boy!!

"The Sun will come out Tomorrow".....

One of my clients out of Twin Falls was in town picking up a load of seed and had me meet him while he was loading... to give me his tickets to "Annie". He's a cowboy and doesn't look like the type that would love anything cultural, but he is a big softy. He has season tickets to the Morrison Center, and couldn't use his tickets last night, so he passed them on to me.

Thank You Bob!

It was a little spontaneous (that is just being nice, it was last minute... that's how he is with everything, but I am used to it), and I knew as much as I would have loved to have one of "my boys" go with me... this would be waaaaaayyyyy more than they would sit through. So I called a friend (my rs president) who went with me two years ago to see the Abba musical "Mamma Mia"... she was already working downtown, and was thrilled!!
She took me out to Joe's Crab Shack before the show...
I had been there for my birthday last year, but somehow we missed the dancing. When the Saturday Night Live song "The Hustle" comes on, all the waitresses come out and did the hustle for the entire song.

I was thinking to myself, I was kind of glad they didn't do that when I was there with my strong silent mysterious man, because he was already annoyed we were eating seafood, which his isn't a fan of, but thinking he was waiting on his food while his waitress was dancing around to disco, which he REALLY isn't a fan of, would have sent him over the edge.

But it was certainly a fun time for me last night!

The production was awesome! I couldn't get over the choreography, and how those little kids never missed a step, and not even to mention their voices... they were belting it out, and were as young as 7 years old. I was amazed!! I had forgotten the time period of this play was from the 1920's and 30's.. and they costumes were fabulous!! I wanted to leave and go find a couple of dresses and a winter coat with a fur collar that Ms. Farrell was wearing.

Oh! and the orchestra, that was so cool, I just wish I could have seen them at times!!

Amazing! I could go on and on...

I had to control myself, I wanted to start singing outloud! I think somewhere deep inside I am a drama queen! (don't tell my husband) I told my friend when we were leaving that it made me want to go take voice lessons tomorrow... she said "I want to go adopt an orphan". Too funny!!

(Hailey, Megan and Chloe)

Sorry Hailey... she is painfully camera shy, and now posted all over the blogosphere, in costume!

But I couldn't leave this time in your life out of my journaling... you'll forgive me someday!

Okay, so the whole experience brought me back to family... and our nieces and nephews have been so involved in their school's musical productions for years now, and I haven't seen not one of them! I have totally missed out! I know it!

Hailey just wrapped up "Annie Get Your Gun", and I am so sad I don't live close enough to have gone. But my heart is so there with her. I heard it was amazing, and even before my experience last night, I knew it would be something wonderful... but now I can only imagine! What a thrill it has been to feel some piece of her excitement! I hope she doesn't stop performing! What a gift!

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So on another note, I dropped the teenager off at school this morning - what is that he is packing! Yep, he qualified for another golf tournament and they play rivals -

the Eagle Mustangs!

I hope they have a good match, Good Luck Kiddo!!

Happy Birthday to My Strong Silent Mysterious Man, 48 today!!!

Photo Shoot...

(I wrote a big long blog yesterday and lost it in cyberspace somewhere... here is a brief re-issue from Mondays post)

Saturday was my photo shoot with another engaged couple... It was so hard for me!!!

They could only get off work at the same time and meet me in the middle of the day, so the lighting was terrible for shadows! This was way way way harder than I thought.

Even harder for me than the lighting on this day, was the posing... I had researched and got lots and lots of ideas. But not every couple looks good in every pose. For some strange reason, God creates us in all different shapes and sizes and we all don't contort in the same manner and look pretty when captured in a split second and frozen onto an image. Every split second is just not always what we want, or imagine in the world of photography.

I have an even greater respect for professionals in this business than ever... and those who work with children or pets... whew! Bow down to them as photo heroes if they capture the moment.

There is just so much more to it, and not a surprise to me, I knew this... and part of it I love... but the part where you are capturing it for someone else... is the stressor!

I have done one wedding, unprofessionally years ago... but I knew I was the only one taking pictures that day. And the pressure just about killed me. So many things can go wrong and you can't go back and have a "do-over"... once the day is gone, it is gone forever! So I don't know if I will pursue this end of the business professionally. I think I would much prefer to capture what I do and when I have something I love, then put it out there for someone decide if they love it enough to buy it.

That would be more my style I suppose.

Anyway, Dustin and Tera to be married 14 June 2008, we have 178 shots... here are a few. I hope I captured something they will want to share in their invitations. They were the sweetest couple, and it was so fun to meet them, and I was very honored they asked me to take pictures for them.