Ramblings

Today I had the day off of work so I went to my best friend's house so we could work on our scrapbooking together. I've been really down lately, but that helped me to get out of my blue mood, at least for a while. I've also been reading a fiction novel that Sheila lent me entitled Twilight. It's pretty good and it helps to pass the time when I'm alone and keeps my mind off of all the problems of late. I don't read much fiction usually, but this book is holding my interest. I don't know, maybe I'll start reading more fiction. It's better to read about the problems of others than to sit and worry about my own real life issues. I used to read alot of fiction when I was Sheila's age, but for about the past ten years or so, I've mostly read true stories and informational books. Also alot of health books that reference illnesses and diseases that my residents come down with. I won't even have to buy any fiction novels to read because my Sheila has so many, she could open her own library. With this cold weather we've been experiencing lately, I'm spending alot more time indoors, and since there isn't much I care for on TV, reading fiction novels will be a good way for me to pass the time. I really don't like the freezing cold weather much and my bones don't either so I have to find things to do in the house.

Surrounded by Death

The past month seems like it's been nothing but doom and gloom. Well, that may be a slight exaggeration, but not by much. First my favorite resident that I care for passed away, she was by far one of the nicest people I have ever met. I wasn't expecting it either. She seemed to be in better health than all of my other residents. She even still had her car and she and one of my other residents used to love to go out shopping or to dinner, just stuff like that. She always reminded my of old time hollywood. You know, back when hollywood stars were glamorous. Her hair was always perfect, you never seen her without her makeup, and she always dressed classy. For a woman in her 80's, she was beautiful and she had a personality to match. Suddenly, everything just gave out on her all at once and that was it, she was gone. Then a few weeks ago, a former resident of mine, whos family had taken her out of our assisted living to another place a few months back died. Again another trip to the funeral home. Another time meeting up with family members that I had gotten to know while caring for their mother. And then this past weekend on Sunday while I was at work, I had to send the resident that had moved in to the room of the former resident to the emergency room. His symtoms were stroke like. Then Sunday evening, my son calls to tell me that his wife's grandmother passed away and I had to go over to watch the kids so he could go be with her (she was with her grandma when she passed at her home). With all this stuff happening in such a short period of time, I'm beginning to scared to wake up each day for fear of what will happen next. I've got to go back to work tomorrow after being off for the past two days and I'm afraid of what I'll find when I get there. I don't know if it's the winter weather, or the fact that my life has been surrounded by death but my thoughts are consumed with the saddness of these recent events. It's so depressing. I hope things start to get better soon.

Puppy Problems

O.K., so the dog is cute. But the dog is also spoiled rotten already! Training him is going to be a nightmare. I get him down for the night in the laundry room, no problem. Then around 3 a.m. my husband wakes up to use the bathroom, let's Taco out to do the same, and then does he leave the dog in the laundry room for the rest of the night, NO! He lays on the couch with the puppy snuggled up to him and that is the way I find them in the morning. Now my husband says that the puppy's whinning after he brings him in keeping him up is why he is doing this, but I don't buy it. I think my husband is just using this as an excuse to let the puppy sleep with him. The next problem with this cute little devil is that he is chewing all the wrong things. He likes his chew toys, but he also likes to chew his dog food bag apart and he has chewed through the wire that's for the water meter. Now I have to have them come out tomorrow to replace that. I wouldn't have this problem either if my husband would let me put the dog in his kennel box when we are at work, but he thinks it's too confining. Now, my son does come here from his job for lunch every day and he lets the dog outside to go to the bathroom and get a little exercise, so it's not like the puppy would be confined for 8 straight hours or anything like that. I think training the cute little puppy is going to be an uphill battle because he's so small and cute that everyone, especially my husband is spoiling him to death. Funny, I don't recall my husband being so soft on training issues with past pets. He must be mellowing with age. I think I'm going to have to take charge of this situation and put my foot down when it comes to Taco's puppy training or else I'm afraid we will be in for about 14 years of Taco Terror!!!

I'm Back!!!

Hello Everyone, I'm back on line. The phone company finally fixed my phone, it only took two times out. Then the dsl guy came out and found out what was wrong with my internet connection. And guess what? I was right! The stupid phone guy messed with my internet wiring from outside by the box and that's why my service was interupted. I knew that's what happened, but everytime I talked to the phone company about the serviceman messing up my internet service, they would insist that the phone repair guy doesn't touch the internet wires. Well, not only did he touch them, but he rewired them into the phone wiring! On top of that, he disconnected the dsl house filter too. So much for they never touch the dsl wires. Anyways, I'm back and I am so happy that everything is fixed. Well, that's it for now. I got all my grandkids over tonight and as you can probably guess, I'm a little bit busy with them.

The phone company sucks!!!

For about the past week, we've been having trouble with our phone lines. We could make calls out, but when someone would try to call us, the phone would ring once, then stop. Nothing but dial tone. Well yesterday, The guy came out to fix the phone. We have the dsl through them too. He tells me to disconect the dsl, so I did, and he got the phone working again from that little box outside. He left right away, I connected my dsl back up and guess what, now that doesn't work. The thing just blinks red. I call the phone company back and tell them that the guy fixed the phone, but now I can't connect to the internet. Naturally, they said that's a different department and they don't deal with those problems. I told them that they were the ones that messed it up in the first place, but that didn't matter. I called the dsl department and naturally, they couldn't get anyone to come out on that day. I told them that was my only day off for the rest of the week, but I guess its just too bad for me, they refused to come out. So now I'm over my son's house using his computer to do some on line business and I thought I'd just leave this post to tell everyone that you probably won't be hearing from me for the rest of the week. I swear I felt like calling these people back and telling them to just cancel the phone service and the dsl, I was so mad.

This is Taco

Sheila and I went out shopping right before Christmas on the 23rd of December to pick up some last minute items for the holiday. We decided to go to the mall and look around.

Now for the past 6 months or so, my husband has been bugging me about getting a new dog. Our dog Petey had died at the age of 14 years and my husband though enough time had past to see about getting another dog. Petey was a Pomeranian and the best dog we ever had. After he died, I swore I would never get another dog because he had been with us for so long and his death was so hard for the family to take. Well my husband, Ricky, had his heart set on getting a Chihuahua!!! Now I am not to fond of these little stinkers because when I was 7 years old, I got bit by a Chihuahua and let me tell you, those little teeth hurt. Needless to say, I was against getting another dog.

Sheila and I went into the pet store, just to look at the puppies and I had no intentions on buying one. We looked over all the different breeds of puppies that were in those little cages and Sheila spotted two Chihuahuas in a cage. She said, "Aw, aren't they cute. They're so tiny." Just then, one of the sales ladies was walking by us. She stopped, turned to us, and asked the dreaded question, "Would you like to take them out of the cage and look at them in the little room." I was ready to say no when Sheila jumped in with a big "YES!" I knew I was sunk then. The saleslady took out our Taco first and brought him to the back room where Sheila was ready to cuddle this little guy and give him all kinds of lovin. Then the pleading started. "Oh mom", Sheila exclaimed, "Dad would just love this little puppy for his Christmas present. You know how bad he wants one. He would be so happy. Can we get him, Can we?" She begged a little more, promises to take him to his vet visits and helping to take care of him, etc. etc. Then the saleslady brought in the other Chihuahua for us to examine. Sheila blurted out, "We could get both of them!" Suddenly I heard myself saying, " No, No, just pick one or the other, we can't get them both". So Sheila picked the one that she first had her eye on.

I didn't have enough money to buy the little puppy on me, and I also didn't have my credit card with me. The saleslady said, " Oh, we will hold him for you while you go home and get your card". Sheila said, "Yeah mom, you go and get the card and I'll stay here and hold the puppy". So this was it. I couldn't even change my mind on the ride home because the little puppy was holding my daughter and her heart captive until my return. So I drove home, picked up my card, and drove back to the store to pick up my daughter and the latest addition to our family. One good thing, we got $100.00 worth of free pet supplies with the dog.

Now we take the puppy home to Daddy to suprise him with his Christmas present. We walked through the door and handed over the little puppy to my husband. We started suggesting names to him for the puppy, but he was set on calling him Taco. Sheila kept protesting this decision saying she didn't want the dog named after a food. However Ricky questioned us with, "Is this my Christmas present or what?" I confirmed back to him, "Yes dear, this is your present". He stated firmly, "Then his name is Taco". Sheila caved in and we all welcomed Taco into our family.