Furry Friends

That Ain’t Right
I recently enjoyed a post on one of my new favorite blogs.
It was entitled
That Ain’t Right.
I just had to steal the post title 
for this picture that I took a few days ago.
I stealthily snapped the photo 
as LG and I were pulling out of our driveway.
If I took the picture from the front 
the owners would have known what I was up to.
So I did the best I could from behind.
It’s a good thing I saved the dog 
and the owner the shame of their faces on my blog.
Anonymity is really the right and kind thing to do.
But do you know what the really right thing to do is?
How about NOT taking your dog for a walk
while he is wearing the cone of shame.
I think it is just cruel.
Really.

Animal Lovers
Sometimes a move across country brings animals closer together.
Even if it only lasted for two minutes.
I wish that they would consider sleeping together.
As I want them to be as warm as possible in the garage.
Kitty Bear prefers a cabinet
and Olive prefers her blanket lined kennel.
You know, sometimes I choose to sleep on the couch.
Or LG is banned to the couch.
And I realize that I should be as smart as an animal.
Even if only for two minutes.

The trek west
.

I only made time for a photo op when I knew we were on the last leg of our trip This was taken shortly after I stopped at the Utah Visitor’s Center to make sure I wasn’t lost. The previous 100 miles were nervous making. I was sure I took a wrong turn somewhere in Colorado. For 100 miles I debated with myself about turning around. I could have kissed those old ladies that live in the middle of nowhere when they told me I was on the right route. My phone’s GPS wasn’t working and there was no service to double check with LG that I was following my directions correctly. And the atlas was with LG in the moving van because Abigail loved checking it throughout the trip. All I could do is be the Mormon Pioneer that I am and forge ahead.
Oh yeah, funny side story. When I called my dad to talk to him about the details of our arrival the week before we left Tennessee, we got talking about the move-in. He asked me if we had a hand cart. I couldn’t figure out why he asked me that. Did all people need an obligatory historical handcart to move into the state of Utah now-a-days? I had never heard of such a thing and there was no way we would be fitting one in our truck along with the thousand pounds of food storage. I told my dad, “No dad, we have a moving truck. Penske. It’s the 21st century. It’s not going to take us months. Hopefully. Just four days, dad. Hoepfully.” He and I laughed heartedly when he explained that he meant one of those little dolly things to unload the boxes from the truck.

Here are the only other photos that were taken on the trip:

Even though this was taken on the same stop at the Welcome to Utah sign, it could speak volumes for the wind that we experienced all the way through Kansas, the third day of the trip. We traveled through what seemed to be a lot of dead farmland, but as the car was thrown all over the road by the wind and repeatedly ran over tumbleweeds it was no surprise that we were in tornado territory. All I could do is hold tight, click my heals together and chant repeatedly “there’s no place like home”.

Olive made it. She thought she was miserable until we arrived and she found out that her new home would be “outside only”. She hates the garage, even if it is attached to the yard for her own leisure. She especially hates it when we are eating dinner. She goes outside and howls at the kitchen window, hoping for some scraps. The kids have made a game of standing on the kitchen bench and waving to her throughout our meal. I can only hope that as I adjust, so will Olive. At least I’ve figured out how to get her to stop howling through the night. Apparently locking her inside her kennel makes her feel safer. Go figure?
And there are no pictures of Kitty Bear. We drugged her up really good every morning and the drugs usually lasted until we had 1 -2 hours left each night, when while we were all at our end’s wit, we tried to ignore her meowing and scratching at her kitty carrier. I won’t even mention how when we stayed with our friends in Colorado on our last night, when we went to leave, we couldn’t find her anywhere in their garage. We searched for a good 15 minutes. I thought it especially generous that we searched at all considering she had kept us up the whole evening before meowing at the door. 
Kitty Bear must be a true Gold family member. She is always out to entertain. For some real fun, we couldn’t find her at all the whole day after we arrived in Utah. We were sure she had taken off to try to go back home to Tennessee. She had snuck in the house and was hiding in the food storage room. I guess that is where she took the most comfort because it’s the only room of our new house that has any semblance to her old space. Boy was I relieved to find her! After 4 days of drugging and dragging and scratching and wrestling and chasing, she had better not run out on us now.

A great shot of a dirty windshield if I do say so myself.  You would never guess that at every gas stop the girls fought and fought over who got to do the windows. That wasn’t the only fight along the way, but this mom stayed focus. They pretty much fended for themselves. Caroline came up with the game of throwing her pacifier at the windshield and yelling “paci, paci, paci” when she was really had it, which was pretty much every day from an hour after we got into the van. Notice the photo above where she has one pacifier in her mouth and one in her hand. Every stop we would gather as many as we could like ammunition. 
I was taken back by the blue in the skies. Who would have known that we barely missed a great big snow storm the day before. Only LG who was driving the moving truck with car trailer down the Rockies. You would think that the ritziest ski resort in the nation, Vail, would do a better job of making sure their roads were plowed. Needless to say, these Tennesseans who are very out of practice driving in snow were white knuckled for about three hours. Especially after passing accident after accident while winding and stopping and travelling what seemed straight downhill with a gorge on the side.
And for good measure. Here is the best shot Abigail could manage of the most entertaining thing we saw the whole way. Forget the St. Louis arches or the majestic snow topped Rockies. Here is what got the most laughs. The Wiener Mobile. It’s a good thing that Sophia was with dad in the moving truck because of all my children she would be the one to get the bright idea that this should be her only formidable mode of transportation when she turns 16.

As you all know by now, we made it.

Barely.

Thanks for all the prayers.

What I really want to know though is who is the jokester that included the request for the WienerMobile
and how did you know it was exactly what I needed after four days on the road?

A Mom Heart, Her Pets, and Her Hero

Hey everybody.

We aren’t necessarily moving.
Sorry for the scare.
It’s just that LG is looking for a new job,
and that could bring a new residence.
Let’s face it,
the economy sucks.
And you have to go where the work is.
Today one of LG’s cousins said they were looking for a dog.
My mother in law so kindly offered up ours.
She knows I have been thinking about finding her a new home.
I have been stressed about finding a new place for her to live,
in case we have to move.
You know, I do that stress thing from time to time.
Why?
Because I am a mom.
That’s why.
And I have a mom heart.
I can’t help it.
And I want to make sure that all of my kids (and pets) are taken care of.
I take no child left behind to an all new level. It’s called no living thing left behind.
So, this cousin, who would provide Olive (our dog) with a wonderful home,
offered to take her on a trial basis.
My in-laws were pulling out of the drive-way,
and it was all up to me,
as to whether or not Olive was going to go along.
At least that is what LG said.
I started loving on the dog,
and I couldn’t keep the tears away.
My 12 year old Alice
who lost her best friend Major (a German Shepherd)
to the vet’s needle,
seemed to show her true self.
She screamed,
“Please don’t make me do this.”
It was decided to postpone the decision for now.
Relief washed over me,
and the 12 year old Alice
thanked me incessantly.
Once a mom decides to care for something as her own,
nobody should try to come between them.
Unless they want to watch the mom cry
for any amount of time.
The funny thing is that I have complained about this dog.
I have constantly complained.
I’m the only ones who feeds her.
Or takes her on walks.
I have to bathe her.
And cut her nails.
And get up with her in the night.
And I have to run after her when someone lets her out,
and she can run about 80 miles an hour.
Seriously.
From the get-go I took the majority of the responsibility for cleaning up her messes.
And it took about 6 months and ripped out carpet to properly house-train her.
But gosh danget…she is MY dog.
And I am not giving her away.
Because I promised to take care of her.
No matter what personal sacrifice I have to make.
And I love her.
And she loves me.
And my mom heart can’t handle abandoning her.
And just writing the word abandon makes me want to throw up.
A mother can never abandon her children or her dogs.
She will throw herself in front of the train if she has to.
And her reward at this very moment is a dog sprawled out on the rug looking up at her with loyal eyes and her cat sitting next to her arm that rests on the desk while typing.
And on lots of days, that is more than her kids ever offer her for all of her sacrifice.
So, after my in-laws drove away,
LG says to me,
“Alice, I just made an important decision. If we do have to move, we are just gonna have to find a place that will let us have the dog and the cat.”
“Why do you say that?” I question.
“You know why.”
I wrapped my arms around him and started to bawl.
I love that man.

Time-Out Time

I just read this article for some great new strategies in disciplining my kids.
After reading the article, I thought that letting the kids play cards with the dog was a really great idea of disciplining with techniques of both distraction and silliness. Let me know if your dog is as good as ours at playing spoons. It kind of runs in the Gold blood. Olive would love to get together with your dog for a card playing play date.

I typically am a go-to time out mom. I am a believer in time-out. We spanked Abigail, our oldest, for a while and found that it did not work for her at all. It just made her more aggressive. I am not saying that spanking won’t work for some children, but for me it wasn’t an option because I could not spank without anger. But, the older my children have got, the more frustrated I have become with the ineffectiveness of time-out. I have found myself trying to remember what my mom did with her seven kids when I have situations to resolve at hand.
My mom spanked so well without anger that it was a standing joke at our house growing up. There was usually much laughter accompanying our spankings, which were preferably given with a wooden spoon. It was much softer than her hand would have been. She’s such a softie. Another good thing my mom did was make my siblings and I sit under the peach tree in the backyard whenever we fought. We had to stay there until we were willing to give each other a hug. How powerful and simple that technique was. I think she may have even used it on some of the neighbor kids from time to time. And, now that I am a mother, I realize how ingenious the idea was for her sanity too. She didn’t have to worry or listen to any bickering once we were outside. She also remained neutral and made us work out our own solutions with this effective disciplining strategy.
I was really excited the other day when I had a good parenting stroke of genius. I think my mom would be pleased. The idea stemmed from her insistence that I write “I love my brother 100 times” at least 100 times in my life.
For the most part my kids behave great, but I have one pretty consistent struggle between my two bullheaded children. Abigail is 11 and wants to always tell 6 year old Bella how to do things. Bella resents it because she thinks she can be her own boss. They go at it pretty good from time to time, mostly just verbally, but sometimes they will push or hit.
Well, the other day, after one of these disagreements, and after Abigail’s 11 minute time-out, that didn’t work a bit, I gave her an assignment. She was to sit at the kitchen table and write down 10 things she likes about Bella. I was adamant that she would not leave the table until she got it done.
I was so impressed and completely surprised that Abigail cranked it out really quickly. She even threw in an extra compliment for good measure.
1. She cleans when asked.
2 She is kind to others. (not me)
3. She doesn’t quit.
4. She likes cool music.
5. She leaves me alone when I ask, which is almost all the time.
6. She loves to play.
7. She is strong willed.
8. She dresses uniquely.
9. She takes charge in doubt.
10. She loves to take care of everything.
11. She is organized.
Later Abigail admitted to me that the way that she came up with the list was to think of all the things that she didn’t like about Bella and turn them into a compliment. So, when it said, she dresses uniquely, that started out with she dresses awful. She likes cool music was really that Abigail hates her music, etc, etc.
At Abigail’s admission, I could have been defeated, but I realized that even though Abigail thought she had the upper-hand, she didn’t. I had just succeeded with a truly inspired exercise in cognitive therapy. I taught Abigail how to change the way she thinks. Isn’t that what we all have to do to love our enemies?