Zenzi the Keeshond

"But Mommy I don't want to lay on your cold cold feet!"

"I'd rather lay over here instead!"

"Aren't I cute?"



"Oh no, Mommy's about to get my belly!"

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 has finally arrived and then scampered away all too quickly. It has been a good year, and I got lots of stuff, but I enjoyed being with my family (and my husband's family, believe it or not) most of all.

This was a great Christmas for my side of the family. This year we had a two and four year old at the festivities- Kylie and Shayce respectively. They were brimming with cuteness, as well as a rotation of delight and impatience. Kylie still doesn't really talk, but she made quite a few garbled exclamations which were quite gratifying. One of the presents I gave her was a little knit hat, which she took great joy in modeling. When she opened it, she squawked, then put it on and started dancing around with arms held out straight, in swooping motions, airplane-style. Shayce was equally adorable, and was enthralled with the DVD collection of My Little Ponies that I gave her. When I wrapped it, I put several layers of paper and tape, so that when she was opening it, she kept exclaiming sounds of indignance and saying, "I really really want to see what's inside!"

One of my favorite parts of Christmas with my family was getting to play with my sister's SLR camera. It was fantastic. It is on my wishlist for Christmas 2012. We just bought a new camera for now that I will be enjoying until then.

Another great thing about this Christmas is that this is the first time since we got married that my husband and I have not been gallivanting around the week after Christmas. We had Christmas with his family on the 18-19th, and then we spent Christmas Eve with my family, so on Christmas day and since then we have been blissfully tucked away in our little house.

Plus, we had a White Christmas this year. Husband was especially excited because he grew up on the east Texas coast, and this is the first time he has ever had a White Christmas. Around 1:00 or so on Christmas Eve, we looked out the window to see sweet little snow flakes whizzing vertically by. It was a very powdery snow, but still managed to do in my little potted plants on the front porch. So, naturally we took pictures:

Zenzi was not a fan of the snow. She was quite confused and dismayed by it. She jumped on top of her house to bark at it, and to let us know that she was discontented with her status in the extreme.

Mackenzie was living it up inside the house whilst her big sister was filing complaints from the roof of her dog house. She had discovered a way out of the back yard and was taking every opportunity to escape and go on a rampage/ joy run around the neighborhood. I knew that no one would be as excited to say hello to her as she would be to say hello to them, so she got to hang out in the kitchen. We have since discovered the Achilles' heel of our fencing and my wonderful husband has fixed it.

Zenzi Playing

I decided to share a little gem that I taped last night of my dog and husband duking it out- one of her favorite pastimes. Enjoy!

Belaboring the Unexpected

Well, well, well- we shall see who still checks in on this here overdue blog, now, won't we?

I've been doing a lot of thinking today, and examining some of the reasons why I do the things that I do. I have come to the conclusion that I don't want to continue being motivated by laziness or anger.

For example, why is it that I see the same furball on the floor for three days in a row and do not vacuum it up? Reason: I am angry at the dog for having fur. And, I am angry at my house for being dirty. And, I am angry at other people for not noticing it and vacuuming it up themselves for a change. So, there you have it. I have been victimized by inanimate objects, so the world must be subject to furballs at my whim.

Now if only the world would comply with my irrationality.

Another example: why is it that I continue to have every dish in the house dirty so that each time I want something to eat I must first wash all the dishes, silverware, pots, and pans that I want to use before I can cook? The answer: greater forces are not at work, and my dishes refuse to be miraculously self-cleaning. Oh, rats.

So, in order for my life to get better I have to choose action instead of inaction. My response to the universe today was that I cleaned a dish. And then a fork. Ha ha! I have won!

I realized just how nice it is to be able to just grab a dish and make a sandwich.

But the furball is staying there, so nyah.

A New Joy

Okay, so I have been reminded more than once by my dear sister that I need to update my website. I have been told that it is too morbid. All right, I admit it. I have been a little lax in my attention to my reader.

I now have a new puppy. She is the most wonderful thing on four legs since Trinket. Mer name is Zenzi, and she is a purebred Keeshond. She loves to run around with other dogs in her backyard. She loves her kitty sisters, but they will only sort of tolerate her.

She loves everything living except for people under the age of 10 or so. Babies especially freak her out.

She is full of life and joy. She definitely lives up to her name, which means "to spring up, grow, thrive". She is one of the happiest dogs I have ever met. She has a great sense of humor too. She has about 50 dog toys around the house, but still prefers to make her own toys out of things she is not supposed to have. One of her favorite things to do is to sneak into our room, find the dirty clothes, and then grab a sock or undergarment and run.

This has led to several embarrassing events. My pest control guy now knows exactly what my underwear looks like because she took it upon herself to lead me on a high speed chase the

day he came over, waving them from her mouth like a victory banner.

She loves all foods that are eaten by humans. She will do anything for the all-powerful draw of a honey nut Cheerio.

She is the most beautiful dog I have ever owned, and is one of the best snuggle buddies you could ask for.

She is the only dog I have ever owned who didn't make me break out in hives from her spit and dander. She has become my best friend, aside from my husband, of course. Here's to Zenzi, my 'silly-pants':

In Memorium

Rest In Peace, Ginger.

My beloved puppy was found dead this evening in my back yard. I am completely heartbroken. I think it was from heat stroke. I loved her, and she was wonderful.

I will see you in heaven, my sweet girl.

My New Dog

Ok, so Sadie never came back. Very very sad. I still look for her every time I hear a big dog bark.

But, the upside is that I now have a new dog! Her name is Ginger. She is a red Australian Shepherd (actually she is more of a honeyed brown color, but officially that is called "red"). She is the cutest, fluffiest thing. I think I will only have Australian Shepherds as dogs from now on. She is such a good, sweet dog. I love her!



This morning I had a very novel experience. David bought me a bike recently. I love it, too. We had a deal that if I kept the food budget below 600 dollars in January, then at the beginning of February he would be a bike that I have been asking for for over a year now. So, I actually kept the food budget down to about 450 dollars in January, and now I have my bike. I haven't taken pictures of it yet, but when I do, I will post them.



So, this morning, I was about to take a little ride on my beautiful new bike, and Ginger was in the backyard having a fit. Apparently she is under the impression that every time the garage door opens she is supposed to get to come out and see us. She loves to do that, and a lot of times, if she is insistent enough, we let her. So, she was barking and barking, and I felt guilty, so I decided to see if she and the bike would mesh well. They did. She had the best time! It's the first time that she has gotten to run on an outing around the neighborhood. She didn't really have any fear of the bicycle, so it worked quite well. Now, when I take her out, I can spend some time coasting. That is very nice.

Ok, so in the other areas of my life there have been some changes as well. I now have an Associate's degree in Early Childhood Development. Hooray! Unfortunately, that does not mean that I am done at the Junior colleges. I have started at UNT this semester, but I still have 6 classes to take at the junior colleges, boo. At least the classes I am taking this semester are interesting. I am really liking my Linguistics class. I was told by several people beforehand that it was a super-hard class to take, but I have found the material very interesting so far.

Ok, so enjoy the pics of my sweet dog! Later!

Where's Waldo?

Big Dog Lost

Sadie is missing. She got out of her yard sometime during the day on Thursday, while David and I were at work. I have been feeling sort of zombie-like the past two days, driving up and down all the streets in the surrounding area, checking the perimeter of the house every time I step outside, and pestering the animal shelter to see if they found any German Shepherds recently. I am hurting; I feel like I lost a child. I just want her to come home.

Rambling Down Memory Lane

Ok, it's been awhile since I posted last. I guess I came across a little writer's block while scrambling in between work, school, social commitments, and keeping my husband happy and content.

I'm feeling a little melancholy right now. Sometimes I wish I could go back to a simpler time in my life, back when I thought a budget was a kind of bird, and thought that my clothes just magically reappeared in my drawer all clean and folded automatically.

Today I spent the majority of the day catching up on housework that I have been letting pile up for a week or two. After a long day of dishes, vacuuming, and laundry, I was cutting up a watermelon to enjoy with David, and wallowing in memories from my childhood:

Missing Mom's "home-cooked" summer meals consisting of a can of condensed soup and a gigantic slice of watermelon.

Walking by the kitchen and seeing my skinny sister with a hollow leg getting all the last scrapings out of the rind.

Wandering through my dad's home-grown watermelon patch, with leaves bigger than my face, and looking for the tee-tiny watermelons, anticipating the deliciousness in the near future.

Sitting on the old picnic table in the back yard with my sister when I was about five, and each of us having a slice of one of Dad's watermelons that was so big I had to rest it on my knees in between bites.

Having a contest with my sister that night to see who could spit watermelon seeds at the dozen cats we owned and actually hit them. They were too good at dodging for us most of the time.

Eating the last couple bites of the Hamburger Helper when my brother wasn't looking, and then when he heatedly asked where it went (since his raging adolescent football-player appetite hadn't been satisfied yet with three heaping helpings) blaming it on my skinny sister, and watching her get called Miss Piggy shamefacedly.

Watching movies with my family on school nights, even though I knew I should be getting my homework done, and feeling happy that we were all doing something together without anyone getting angry at someone else for at least a couple of hours.

Getting called a bum-bum head by the little boy who lived behind us because I didn't want to play his stupid game.

Having to listen to him and his mother argue about whether or not my head actually looked like a bum-bum. She was determined to convince him that he was wrong so he would apologize, and he was determined not to apologize.

Dancing around the yard, holding a cat above my head, and chanting Ooga-chaka like a little heathen. I'm surprised the neighbors didn't think we were devil worshippers. I blame it on the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie we watched- it was a bad influence.

Always wanting to put my Barbies in a different outfit than the current one, being able to get the clothes off, and only being able to get the new clothes partly on. My dolls ended up being in a perpetual state of nakedness or mooning one another.

Wishing there was a way to get engraved underwear off the Barbie so I could change that, too. I probably wouldn't have been able to get the new underwear on her anyway.

Getting a kick out of making a loud noise and scaring my dad to death after he had been on the toilet long enough to relax during his extended bathroom trips. And yet he didn't get mad at me when I did that- I think he was just so glad that the house wasn't really falling to pieces.

Back rubs from Mom that would sometimes last as long as a movie. Hers were the best, because she always chewed her nails down to nubs, so her back scratches were more like light massages. But if you actually wanted a massage, she would swear she didn't have the faintest clue as to how to give one.

There are so many more things I could write down, but for tonight I'm out of steam. This will have to do until later.