Thelma and Louise

This is the story of Thelma and Louise. Not the movie and not the sad ending. Cowboy left my parents house yesterday about 1:30p to go deer hunting. On his way, he spotted two little puppies along the roadside, wet cold and hanging out in the ditch. Cowboy went on to his deer stand thinking the puppies belonged to the house that they were a block away from.

He left the deer stand around 6:30p and drove back the way he came. The puppies were in the same spot--by the road and in the ditch. He drove back to the house and pounded on the door. The lights were on but no one came to the door. Cowboy again left assuming that when the people came home they would see the puppies and take care of them.

As the night progressed, Cowboy thought and thought about the puppies. It was rainy, wet and very cold out. It would get down to freezing and the puppies were way out in the country where the coyotes would most likely get eat them sometime in the night. He looked at me around 9p and said he thought we should go check on the puppies. Off we go, over to see if the puppies were still there.

We find the puppies in the same spot and go to the nearby house. He gets the lady to come to the door. They aren't hers and she doesn't want them and could really care less about them. We drive back by them and they are shivering, yapping and just wondering around. Some sorry SOB dropped them off there. The puppies were very very sad. It didn't take long to decide that we needed to take them. Where, we didn't know. So off to my parent's house we go with the puppies.

I gave them a warm bath, picked the stick tights off them and got the bugs off of them. I dried them really well, and gave them some milk. They ate like they hadn't eaten in days. We soaked some of Sadie's dog food in water until it was soft and fed it to them. They were so much happier and Cowboy named them Thelma and Louise.
They slept in a plastic tub for much of the night. We were up a couple of times in the middle of the night for potty breaks, more eating and drinking. They were so friendly and cuddly cute. I called all the shelters this morning in the area an it was a no go. There are not many options in that part of the country. So we loaded them up with us and headed to the city. I was so worried and unsure of what we would do with them.

Sadie was not happy. She doesn't like little white furry things and rode home with me, basically ignoring me the whole way. I could tell she wasn't happy.



Thelma and Louise were perfect car riders. We found out by a dog person, they were most likely a lab mix and were about 4-5 weeks old. They didn't make a peep in the car.

We got about half-way home to a small town in KS, Garnett and stopped at the convenience store on the edge of town. I got ready to leave and Cowboy motioned for me to come back. He took Thelma and Louise into the store and told their story. A man driving a very nice pick up truck with Texas tags, scooped one up and said, 'This one's mine"--he was headed to home to give it to his daughter. Another family passing through from Oklahoma to Illinois ( I think they went to the OU/OSU game), fell in love with the other puppy and headed home with her.

Although, I'm sad they didn't stay together, I am so thankful to those wonderful people with huge hearts and a generous spirit. I hope Thelma and Louise have great lives. So much better than going to a pound or being eaten by coyotes.

On this Thanksgiving weekend, I am doubly thankful for Cowboy and his huge heart to care enough about those little cold, wet puppies.

Godspeed, Thelma and Louise.

The week is almost over!

I am ready for a vacation. I'm ready to get away. I ready to be anything but the person in charge and worring about everything. I'm ready to go home.

Although I have my own home, one that I love dearly, I'm ready to go home. My parents live in the same house that I grew up in. When I was around 9, they turned a 5 room house into a 5 bedroom home by adding on. That is my home. It is the place that I find comfort and energy. No one sees me as the boss. No one wants anything from me. They just want to be with me and I with them. The farm has no expectations.

Life on the farm is laidback. Time moves a little slower there. No one is in a hurry to go anywhere. Company comes for a visit and leaves three hours later.

The best part about going home is being with family. We'll spend lots of time just hanging out talking. Our Thanksgiving dinner will last several hours as no one is ever in a hurry to leave the table.

I'll sleep in and stay up late. I'll putz around in my jammies all day. I won't have to be anywhere at any time. I'm ready to go.

my workout efforts

The new treadmill has been awesome. It calls to me everynight to step on if for a while. I tell myself that I need to do it for my wedding, whatever it takes. I haven't gotten on the scales so I don't know if it doing it's job or not. But I'm beginning to feel more motivated to visit the treadmill everyday. Cowboy and I talked about going to the gym tonight. He had to go get his bow check so he could hunt this weekend so he wasn't home when I got here.

I changed my clothes and headed out to the gym. I had a great workout. Actually going to the gym is such a good thing for me. My stress automatically goes down. I feel so much better. I'm glad I went. If I can just keep this up, I might lose some weight before I say my "I do's".

He's a good man.

He's a good man. I suggested that we have a Thanksgiving dinner for his kids this year. He has been so good about coming to all my family's holiday functions and never complains. So I suggested the dinner. I wanted to give him something back. He was hesitant but then agreed to it saying "That might be okay". So I went forward with it.

A couple of weeks ago, she started calling his daughter. For whatever reason, she is not returning his calls at the present time. (Most likely because she owes him money.) It's really sad that she won't call. He loves her and wants the best for her and tries to help her out when he can and she repays him by not calling. So he called her for the past couple of weeks and let her know the time that dinner was to be served. No daughter at dinner.

I mentioned dinner to his daughter-in-law and she thought it was a great idea. His son and DIL were in for dinner. However, this morning at 7:30 his son called and they had to leave to go out of town. DIL's grandmother is dying and they didn't think she would live through the day and was asking to see them. Cowboy was not disappointed because he understands. No son and DIL for dinner.

Despite no biological family, we surrounded ourselves with other "family". His adopted mother came to town last night and was here for the feast. His buddy, Fish, was here. And at the last minute, his other buddy, Chuck, made it to town. Dinner was awesome. I guess that family shouldn't be defined as blood related. Cowboy never once acted disappointed or threatened to call it off. He did surround himself with those that are important to him. I'm so proud of him and my heart is full for him.

Sadie's Ritual

Sadie has a ritual every night before she settles in. It is the funniest thing to watch. We call it her nesting. I was finally able to catch it with the camera.

I'm glad today is over. The state is gone. I dealt with my staff. I have a weekend of family stuff and I can sleep in in the morning. Life will be good for at least 48 hours.

One more blog

Please induge me in one more rant about work. My staff have lost their freakin' minds. I have one crazy staff walk into my office and says to me, and I quote. "X is telling all the clients that she doesn't like me, you don't like me and I'm going to be fired. It's just a matter of time but I'm going to be fired and if the clients say anything they will be discharged." Really, WTF! Seriously, are we 2 years old. The state is still here for their audit and it's really not going well. My head was pounding so bad that I thought the top was going to pop off.

TGTIF!

Decorator

I think I have a new profession. I'm going to be a decorator. Mind you, that if you hire me, your house will probably end up looking like mine. I think I would be good. I love decorating my house and have tons of compliments on it. Most people say it looks warm and cozy, like a home and not a house.

My mom is going to be my first client. She is redoing three rooms in her house. We have picked out the living room furniture and it will be delivered Tuesday. We have the new bedding for the bedroom and I bought the accessories for the bathroom. She wanted fancy towels but they all look "old lady stuffy-ish" so I found these towels and prints and have to convince her to decorate the space with color and not towels.


My brother is looking at buying an new house. When I last talked with him about it, he said "you'll have lots of decorating to do". I told my sister-in-law that her house might end up looking like mine and she said "fine". What trusting family I have. There soon might be three houses in the world looking like mine.

Work Theme

I seem to be on a roll about work lately. Well, I'm going to blog about it again today. Let me start by saying I feel like shit and haven't slept well in the last two nights. I get to work today and am ready for the site visit and lo and behold, the state reviewer was not there. Where was he, sitting in his office. He demanded all these chart, records, etc and said he would meet me in an hour. When did he show up, hmm almost two hours later. How long did he stay...oh about 3 hours. Will he be back tomorrow, maybe?

You know what sucks- the staff worked so hard all week to get ready for the survey and then the state staff are not there long enough to appreciate all their hard work.

I had a very direct conversation with my staff today and told them they needed to step up their game. I really need supervisory help and it's on the way. A bittersweet situation. My job duties have increased so I can't and don't have time to provide the supervision that staff need and yet, I started the program and have a lot of ownership connected to it and hate to say that I can't do it.

Okay on a good note, Cowboy is on his way home. I've missed him. He didn't shoot Bambi so he's on his way back.

What to do?

I could go on and on here about how frustrated I am about work. I have staff that don't do their job and totally ignore what I have to say. I could bitch and moan about how I have some narrow minded, closed staff that think they know everything and just look stupid when they open their mouths. I could groan about how the State is coming in tomorrow to audit our program and how the people from the state are incompetent and a waste of time. I could do all of that but it won't make me feel any better.

So instead I will tell you what I was doing a year ago today. We had orchestrated the best move in the world--maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration but it was one damn smooth move. Cowboy had his son and a buddy come to help and they moved all the big furniture in a moving truck and a pick up truck and trailer. My family showed up with 2 SUV's and a trailer so our 3 SUV's and the trailer carried all the small things and boxes.

Everyone pitched in and in no time--well actually in about 6 hours we were moved into our new home. The weather was amazing. We ordered BBQ and fed everyone well. There was fun and laughter. There was total cooperation by everyone. It was amazing. Cowboy and I didn't have one argument--probably cause we didn't see each other all day. When his crew was at one house we were at the other.

I remember around this time last year (10pm) is was sitting on the top step of our upstairs and was so overwhelmed and so happy at the same time. I was very tired and just laid back and thought how were we going to get all of this done. A year later, it was so worth it and I am very thankful that we had such wonderful family helping us with the move.

Happy house anniversary, Cowboy! His comment, "that's when we became 'common law married' ".

Blah Sunday

Cowboy left this morning to go deer hunting so Sadie and I were left to our own devices today. I went to bed not feeling well and woke up feeling pretty crappy. I haven't really done a lot today. Napped and then napped some more. I did finally get all my flower pots dumped and put up for the winter. I then had to come back in the house for a nap.

I mustered up enough energy for a shower and then did a little shopping for my mom. We are working together to re-decorate her house so I bought towels and art for the bathroom. Then it was back home to lay on the couch again. I have to feel better soon, I have to much going on to be sick until after Thanksgiving.

Just a Saturday

Cowboy and I stayed up late Friday night so we slept in for awhile this morning. I love just lying in bed with him in the morning talking about our days, past and future. On the 17th of November last year, we moved into our house. Last year on this date, I closed on my house. A house that I loved, my first house. I always thought that I would be so sad to leave that house, but I love our new one so much that I don't miss the old one at all.


This morning, I looked out the window and saw our first dusting of snow on the deck. It's kind of funny that I have a few snap dragons in bloom on the deck as everything around is starting to hibernate for the winter.

Cowboy and I were going to go to the gym but he got busy selling things and then his buddy called and off he went to cut wood. We haven't turned on our furnace yet, thanks to our two wood stoves keeping the house at a nice 70 degrees.

It did give me a chance to do a little shopping. I visited this place called Old Time Pottery, a great warehouse for household things. I was on a wedding mission. I'm planning on having chocolate colored table cloths and found these place mats to go in the center. Cowboy is going to cut chunks of wood for me and then drill out the centers and we'll put the candles in the wood for the center pieces of each table. I got all the place mats and candles (complete in votive) for $60. I was thrilled. I'm slowly knocking off my list of things to do for the wedding.



I think that I'm coming down with a cold. I have a cough and my chest is tight. However, I think that I also might have missed a few days of allergy medicine--that doesn't help. I was called for Jury duty to start tomorrow and found out last night that I don't have to report--yeah. However, the State is coming to certify our programs this week--yuck. I hope I feel up to the week ahead.

Cowboy leaves tomorrow to go hunting again. I'm going to have to be more organized to be on time for work. He truly is my teammate!

Trying Day

Yesterday and today were very trying days at work. My morning yesterday started out pretty shitty when my favorite counselors came into my office and said she was transferring to another unit. I'm was totally caught of guard and shocked. The really sucky part was that the team leader that offered her the position--said nothing to me. I could pull rank because I'm indirectly her boss and say "No f..king way" but I won't do that, that's not who I am.

Then today I had two other staff members fighting like two teenage kids. I felt like a referee all day. These are the kind of days that I wish I was not in managment and had a job at Target being a greeter!

In Rememberance

I usually write about Cowboy and I but today I think I'll depart from that just a little. This is the story of Gwen.

I got a call last week from Paul, an employee of mine, who said he was calling to tell me how much he appreciated my support and all that I had done for all of them two years ago. He said he respected the way I handled that time and how grateful he was to work with me.

Two years ago at this time...Gwen.

Gwen was a 64 year woman that had worked for our company since she was 17. She worked in the food service department and in one capacity or another and through mergers and buyouts she stayed with the same company, although it had multiple names. When I went to work for our company, Gwen was the Food Service Manager. She was a wonderful woman. Very kind and loving. The client's called her "Grandma" and her staff thought of her as their "mother". There are really no words to express what a kind, gentle soul she was.

I became her 'supervisor' in March '07. I wouldn't really categorize myself as her supervisor since she was so much wiser and more experienced than I was. She was fantastic to work with. When I would ask her for something, she was johnny on the spot and make it 10x more or 10x better than what I requested. She was truly amazing.

We were in the process on moving our business and Gwen was a big part of that process. We were scheduled to meet at 9a to go visit our new location and look over her new kitchen. I arrived at work and waited for her. She wasn't there. Very unusual since Gwen was always at work. Even when she was ill, she was at work. And when she wasn't at work, she was calling work to check on work.

I called down to the kitchen and no Gwen so I left to go visit the site. Work tried to call me several times in the hour I was gone. When I got back to work, Gwen's staff came to my office to see if Gwen was with me. They knew something was wrong. What I didn't know until then was that Gwen would call before she came to work to let them know she was on her way and then around 10a her son would call to make sure she made it to work.

Her staff mobilized, one started calling, one went to her house and one called the police. Over the next hour it was a process of them convincing the police that something was wrong and they needed to enter the house. They knew her and knew her patterns-years and years of patterns of the same behavior. Their alarm bells made mine go off. I spoke with the police and told them -as if I had any authority- to enter her house. The police got a ladder truck their and entered through a second story window.

My next call was from a staff member at Gwen's house, Gwen was brutally murdered in her home. It was devastating news. I don't remember a lot from the rest of the week. The news crews were there every day. I had to call the family--never a call someone wants to make. I had a staff reeling from the news to deal with, It was awful. Gwen was such a loss.

The really sad thing was she was murdered by her only son when she refused to give him the keys to the truck so he could get more drugs. Gwen had spent the last 14 years feeding clients trying to recover from addiction and she lost her life to addiction by her son's hands.

When Paul called, he was thinking me for the support during that time. Really, he and the staff were the strong ones, the courageous ones and the ones that loved her so much that they mobilized the effort to find her.

I've thought of Gwen a lot over the past several days and find comfort in knowing that she is resting in Heaven. (Knowing Gwen, she is probably running that kitchen).

God Bless, Gwen.

Really It's Time

I have been saying for a while that I need to lose weight. I was at the same weight for such a long time and then it happened. My job exploded on me in March, '06. I was under an amazing amount of stress and moved from managing one program in one department to managing four departments and during that time, I lost all the managers that were working there. It has been a wild two and a half years. While my work life was crazy, my personal life was becoming more and more amazing. And all during that time, I gained around 30 lbs.


I really think that the stress that I was under really contributed to my weight gain. That is not an excuse. What is an excuse is the fact that I haven't done anything to change that. I have gone to the gym, tried to eat less, yada yada yada. Nothing has changed. I have set goals and watched my time lines go by and my waist line grow.


However, with the wedding coming up I'm really starting to get more serious. I have stopped drinking my favorite Cherry Coke. We have been going to the gym more regularly and I have been on my treadmill when we aren't going to the gym. I would really like to lose weight but I'm going to focus less on the number on the scale and more on the eating right and exercising.


We took some pictures the other day and I have one huge bootie. I just want it to slim down. I'm going to work hard. I have to. No more excuses. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.

Other Options

Here are my other option for our wedding invitation. I think they turned out pretty well. I'm anxious to get the pictures back so I can get the invitations under way. I started on the cowboy boot for the front. I only have to cut out 100+. Oh what fun.

I want to talk about what an awesome guy Cowboy is. He is so good about doing the things that I want to do. I asked him to take pictures and go to the park to take them there. Instead of giving me a lot for grief and dragging his feet, he delayed his hunting and went along with me, no hassle. I have never known a man that was so good about trying to do the things for me that he does. I am a very spoiled woman and hope that I can treat him as well as he treats me. I'm so glad after all these years, we are together, a team and soon to be legally forever.

My Cowboy

Cowboy and I had a really good weekend. We went on a date Friday night. Out to eat and then to a movie. We went to see Appaloosa. It was a pretty good western which is Cowboy's favorite kind of movie. Like crazy idiots, we went and played golf on Saturday. It was windy and cold. Not really that great to play. The good thing was that we were one of the only fools out there playing. Don't tell Cowboy, but he only beat me by 6 stokes, which technically means I won our bet. He wasn't happy and tore up the score card. It was cold and the weather played a big part in the high scores.

Saturday night was a good lounge around the house night. This morning, we met Caroline and her girlfriend for breakfast. It was nice to meet Susan since I hear so much about her. Caroline was kind of enough to take some pictures of Cowboy and I. I needed some pictures for our wedding invitation. This one is tops in the running. I've ordered it and a couple of others for a trial run.

This afternoon, I got a nap in. I haven't napped in a long time and just love to have a good afternoon nap. Cowboy woke me up and drug me off to the gym. After looking at some of the pictures, I needed to go to the gym. It was a good weekend.

Trial Run

So here is the trial run at our invitation. I had to order a few more things and I'm waiting on them to finish the inside. Cowboy's comment, "It's looks like us". I wish he would get a little more excited about the wedding. He said he was excited about marrying me but wasn't so thrilled with the "wedding" part. Of course, I can understand that, I might feel the same way if I had been married three times before.

I'm getting anxious about this whole deal. I really want to get to the fun part. I'm just going to try to stay as low key as possible. I only have about a little over 4 months to go. Yikes!

Wedding Plans

We well, I, have been working on wedding plans and feel like I've gotten a lot accomplished in the past two days. We now have a caterer, dj and photographer. The place is set. The date is set. I'm getting excited. Poor Cowboy, he's been thru this too many times to be excited. He would be so happy if it was just the two of us. I can't say that I blame him. But this is my first and I just want to celebrate. So I'll forge ahead.

This week has already been a long one for me. We've been getting up early to go to the gym and work started off not so good. I'm glad today is Wednesday. We don't have any big plans for the weekend, I need a couple of days of rest. Cowboy said he may go hunting, please, please. The house to myself for the weekend sounds like heaven.

Election Night

There are three things that I choose not to discuss with people. I think that politics, religion and abortion are three very personal choices that are just for you. I have however, been very interested in this election. So no matter what your choice or reason you picked your candidate, I'm hoping you voted.

Cowboy has not voted for 20 years. I made him get registered and we went to the polls together. It always makes me feel so proud to exercise my patriotic duty and vote.

It is an exciting time in America and no matter the outcome, we all need to stand tall and be proud to be an American.

Somebody Loves the Kennel

So after much debate and trying to keep Sadie off the furniture when we are gone, we were totally losing the battle so we finally broke down and bought a kennel. ($50 off Craig's List). It was so much bigger than what we expected. But to our surprise, somebody just loves it. You can't tell by the pics but it is totally dark and I took this picture with a flash. Sadie usually goes upstairs and goes to "bed" around 8p. I went looking for her and she was in her new space. She has started sleeping more and more in the kennel. She doesn't seem to mind going in there. This has really helped Cowboy and I adjust to the transition of having her kenneled.

Yesterday she went in and got a bath and while she was gone, I washed all her bedding. Oh, I forgot to mention that not only did she get a kennel, she also got a new bed. She only has 4 beds now. We only have 3 people beds in the house. So our baby girl is clean and smells good and so does all of her bedding. She is a little spoiled.

Fall Color

I just wanted to share the fall color with you from my neighborhood. It's just beautiful out.

A Perfect Day

When I was single, I would long for company and someone to spend my time with. I would have weekends where I wouldn't speak to another person and sometimes not even leave the house. Don't get me wrong, I love Cowboy and living with him and all that that entails. It just seems like, I don't have time to do just what I want to do but today, I did and the best part is that he was a part of the day.

We slept in until about 9am and then it was up for the day. While I gathered up the laundry, he made breakfast of toast and cocoa. I started cleaning the house and spent most of the morning dusting off ceiling fans and everything else that I hadn't had time to do for awhile. Those little things that were driving me crazy.

We then went to meet a guy looking for a Craig's List buy. Not exactly what we wanted and then it was off to Costco. I walked out of there for $60, my lowest total there ever, I think. We even ate hot dogs for $3 total for lunch.

We got my new treadmill moved up to the workout room. I'm so excited, it's like the Cadillac's of treadmills. It is very quiet. I can't wait to try it out.

I got the flower beds cleaned out and leaves raked. I love doing yard work and it felt so nice to be outside working.

Cowboy bought two tennis rackets at a garage sale for $6 and we found a tennis court and played for about an hour. I haven't played for about 30 years. It was fun and I did a little better than I thought I would.

I came home and put a meatloaf that I made earlier this week in the oven and took a bath in the jacuzzi tub. I made some apple crisp and now, I'm kicked back for the evening.

The perfect day. I feel like I accomplished a ton, I'm tired and ready to relax.