The Moving Tree

 I believe Bonnie likes when the 

Christmas tree skirt appears

She decides that it will make a fine bed.

It wouldn't be such a problem except

whenever she moves herself

she moves the Christmas tree as well.

Some of our ornaments are breakable!

Always on a Sunday

                When I was younger I would often spin around several times until I felt dizzy and stop – either of my own will or because I had crashed into something.  The dizziness was not completely bothersome as a youth as it is as an adult – an aged one at that.

           There are times I have felt dizzy due to ear or sinus infections though I don’t ever remember feeling so dizzy that I wanted to throw up.  Well, there was that time when I was pregnant with Jaime and Richard and I were at a movie theatre watching “Limitless” – the opening photography is spinning as I recall or maybe somewhere else in the movie.  I remember looking away as it was making me dizzy.

          Getting into a car when I am feeling light headed is not always the best idea. The dizziness had seemingly made me naucious and when we had stopped for gas on the way home I removed myself from the car, threw up and told Richard I would just walk to my mom’s house as we were not far.  I started to walk in the direction of her house.  Richard followed behind me in the car.  I got back in and he drove slow.

          On December 23, 2007 I fell into my neighbor’s nativities because I got dizzy.  It was a Sunday.  On January 10^th this year I discovered an abscessed tooth – how long have I had that?  And yesterday I felt light headed in the morning.  And experienced a scary dizziness that seemed to make the room spin.  I threw up.  I looked up my symptoms.  Probably my abscessed tooth because it is connected to the heart. 

          I keep on telling Richard that abscessed teeth can lead to death.  I am not scared to die.  But I don’t wish to live Jaime and Richard right now.  I think it will be devastating for Jaime especially as Richard will probably leave the state and move in with our youngest son. 

          He has wanted to get rid of Bonnie for some time.  If I were to die Jaime would not lose only me but Bonnie as well.  I love my daughter so much.  I don’t want her to be sad.

          In three weeks I’ll have three teeth extracted from my mouth.  Her birthday is the following day.

Tony’s Family Vacation part 1

         All three of the boys have said they would come visit – though only two have made it.  Randy brought his family over Memorial weekend last year. This year Tony said he would leave Salt Lake after Jaime’s graduation.  He left on the forth. They came by way of California so that they could see the Redwoods.  We did not realize that we lived so close. We had suggested to them that they could stop at the Vortex on the way here – but by the time they got there, it was almost time to close.  And then the GPS led them some funky way.  For they were only forty minutes out but took to hours to get to us.

        They chose not to stay with us as their middle child is allergic to dogs.  Though we did put Bonnie in the kennel on Monday morning, Liz still has allergies.  She remembered having been there before and was quite excited about her stay.  Jaime was not excited.  They do tend to miss one another when they’re apart.

                We played games for a few hours the first day they were with us.  They left after seven to check into the hotel in Roseburg 22 minutes away. Yesterday morning we took a squirrely way to get to Bandon.  Rochelle, my grandkids and I walked around old town Bandon while Tony, Richard and Jaime went fishing.  I led the other four around the pier.  The youngest two climbed on statues while the other two took pictures and after a while Liz whipped out her little camera and she started taking pictures. 

 

I was hoping that the trolley would be running, but currently is not because of budget cuts.  After we looked at a fish made of garbage we went back near where we had started and crossed the street over to the Washed Ashore museum and looked at more sculptures.  They enjoyed it.  And then we had lunch.

Richard had reserved three places on a charter.  Evidently there had been a lot of turbulence and both Richard and Tony got sick and threw up. But Richard did manage to catch one fish. Jaime, who hates seafood and fish, caught ten.

Four of the adults were tired.  Neither the 18 year old (Jaime) nor those belonging to Rochelle and Tony understand what tired it.  Tony, who had initially looked to be in worse shape than Richard, regained his color and ate some food.  Richard had some tea and ate a while after that.  He felt awful.  At least that’s the impression he gave.  It was too cold for the beach.  Don’t imagine those that had ridden the boat even cared.  I think the children had forgotten my mention of it.

We had parted ways and Tony and Rochelle took the kids back to Roseburg. It is so weird coming home and not having Bonnie at the door to greet us. I think all three of us went to bed earlier than usual.  Our agenda for to today is to just take things easy – play games while Tony and Rochelle take care of their laundry.

Curiosity

 

Bonnie is barking

Wants to go outside

To bark at the neighbors’ dog

She sensed them

Or so she thought

Where are they? 

That’s not a dog.

She had seen the pigs before.

Gosh they’re getting fat.

Bonnie is intrigued.

Where are the dogs?

Wait a minute. Is that a . . .

What the heck is that?

Very unlike any dog that

I’ve ever seen. 

What kind of a dog is that?

Do I even know if it is male

Or female

 

Bonnie wants to play

Where Can I Turn for Peace?

          We have been trying to find a dog sitter to care for Bonnie at the end of this month.  Roland has been wanting to see the boys and had planned to do so by himself but Jai (aka Jenna) has spring break coming up and so thought we could all go.  But that would only give us a week.  Perhaps it would be better for Roland to go by himself?

         Taking Bonnie for walks lately has been quite bothersome on my part.  I do not have Jenna’s strength.  She’s broken from her leash/collar four times now – the last two were very hurtful.  I sliced my middle finger on my left hand when she tore out of her collar to bark at the dogs on the corner.  And then on Valentine’s Day my right thumb got damaged when she tore loose (this time in a harness) and chased a dog into somebody’s house.  Needless to say the tenant was NOT happy – and I don’t blame her.  The middle finger has healed but my thumb is still sore.

         Roland had suggested some ward members who have two larger dogs.  I told him I didn’t think it would work.  He called them anyway.  I walked Bonnie over and was correct about Roland’s suggestion is NOT going to work.  They happen to live next door to the house where Bonnie had gone inside.  Currently they have furniture all over their lawn and it is now raining spoiling what appeared to be nice furniture.  I think there is a domestic dispute – and not just with them.  Bonnie and I walked by at least three houses with obvious problems.

         Just as we arrived at the ward member’s yard, Bonnie took a dump while a brave cat approached her, but then the cat stiffened and hissed when Bonnie was done and took off. With the fence between the member’s dog and Bonnie, they were both tearing into each other. I still had hold of Bonnie’s leash when another cat approached and jumped Bonnie. Bonnie bit the cat.  She appeared to have feathers in her mouth, but it could have been fur.  It had come from the tenants yard.

         Okay.  I wasn’t about to cross by her yard again.  We went the long way home.  Now there are two circles to our west.  The outside circle overall seems full of unkempt yards whereas the inner circle for the most part has quite attractive yards that have been tended to.  We completed the outer circle and moved to the inner circle.  Five houses before we would cross the street and head towards home, we spotted a couple walking their dog.  I quickly turned Bonnie around and retraced the inner circle and returned home the alternate way.  I was quite worn out. 

         I was upset about Bonnie who really is a sweet dog with people but does not play nice with other animals.  I was also concerned with the houses I had passed in which a woman was crying at one, unnecessary language and raised voices at two more.  My emotions were “I’d like to help but I cannot let go of Bonnie” equal to “I don’t wish to get involved” – which is sad because it certainly is not what Christ would have done. 

         The more I walked the louder I hummed “Where Can I Turn for Peace?”  I really need to memorize the words.  I don’t know why I haven’t.

Do Not Cross the Board

               We have done a few more home projects including power washing the house and hanging blinds. 

 

           The power “wash” came out more like a power “rinse” as the soap didn’t seem to be coming through.  After watching a tutorial Roland went back and did the cars – so though the house has not been washed – it does look much better than before.

           We moved things around to get to the windows.  As we did so, a board fell to the floor near the couch between the living room and hall.  Bonnie had been outside but I had let her in.  She remained behind the couch and I didn’t think much about it until she started whining.  I asked her to come but she remained until I picked up the board and then she brushed pass the couch.

           Really?  She was unable to move forward because she couldn’t cross the board?  The thickness was less than the steps that she will move up and down each day. And she wouldn’t step on or over it?  Wow.  Who knew?

 

          So yesterday I was doing laundry and the exhaust wasn’t working properly according to Roland.  He had me open the door to the back room in order to let the air flow for better ventilation, but I did not want Bonnie back there.  Who knew that this flat board would hold her back?  It’s quite miraculous really.  

Visiting Canines

               Bonnie has been acting squirrelly lately.  We didn’t know if it was because of her allergies or the elements that animals can seem to sense better than any mechanical weather forecaster.  I let her out yesterday and noticed that there was another dog near our unused black car.

I heard Jenna cry, “Why would you let her out?!”

“I didn’t realize there was another dog out here.  Besides, why wouldn’t I let her out?  Maybe she needed to go.”

I don’t know that Bonnie had even tried going potty.  I tried luring back into the house.  She wanted to check out the dogs (turned out there were two of them) but was not vicious about it – which must have meant they were both male.   The border collie seemed a bit put off by Bonnie’s presence and would growl and then Bonnie would growl louder.  Jenna did not get a picture of the three of them interacting on the hill but Bonnie was obviously the smallest of the three.

 

Jenna brought the other two dogs into our brand new room.  I don’t think it was intentional at first, but it seemed a way to keep them safe.  Unlike our neighbor’s menagerie behind our yard, we don’t recall ever having seen either of the dogs before.  Especially the larger of the two.  I would have remembered seeing a St. Bernard before.

Roland jumped the gun and called animal control to come collect them though neither Jenna nor I agreed with his presumption.  She had taken pictures to post to instagram or other media in which others might be able to view.  Her friend dropped by and they both hung out in the back room with the two dogs.  They referred to the dogs as Collin and Bernard.  Jenna said she was willing to keep Bernard and Ruth could take Collin as she seemed to have a better relation with the dog and Bonnie was more tolerable of Bernard than Collin.

Both seemed to be well-mannered and friendly dogs.  They also appeared to be an added expense just in dog food alone.  And it’s not as though our yard has the best room to house a St. Bernard.  But there was a response to the post.  The information gave Jenna an approximate location.  The girls walked them to the area and let them off in a trailer – are you kidding me?  A dog that big needs more room than that!

Just after the girls returned without the dogs, the sheriff went around the house to claim the dogs which had already been returned.  The girls were happy that they no longer had them to put into his custody.  They said he looked mean.  I did not even see him.  When I went out to talk to him I saw a white SUV backing out of our driveway.

I hope the owner of the dogs is okay and that the dogs do not escape again.  I would love to ask them how it is they ended up in our yard.

The “Pit” is Starting to Show

           Pit Bulls have always had a bad reputation for being vicious dogs.  Any dog can become vicious if neglected or abused – which Bonnie is not.  She is the sweetest dog – at least to humans.  I have seen a side of her that lives up to the name of a female dog.

 

          Levi is the name of the man who has built our deck and back room.  He has a dog named Roxy – also sweet and probably kind of dumb like Bonnie.  Unlike Bonnie – who is quite overweight – Roxy is skin and bones.  She does look like she hasn’t had a good meal for a while – but she also has little interest in eating or playing with dog toys.  She would like affection and loves to chase the chickens. Bonnie, on the other hand, seemed intimidated by the mass amount of chickens that used to come into our yard.  Now she decided that she can not only chase the chickens but catch them in her teeth. 

          The chickens used to follow her.  Now they run from her – with good reason.  She has killed one chicken which I buried because I didn’t want Bonnie to end up choking on her bones.  That would be cruel irony, wouldn’t it? 

          Today she went after Mitch and Cheryl but I held her back.  I really would not miss Mitch’s pathetic attempts at crowing but not at the expense of having his corpse in my yard at the hand (bite) of our dog.  But then again, the chickens should have never been allowed to roam into our yard in the first place. 

          Bonnie has an itch that she can’t seem to locate.  She moves her head back and forth and makes growling sounds as though she is getting ready to attack.  The problem comes and goes.  I remember her bobbing her head from side to side when we first got her.  But I don’t recall her growling until recently. 

          Still loves to take walks and yearns for human affection from everyone.  But she doesn’t want to share that attention with any female dogs – though another male dog is okay.  I don’t want her killing cats or chickens or earning the reputation of the stereotyped pit.  She really is a sweet dog.  Wags her tail.  Cleans the floor.  Pulls on her leash.  Fast and heavy.

I Want Candy

             Roland has purchased several 3 pound jars of peanut m&ms over the years.  We all snack on them, but do so in moderation.  The candy will gradually go down to empty at which point we will refill with dog food and refer to the jar as “Bonnie’s m&ms”.   

She is fine with our feeding her a handful of her "m&ms" while we are trying to eat our own food.  Catch is, we need to pour it from the jar onto the floor or give Bonnie her own plate.  Tastes so much better than eating it out of her bowl.  Yet she has no problem eating hearts or scrambled eggs from her bowl.

            We had dropped some jelly beans on the floor which of course went into Bonnie’s mouth the second they hit the ground.  She is not the fussy dog that we had in West Valley.  She’ll eat almost anything – whether we intend it that way or not.  Jenna says that Bonnie doesn’t seem to care for fruit.  But she does love pumpkin, peanut butter and any kind of meat. 

            I took a picture of the remaining jelly beans two days after Easter

 and finally the end of the week. 

 

There are five black jelly beans left.  I think they may end up getting thrown out.

 Jenna brought me the remainder of her chocolate bunny.  Quite a lot actually.  Could it be that she has become all candied out? 

A Dog Goes To Church

 

            There are several times when we are leaving the house that Jenna and I will slip out the back door to avoid taking Bonnie with us.  It’s nothing against the dog – it’s usually just an inconvenience to take her when we’re just going to the store or the church.  I have taken Bonnie with me a few times when I picked Jenna up from seminary.  This morning I allowed Bonnie to come with me.

            Oh, that was a fun ride (not) as Bonnie whined for the most part.  Believing she had to relieve herself, I opened the back door as soon as I parked in the church parking lot.  She ran out and towards the building.  I could see her looking through the door.  Class was out and everyone was waiting for their rides.  I figured at least one of them would see Bonnie and Jaime would come out – which she did.  Only when she opened the door and came outside, Bonnie went inside.

            “People!  People!  I like people! Let me climb on top of you and lick your face.”

            Jenna rescued her seminary instructor whom Bonnie had decided to befriend.  We then took Bonnie to the dog part for just a few minutes so she could get whatever wildness inside of her out of the car – which I guess she did.  The return ride was so much better.

            We took Bonnie for a walk later on – or rather, Bonnie took Jenna and I followed – our usual routine.  Bonnie is still a sweet dog.

I’m Not About to Cook Eggs for a Dog!

          My aunt had a Scottish Terrier when she was ten years old – or perhaps Heather was a family dog.  I barely remember the pet dog.  

I of course don't have a picture of Heather
but copied the photo from this site:

Grandma and Grandpa had planned to take my aunt to Europe and had asked mom and dad to house sit while they were gone. Taking care of Heather was part of the deal.

          My mom had not grown up with pets nor seemed fond of them.  Grandpa had left instructions and told my mom that Heather needed to have two fried eggs each morning.  Mom said there was no way she was going to fix eggs for a dog and so my dad made the eggs for Heather each morning during their stay.

          Whenever Roland cooks eggs for the dog I always think of that experience that mom had shared with me.  For the most part Bonnie will get scrambled eggs rather than fried eggs – except this morning.  I fried up the white part but the yolks were still runny when I put them in Bonnie’s bowl.

          As I have mentioned in previous posts, there is a slew of fowl who come into our yard and expect to get fed.  This morning they were following me around like I was a magnet and they were all made of steel.  

The owners told us that if we ever find eggs we can keep them – which we probably would have done anyway.  We did not know they were roosting right beneath our deck.  Roland sends Jenna out every morning to gather what she can find.  The first time she found 24 but because we didn’t know how old they were, Bonnie got them all.  

The two that Bonnie ate this morning were dropped before they made it into the house – hence why Bonnie got them instead of us.  We don’t give her eggs often. Roland purchased a bunch of chicken organs for Bonnie when he and Jenna were in Grants Pass last night.  Dogs enjoy eating hearts and livers.  They seem to give Bonnie energy.

Walking Bonnie on a Scavenger Hunt

 

Jenna asked me if I would go on a walk with her and Bonnie.  She asked if I could look up a scavenger hunt list that we could do at the park.  I pulled up a list and sent it to her phone.  The rules were that we could not take something that we brought ourselves and no repeats.  At least one of us had to be in the picture with said item (as we would not be bringing any of it home) My rule was that we did not have to capture things in order – otherwise we would still be at the park with an empty list.

Twenty items were on the list. The list goes as follows:

Something covered in feathers

Something inflated by air

Something made of wood

Something purple

Something rectangle

Something round

Something shorter than you

Something square

Something striped

Something taller than you

Something that flies

Something that displays a rule(s)

Something that smells pretty

Something with wheels

Something yellow

Something you can sit in

Something you use to play sports

The letter “S”

Something covered in fur

Something with a date on it

The first thing we captured was number 12 – the park rules.  I think it is the only time Jenna wore the mask.

The second Jenna took of me and Bonnie.  #3 something wood

Jenna had mentioned that we would need something with wheels.  There is a large saw mill that we could take a picture of.  Only she thought I meant the mason stone which I thought she took, but found this instead.

4 something with wheels

Jenna spotted second Ave and thus we crossed the street and took a picture of #18 something that starts with S

point of interest: Top of street that leads to the park where
Jenna is standing is where the Christmas tree is placed
each year – thus second Ave is closed off for a month.

We did get a picture of the saw – not for S, not for wheel, but for #20 something with a date

perhaps not so much a full date as just the year

Jenna spotted the wheelchair marking on the ground and decided to lay next to it.  #8 something square

For number 17 “Something you use to play sports” Jenna and I decided that the baseball field would serve as the background as it is something that many do use to play sports

Jenna saw a group of people looking towards the sky and finally spotted the drone they were all looking at.  I suggested she take it for #11 something that flies.  It is the only picture that neither one of us were in.  She has circled the drone as it didn’t come out so obvious in the photo

I grabbed a couple of plastic bags from the park dispenser just in case we needed to clean up after Bonnie – who did take a dump but proceeded to bury it before I could pull the sack apart.

I then posed with a stump #7 something shorter than me.

I asked if the book drop could be used as one of list items.  She went down to investigate and there are some purple paperbacks

Bonnie followed her and tangled them both in her leash.  I wish I would have had a picture of that.  When Jenna tried to get them both untangled, Bonnie decided to chew on her leash

Though we had passed yellow speed bumps, Jenna decided the Oregon Duck rock had a more exciting yellow and thus posed with the rock # 15 something yellow

Jenna went into the restroom to take her picture sitting “in” something.  I didn’t realize she was going to choose the sink #16 something you sit in.

There were four small flags displayed behind a very small fence.  I asked Jenna if that would work – I liked the display.  She was not comfortable taking the picture however as there was a group of people nearby.  She found another flag and used it for #9 something with stripes. We could have also used it as either #10 something taller or #5 something rectangle – but stripes seemed the best choice.

Jenna then found a tree barely taller than herself and decided we’d pose with it though I thought we could have found a more exciting background with a different (and taller) tree

She took a picture of a squirrel – or attempted to rather.  I had Bonnie on the leash.  She dashed toward the squirrels and so it moved out of frame.

Jenna thought we could get another dog with other walkers but they went in another direction.  Further up we got our #5 something rectangle and #6 something round

It wasn’t until we had almost completed full circle when Jenna spotted another dog walker and asked if she could pose with their dogs but got only one that has a similar coloring to Bonnie.

Bonnie of course wanted to follow the dogs as she continued to bark at them and knocked Jenna over.

As we had not used the bags for Bonnie’s bowels and still had three things on the list Jenna decided to inflate one of the bags so that we could mark off #2 from our list.

something inflated by air

She approached two women and asked if they had any perfume or something that smelled pretty – though I had suggested plants that bloom in the spring time and might be fragrant, but I don’t know.  I can’t smell.  Jenna settled on a bottle of Pepsi.  I don’t know that I’d say Pepsi has a “pretty” smell – but that was our number 13.

And thus we left the park having marked off each item but the first – something covered in feathers.  We had heard birds in the trees but could not see them – nor did we find ducks in the water.  I told Jenna to take a picture of her skinned knee that she received when Bonnie pushed her over.  

Jenna, still determined to get her feather covered fowl took one from our front porch (no longer in the park – rather seven miles away) and almost as easy to spot as the drone.  The orange above her head is one of many fowl that come into our yard.

Overall it was a fun little adventure.