My Hillbilly World March 31, 2007

‘m in a total blogging slump lately. I really can’t find the creative juices I need to write something entertaining — I think school is stealing any creativity I have left. Plus, I’ve lost a lot of readers, so sometimes I feel like I’m just rambling to empty cyberspace (except for my faithful Alison!). And while I mainly write for me, it’s discouraging to see how many people have abandoned me. It’s like freaking high school all over again. So I’ve decided to make a good effort to blog more often, catch up with old buddies, plus make some new blogging friends. In what time? Who the hell knows!

But until that time, I had some pictures that I just have to share. For Squeaks’ 1st birthday, my FIL and his partner gaver her this adorable little cowboy hat that has pink woven into it. At the time they gave it to her, she was totally against anything on her head. The guys were very disappointed that she didn’t like it. But now, she’s attached to the hat. No lie, this kid is wearing the damn hat all day, every day. In the tub, during meals, playing outside, watching tv, reading books….it doens’t matter! I’ve drawn the line at bedtime, though because I know it would distract her too much!

Last night I finally got Squeaks to take a break from the hat, but then things only got worse. Her little pink chair that we got her a few months back has been a huge hit, but now she wants it to recline like Daddy’s. She tries to hard to recline and she gets really pissy when it doesn’t work. Last night I was doing some homework in the other room. When I returned to the living room I saw this:

My redneck husband had found the perfect footrest for her! Now she’s as happy as can be!

Introducing Lucy March 26, 2007

We found a new dog! She is a precious Border Collie pup (about 4 months old) that we got at the shelter. I didn’t want to spend big money on another dog, after what happened to the last one. I first liked her because she will be pretty good sized when she’s full grown, which ups her chances of surviving out here, I hope. But now I’ve totally fallen in love. She’s got the best personality and temperament. She doesn’t bite, even playfully, she loves kids, and she’s already very loyal. The only problem is that she doesn’t realize her size. She has a problem with plowing Squeaks over by accident, but we’re slowly breaking her of that!

I was dying to post some pictures of her on here, but she’s very camera-shy. When I take it out, she hides behind the couch. I think the flash scares her! She’ll have to get used to it, though — I take pictures all the time! When I can catch some of her, I’ll be sure to post them.

I love this house, but… March 22, 2007

Not only do we have issues with one set of neighbors, now I’m pissed at some others. Know that when I say “neighbors”, I use this term loosely, as we are country-dwellers. There are at least 3 acres between us and any neighbors, most of them with more distance in between.

That being said, all day today, someone south of us has been blasting a damn shotgun all day. And when I say shotgun, I mean that it sounds like a freaking canon is parked outside my living room window and they fire it every 5 minutes. It’s that punctual. For almost 6 hours, the damn gun has been fired every 5 minutes, with only a few breaks for….oh I don’t know. Probably a fresh beer or for changing into a clean pair of cutoff overalls. Rednecks.

Now don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing I like more than going out and practice shooting my 9mm. However, I don’t fire it around other people’s houses and even if I did, I wouldn’t do it all. freaking. day.

Now if I could arrange for them to shoot the other neighbor’s dog, we might be back in business!

The Whole Story March 21, 2007

Okay, here’s the entire scenario involving the neighbor’s dog. Before we moved in at this house, our blue heeler lived with my MIL here because we couldn’t have our pets at the house we were in. The neighbors got a female mutt. We talked to them about puppy control — our dog wasn’t neutered. Because we live in the country, it’s hard to keep the dogs in their respective yards unless you build a specific dog pen. We offered to go have Spur (our dog) fixed. They said not to because they were taking their dog to be spayed in a few days.

Fast forward a few months to find a very pregnant neighbor dog. She gave birth to 9 little Spur-look-alikes. We offered to help them find homes for the pups, but they had already placed them all except for the one they wanted to keep. We had the “we’ll get him fixed” speech again, but they insisted they were fixing her.

Now what we’ve got is the neighbor dog and the illigitimate pup who think they live here. We run them off as often as we can. We feel partially responsible for the pup (Lightning), as our dog knocked the female up, but we tried to keep that from happening in the first place. We’ve even built a fence, but they find ways to get in. However, our dogs never go into their yard.

When I got my puppy at Christmas, I never let him out without a leash. Just in the last month has he been allowed out on his own. We made sure that the dogs (even the stupid neighbor dogs) were going to be nice to him. They all seemed to get along really well, so I wasn’t concerned. Until Lightning killed him yesterday. I didn’t actually see it happen, but the damn dog had my pup’s blood all over his mouth and paws. That and the dog hasn’t shown his face here ever since. I thought my husband might have shot him, but he swears he didn’t. The dog’s guilty, I’m telling you. But because of my lack of hard evidence and because we’re partially responsible for the dog, I don’t think we can do anything about it. I don’t want to do anything rash because our neighbor is an alcoholic and I wouldn’t put it past him to shoot our other dog out of anger, only he would probably miss and shoot Squeaks or something.

I think I’ll have a talk with the wife, just to warn her of his possible agression issues. And then I’ll just get a bigger dog. One that can actually defend himself if this happens again. But I think we will definitely have a talk about keeping the dogs in their respective yards. We’ve tried to keep them out, now it’s up to the owners to remedy it.

Sadness March 20, 2007

Remember the new puppy I got for Christmas? I found him dead in the yard this morning. Apparantly the neighbor’s dog mangled him to death. I’m still in shock and quite upset. I don’t know what to do about the neighbor dog. Any ideas?

Wobbly Bits March 14, 2007

Remember how I told you all that I joined the local family YMCA back in December? Well, it’s really been great because I’ve got friends and family who are also members and who can motivate me to go. I’ve slacked off lately, but I’m trying to get back into the swing of things. I was doing a lot of yoga and pilates, which are great, but I’m needing something more geared towards weight-loss. I’ve been hitting the gym and running on the treadmills and lifting weights, but tonight I took exercise to a whole new level.

My friends convinced me to take a cycling/abs class. A weird combo, I know. I got there with no idea what to expect…thankfully I thought to bring a water bottle or I would be dead right now. But let me clear this up: I am NOT a biker. I haven’t been on a bicycle in years and I don’t particularly like to ride one. So why did I take this class? Peer pressure.

It took me a good 5 minutes to finally get the seat and pedals adjusted. I hopped on, pumped to try something new. This little bitty, huge muscled girl comes in to teach the class. I think her goal was to kill at least one person. Or at least make someone pass out. I was pouring sweat in 2 minutes flat. Once we got to the sprints, I didn’t know what to worry about more: the sweat in my eyes that was blinding me, the pain in my ass and crotch from the hard bike seat, or my jiggling leg fat.

After 40 minutes of the hardest exercise I’ve ever done, then we went to the mats to work our abs. This kind of workout is one I’m used to, so I was confident. However, my whole body was shaking so hard from the cycling that I couldn’t even properly do the abwork!

I know if I keep doing this class I will see some major improvement, but I don’t know that I can ever bring myself to do it again! Hell, I can’t even walk at this point!

Zzzzzz March 12, 2007

Daylight Savings Time totally kicks ass. Squeaks slept until 8:30 this morning, rather than 7:00. I’m a fan. Let’s do this all year long.

HELP!I March 10, 2007

I’m having a toddler problem around here and I’m hoping some of you veterans can help me. On three different occasions this week, Squeaks has gotten her leg stuck in the rails of her crib. It’s a brand new crib, up to date on the the safety standards and etc., but she can still get her little leg through there. When she gets it stuck, it’s stuck good. Luckily The Hubby’s been around to help me get her out, but it usually involves taking out a rail. But now I don’t know what to do. I can’t put bumper pads back on there because she’ll start crawling out of bed. But she’s only 16 months old and I don’t think she’s near ready for a toddler bed yet. I don’t see how I could keep her in it! Have any of you had problems like this? I really need some help! I’m afraid it’s going to keep happening and that it could be really bad next time.

Picture Time March 9, 2007

Today we took Miss Squeaks to the zoo. This was the first time she’s ever really been old enough to be able to see and enjoy the animals and we had a great time. Here’s a little photo tour of our day!

Enjoying the polar bear exhibit!

Petting the goats

Strolling with Daddy

Miscellaneous Monday March 6, 2007

After many months of interviews and searching, The Hubby finally got a new job! He’s finally using that college degree he worked so hard for, he’s making more money, and it’s much closer to home. Not to mention his international travel on the company jet. But mostly I’m thrilled that I’ll finally have a happy husband again. He’s been miserable at his current job and it’s really starting to wear on the rest of us. But as of next Monday, he’s finally doing something he wants to be doing.

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Yesterday was the Just Betwen Friends sale in our area. My MIL and I (yes, I was crazy enough to take the psycho with me) decided to go check it out. After we paid our $6.00 to get in, we quickly left. I went mainly to look at outdoor playground-type toys. By the time we got there (1 hour after it started) all the outdoor toys were sold. Pretty much all that was left at that time were clothes, and we just bought a bunch of clothes for Squeaks last week. I didn’t even let myself look at anything because the checkout line was wrappen around the entire building! We walked right back out of there and went to Toys R Us, where we bought a slide and a few new indoor toys. Screw those large garage-sale things.

*****

I took my last midterm this morning! I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

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Our last-minute vacation that we were trying to plan fell through. Since The Hubby got the new job, we were going to use what vacation he had left to go to Cabo San Lucas. You see, I’ve never been to the ocean and we had been saving money to go. However, we were not really wanting to take a one year old to a romantic resort and no one was available to watch her this week. Not to mention we don’t have our passports, so to get them in time we would have had to expedite them, which costs an ungodly amount of money. Needless to say, we’re sitting in good old Oklahoma instead of going anywhere fun. Hmmm…I guess just because The Hubby won’t be able to go on vacation this summer doesn’t mean I can’t! Anyone want a visit? Just kidding, but do you know of any fun trips for a solo gal or a mom-toddler combo?