Spring Break Doings

Since I had to break the bank to pay for Charlie's surgery, I figured I might as well get the water line to the back pasture put in. No more dragging 150 of water hoses back and forth across the yard...hooray!! It was long overdue, but kept getting "put on the back burner" because it was not really a necessity. A contractor that goes to our church put in in for us...for half the the cost of the other lowest estimate that I had gotten from others. So that was certainly a blessing.

I also have the beginnings of a garden. Now that we are coming out of the draught, it chooses to rain on the weekends so the garden is behind schedule. I will have to update you on the garden as I get more done. The saddest thing about spring break is that is ends and they make you go back to work.

We had a nice Easter Sunday. We all went to Tucker's for Sunday Brunch after church. It was really nice. We got the waitress to take our picture.

Charlie has recovered very well from his surgery and is doing great! We are all very thankful. He is also at a near perfect wight of 74 pounds. He is feeling great and seems to be much happier now. We are much happier with the way he smells. : )

Charlie's Pain in the Butt

This week did not turn out how it was expected to. We are on spring break here! Charlie had to go to the specialist in Greenville concerning his anal scent gland issues, which had gotten way out of control. I really should not provide too much detail because Charlie might get embarrassed. Or everyone else would just be totally grossed out. Probably the second of those two. Anyway, due to the condition of those glands, it became immediately necessary to remove them. So Charlie had surgery yesterday afternoon. The top butt doctor was at a conference in Ashville,
but returned to Greenville to perform the surgery. So Charlie has a bad haircut now and a sore bottom. He seems to be doing okay otherwise. We are following doctors orders to the best of our ability and are hopeful that he will make a full recovery. He is currently on two weeks bed rest...so we had to hide his ball from him.

Happy Birthday to Me

Well, today is my birthday. It was a great birthday! Mickie and Barry came to see me at work during lunch and brought me flowers, balloons, and chocolate. Then Marianne, and Mickie decorated the house including 48 balloons!! They had invited my friends Jim and Jo over to join in the celebration...so I had a mini surprise party! It was So Cool!! Dinner was delicious: chicken, brocolli with cheese sauce, oven baked home fries, and salad. Jim had made and decorated the birthday cake. It was really yummy. But there was a whole bunch of birthday cake left, you guys should have come and helped eat the cake. I got some cool birthday cards and a gift card for a massage from Mickie, Barry, and Marianne.

Our Very First Dog Show

Today was certainly an eventful day. Marianne and I had entered our first dog show. We entered in Rally Novice A. Gracie and Marianne were ready for the show. Charlie and I entered on a whim, since neither of us was ready for a show. But life is full of surprises, for sure. We did a lot of waiting, and then waited some more. But at the end of the day, Marianne and I were the last 2 entries in the entire dog show. That turned out ot be a good thing. Me and Marianne were the only ones there for Rally Novice A. Gracie and Marianne did great. They should have walked away with the blue ribbon and a high qualifying score, but sadly, Marianne had missed one of the signs, and got disqualified. Charlie and I gave it a shot. We barely made a qualifying score...but we made it, with a 72. I'll take it!! It was Charlie's birthday present to me anyway. Charlie didn't really care about the ribbons, but was very pleased with getting a new squeaky toy. I think I am still in shock over the whole thing. We might even be in the Greenville paper tomorrow. Marianne and I stopped at Krispy Kreme and got free donuts, even though she left her report card at home. That's a whole little story in itself. The girl at Krispy Kreme took our word for it and gave Marianne a half dozen donuts for free. Unbelieveable! So now we have a blue ribbon on a dog that barely qualified and free donuts! HA! What a day! The Lord works in mysterious ways. Then I went through a McDonald's drive through and got the dogs a hamburger. They were happy about that!

Happy Birthday Charlie!!

Today is Charlie's birthday. No party hats and cupcakes, though. I guess Marianne only throws birthday parties for her own dog, sheesh. Charlie slept in for his birthday. He kept trying to convince me to give him more food for his birthday, but I didn't. I let him have a carrot though. I told him that he was still too fat and he said, "look who's talking". Not really, Ijust figured that's what he was thinking though.

Church was incredible this morning. Pastor Josh (the youth Pastor) and Pastor Chris were back today from Honduras. They are setting up the mission trip for this summer. I am very excited about going. I am even trying to learn a little spanish before then. I got my passport. It came right at the end of December. I've never had a passport before, so that is cool too. Anyone who wants to contribute to the funds involved in my taking this mission trip are certianly welcome!

In case you didn't already know, Barry is home now from serving in the Army. He has the back bedroom all set up and has enrolled in the Criminal Justice Program at Tri-County Tech. That will certainly give him something to do. I think he has been rather bored and missing his friends. He was looking through his High School yearbook today to see if he could find some of his old friends that might be around by checking for them online. He is going through some transitions. I quess me and Marianne are too. We were spoiled, just having the house to otherselves and our dogs.

Other changes are on the way. Mickie will moving in on February 10. She is coming up this Friday to drop off some of her stuff.

Christmas was good.

We invited Bob over for Christmas. It turned out well. We all had a nice time. We had a delicious Christmas dinner: standing rib roast, fresh green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy. It was very yummy. The dogs quickly figured out the whole present opening thing and the fact that it usually resulted in something fun. We had a really good day. The weather was beautiful. Then we all went to see the movie "Bedtime Stories" in the afternoon. It was good.

Destress in Myrtle Beach before Christmas

Marianne and I out on the beach at sunrise....it was fun....and cold.

A basket full of happy shells we saw at one of the tourist shops. Marianne relaxing and watching none other than The Grinch!

When we came home my Christmas Cactus was blooming....yeah!

Marianne and I took off for two nights in Myrtle Beach with Korolla and April. We left Sunday after church and came back Tuesday afternoon. Barry took care of the homestead and animals for us. The cheapie package deal that we got included the hotel, with breakfast buffet, and tickets to the Dixie Stampede. Although it was a bit chilly on the beach, we had a fabulous and relaxing time. Marianne and April even braved the cold weather to go swimming in the hotel's heated pool....It wasn't too cold until you had to get out and make your way back to the hotel room...brrr. We had a great time and it truly was a de-stresser before Christmas.

They told the real Christmas story with camels, sheep, goats,...the whole nine yards!
Lots of excitement and good food. I'm glad we got to go.