Young joins the Phelp's family

So Kitter and Sollie will have a new brother! Here is the note that Jan wrote about him.
Just wanted to let everyone know we are going to raise another CCI puppy. His name is Young and he is 3/4 lab, 1/4 golden retriever. He is scheduled to arrive this coming Wednesday, October 1. He will be flying in from San Francisco on Continental Air Cargo. I'm sure when he gets here Kitter and Sollie will say to him, "OK kid, here's the rules."



I have started a blog with a couple of pictures and what we know so far, and I'll update it after he gets here and as we go through the "raising up" stage. Here is the link: http://raisingyoung.blogspot.com/
Feel free to visit it to get a preview of our new little fella. As soon as he is "trustable" from a house-training standpoint we'll bring all the boys to visit at the Center.I'm saving their blog as one of my favorites so I can keep up with his training.


The CCI is NOT a puppy mill, by the way. This is a great organization.

Judge Judy and a Puppy Mill

We watch Judge Judy in the afternoons. She gets to the point, doesn't like interuptions and is quite entertaining. Today she had a good show. A couple was being sued for money paid to them for a cute little dog that wouldn't do anything but lay down and was puppy pad trained. Judy talked about puppy mills. She said that this particular dog was from a puppy mill. Because she was in a cage for the 18 months of her life, she didn't have human response, didn't know how to play and was not properly trained. To top it off, the dog never had shots and had never been to a vet. The lady who bought the dog took the dog to a vet. The vet said that the poor little thing was unresponsive and didn't know how to act like a dog should act. When I go to the flea market in McKinney, there are cages and cages of puppies. Some cages hold more than 3 or 4 puppies. You don't see dogs, only puppies. I asked a seller one time why there weren't dogs but only puppies there. She said that she only sells puppies. I told her that she couldn't possibly sell all of the puppies she had with her and what happens to these puppies when they are no longer 'cute' and little but are grown dogs. I asked her if she had them put down. She was not happy with me. She said that she turns them loose on her land to run. Come on! How many dogs would she have running around her land while she continues to breed puppies.
People need to be aware of what a puppy mill is. Here is a description according to HSUS. I condensed what they wrote. You can read the full story at: http://stoppuppymills.org/inside_a_puppy_mill.html

Life is particularly bad for "breeding stock," dogs who live their entire lives in cages and are continually bred for years, without human companionship and with little hope of ever becoming part of a family. These dogs receive little or no veterinary care and never see a bed, a treat or a toy. After their fertility wanes, breeding animals are commonly killed, abandoned or sold to another mill. The annual result of all this breeding is hundreds of thousands of puppies, many with behavior and/or health problems.

There are many websites that you can read about the horrors of puppy mills. Type in Puppy Mills in the Search and you can take your pick on which article to read.

LB's new cat named Alice

Laurie has a new member of her family today. She was hanging around a friend's neighborhood and had kittens. They caught the momcat and had her spayed. But they needed a home for her. Since LB recently lost one of her cats, she has room for her. Her name is Alice. So LB and Steve have three cats again...Norton, Trixie and Alice. Sound familiar? I think she needs to get one more named Ralph to complete the circle.

Wild Life Blog

If you love animals, especially wildlife, check out this blog. The pictures are awesome. http://cwildlife.blogspot.com/

New Yard Critter

Yesterday I was looking over my plants and thought that a leaf from my honeysuckle vine was stuck to the fence post. It's a cute little tree frog. He looked so cute that I wanted to pick him up. I didn't. I let him be after I used him to take pictures, that is. I've never seen a green one like this.

Plano Hot Air Balloon Festival

Last night was the opening of the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Plano TX. Jamie, Dallas and I rode toward the festival to see if we could get a good look at the balloons as they went across our sky. We not only saw them fly, we ended up parking right where they were landing!! We were by a big open field. Last night the balloons didn't fly far, they just went up, flew a little and landed. A policeman told me that I had to move my car and he told me that I could go down a block and turn left and park there. It was wonderful! Balloons landed all around us! The people in #4 balloon were so nice to us, gave us cards and kids tattoos of their balloon. I look a lot of pictures. I got some pictures of the Neighbors Go balloon. The Neighbors Go has a section in the Dallas Morning News regarding things that go on in our area. I sent the pictures to them. I'm sure they will enjoy receiving them.
Here are some pictures of the balloons and of Dallas pointing at them. She also got to sit on one of the baskets!

Snipp, Snapp and Snurr!

Sometimes I think of something and look for it on the internet. Most times I'll find it. But sometimes I don't. This is one time that I didn't think I'd find what I was looking for. When I was a little girl (smaller than all of the kids my age), I read all the time. In elementary school, we didn't have a library but the Bookmobile would come to our school every other Friday and class by class would be allowed to go get books. I can still smell the books in the bus, picture how crowded it was on the bus with thousands of books (well, it seemed like that many to me) and the smell of the gas running while the driver kept the bus warm in the winter. I lived in Grand Rapids MI. I loved Bookmobile Friday. One book always stayed with me throughout my life. It was called Snip, Snap and Snurr. (That was the way I thought that it was spelled). I didn't remember if they were animals or what they were. I just remembered the name of the book that I loved so much. So today, I went on the internet and wrote Snip, Snap and Snur. When a bunch of websites came up telling about the children's book about triplet boys, I was dumbfounded! Now I remember the boys in the book and there was more than one book about them. I was a little disappointed that it said that the books were printed in the 70s and even the 90s. I looked them up on Ebay and there they were. And, to top it all off, some were the original books printed in 1941 and 1948! No, I didn't order them. Maybe I'll check the library to see if they have them in the children's
section.
Libraries are wonderful places. The other day, I looked up an author on the internet that Denny graduated with. He was a year ahead of me. His name is Max Apple. He's also a playright and wrote the movie "The Air Up There" with Kevin Bacon and directed by Paul Glaser (Starsky from Starsky and Hutch). I went to the library and they're getting two of Max's books from the Plano Library for me. I'll write about the books after I finish them.

Jordan and Fight Club

Jordan is quiet and laid back. So it really surprised me when I found out that he started a fight club at Texas Tech. Oh, it's not like the movie Fight Club so don't get worried that he's like the character in the movie. He started it quite by accident. He went to the gym to do his workouts and someone asked him if he's spar with another guy. No problem. Well, he gave the guy an uppercut and knocked him out! Jordan, his dad and grandpa are big boxing fans. Jordan went with his grandpa to the Golden Gloves in Ft Worth last year. He told his friends about it and they wanted to box too. That's basically how it got started. It's all approved by the college and if it goes over good, they will put it on the school programs next year. There are 25 guys in the club now and 35 more are interested. I asked Jordan if he was going to have califlower ears now and he said that they wear helmets, mouthpieces, gloves and cups.

Waterfall cheerleader!

We've been having just beautiful weather this week. In the 80s during the day. When it was really hot, Jamie would take Dallas to Centennial Park to run in the water park. She'd have her in her bathing suit and have nice towels to wrap her in when she was done. No way would Dallas get wet. She just wanted to run and play on the play equipment. Well, Monday afternoon, Jamie, Dallas and I headed to Centennial Park to play. Dallas had on her cute little cheerleading outfit, socks with ruffles and her tenny shoes. What did she do? As soon as she was 'released' from Jamie she ran as fast as she could! RIGHT INTO THE WATER! She was soaked. She still played on the equipment, shivering since it was a little chilly with the light wind that we had. Then back to the water she'd run. Her little skirt was so wet that it was hard to keep up and her socks slid into her shoes. So here's a picture of her trying to slap the water. It looks like she's cheering, doesn't it? We finally got her out of the park, turned the air off in the car and took her home. What a kid!

Ike and the Anniversary of 9/11

Ike is supposed to be joining us in Texas this weekend. I hope that he decides to turn around and leave and not visit us! I'm debating if I should tie my tree down in my backyard. They're predicting 60 MPH winds. Maybe he'll get too pooped out and not get this far into Texas. Or hopefully it will weaken.

I can't believe that it was 7 years ago that the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were hit and many died in the plane that was diverted by the many brave people on the plane to make September 11, 2001 an infamous day in history. It's still sad and our prayers still go out to the survivors and the families of those that lost their lives on that fatal day.

So there are two days in my life that I remember exactly where I was on those days. One November 22, 1963 I was on my way home from the doctor and was due to have my first baby that day. I heard it on the car radio. I had my first son the next day. And on September 11, 2001 I was at an water arobic class at Sandy Pines when a lady came in and announced that a tower was hit. Then a second lady came in and announced that a second one was hit. Then we all knew that it wasn't an accident. Such a sad day in the history of the United States of America. And it's still the best place in the world and I love it here. I'm proud to be an American and no one can ever take that away from us!

Jamie has jury duty

She had to be there at 8:30 today. She's hoping she isn't picked for a jury because she just started her job at Kohl's. She likes working there. She'll work in the beauty department and in the back unpacking boxes and hanging clothes. She likes to hang the clothes because it's good exercise. I think she'll do great in the beauty department, don't you?

Our Visit to the Dairy Farm

Jamie wanted Dallas to see some real cows so we went to a place that I saw a ranch on Jupiter Street. When we got there, the cows weren't close enough to the road and there wasn't a place to park anyway. So I said that I was going to ask the people if we could see their cows. I pulled into the driveway and a very nice young lady came out of a building. She took us to see the little calves. The cows we saw were all in the 'maternity' ward, as she called it. All of the cows were pregnant. We were at the Lavon Farms, a dairy farm. They also had a little store where they sell cheeses and yogurt. I'm saying 'fresh' yogert and cheeses. I bought some of the cheeses. One is called Texmex cheese and it has peppers in it. The other is called Campesino cheese. It's delicious with no additives, all natural. Deanna, the lady that greeted us, told me that you can fry the cheese just like you would fry an egg and it's delicious. We also bought yogurt cheese. We're going to put it on baked potatoes. It's soft and creamy. And, of course, we had to get something sweet! Fresh made with no additives caramel! Oh boy, I can't wait to mix it with chocolate, pecans and ice cream and make myself a turtle blizzard! So, if you live near Plano, you HAVE to check it out. They have yogurt and even milk with the cream on top! The farm is on Jupiter between Parker and Park.

Randy and the Purple Cross

When Randy was a little boy, I didn't know it but he used to sneak in my room, take out the lamp that my grandma gave to me when I was young and turn it on. It has a crucifix in the bulb. I didn't turn it on much because I didn't want the bulb to burn out. I don't know how old the lamp is. My grandma had it when she was young. She was born in 1890. So I got the lamp out and took some pictures to add to my blog. Too bad I don't have a picture of Randy sneaking a look at the lamp.

Svengali

When I was young, a movie was on TV that really got my attention. I haven't seen it since but it was so scary to me. No monsters or vampires. But the man in the movie was so scary to me. It was such an old movie so, of course, it was in black and white but it was also choppy, bad music and scenes. But it got my attention! I've remembered Svengali since I first watched the movie. Well, I decided to look on Ebay to see if I could find anything. I found the book and won the bid for a song. It came in the mail today. I love to get old books. This story was first published in 1897 but the book I have was printed in 1982. So it isn't real old. I have a few classics. For now, I'm putting the picture of the book I received today. I'll get all of my books out to show you later.
I'll also list the books on my bookshelf.