Wednesday, December 21, 2011

A Belly Laugh!

I came home from a late night at Starbucks and he was waiting for me in my favorite chair.  He looks like a cartoon dog that drank too much and passed out!  I laughed out loud!  And then I passed out, too!
Happy-ness is a passing out with a smile on your face!  *giggle giggle*

Monday, December 19, 2011

A Warm Puppy

"Happiness Is A Warm Puppy" is a book written by Charles Schulz, creator of Charlie Brown.  The book features the Peanuts characters and gives reminders of the small little happys in our day-to-day life.
My warm puppy is Keeper. She is a rescue dog afraid of everyone and everything.  We've had her for several years and she has been a very good dog.  We call her "Happy Wagger" and many other terms of endearment that get Keeper wiggling and barking and leaping into the air with joy.  Unfortunately, we had to leave her home while we went to visit family during the 4-day Thanksgiving weekend.  We left Keeper in the care of best friends while I pleaded with them to love her!  Play with her!  Don't let her be in her crate all weekend! Love her!  We came back from our weekend and she seemed played with and loved and very well taken care of!  She wiggled all over when we got home and she seemed . . . . fine.  Normal.  Happy.
A few days later, Keeper started bothering her elbow.  A lot.  Licking the elbow and trying to bite the elbow.  Lots of panting, pacing and worrying.  Not to mention Keeper!
I took her to the vet.
Our vet is wonderful and did every kind of test possible.  Several skin scrapings to rule out every kind of mite known to man, blood work and poop tests.  So . . . . . it was a huge relief when the vet came back to report that Keeper is perfectly healthy.  I almost cried because I had been worrying about how I was going to tell the kids that the dog had cancer/some other terminal illness and wouldn't live until Christmas. . . .
But the vet was hanging around.  Looking uncomfortable.  And I got uncomfortable.  And dog Dr. says, "Um . . . . . I'm going to bring Mindi in.  She's our behavior modification specialist!"  Behavior modification?!  For a dog?!?!  As it turns out, behavior modification for ME!!
$240 later I learned how to get Keeper excited about being in her kennel while we are gone; how to give Keeper confidence in herself; how to teach Keeper new tricks.  All while I am learning new tricks, too . . . . we'll see . . .
Happy-ness is a warm puppy.  Indeed!




Friday, December 16, 2011

Getting To Know You

Just like Anna in The King And I, I would like to get to know you!  And I would like for you to know me as well.
I am happy.  I am fun.  I have a slightly naughty sense of humor (I love the "that's what she said" jokes and try to put myself into situations where I can actually use that joke often!) and find amusement in almost everything that I do.  I have three "spirited" children (which, as many of you know, "spirited" really means . . . um . . . . wild.  I prefer to think of them as highly imaginative, interesting, intelligent children; you know . . . . spirited!) and a very neurotic dog that we rescued from certain doom.  I am a(n old-ish!) barista at Starbucks, a job which I love maybe a bit too much!  I love to knit and to sew but I'm not great at either of those hobbies.  I don't design my patterns and I take forever to knit anything.  In fact, I just finished a sweater that took me almost 8 years to knit! *giggle*  I am also a semi-professional photographer; when I started getting actual money for the photos I was shooting, it turned more into a job and less into a fun creative outlet.
I will share the adventures of my "spirited" children and neurotic dog with you; I will regale you with tales of work at Starbucks; I will impress you with my talents at knitting and sewing and I will make you smile at the simple amusements of life!  I am starting this blog in the hopes of getting to know you, too!  Let's have some fun!
Happy-ness is getting to know you!