Thinking Warm Thoughts

I was browsing through some picture files and found these. I took them back in October, or was it September, when the weather was a nice 60-70 something degrees and I could open the window. The past week or so winter has made itself known in Tulsa. Mind you I love cold weather, just not being cold (makes perfect sense right?). So, for fun I thought I'd post pictures from warmer days.

And what those warmer days mean for my pets!

Despite his size Louie can actually wiggle himself out of a window at our house

Far too easily actually


Don't even get me started on Mina's mad escape artist skillz!

(Suffice it to say, sometimes despite the nice day I still had to close the windows!)

A Theme

Car died in the parking lot at the vet clinic-seems the battery is having some issues.

Then my laptop's battery charger goes caput.

Which appliance, toy, essential everyday item is next? Nobody knows....

Hi, I'm Megan and I'm a Sucker

Last week Jon and I were invited to go to a Christmas Party for Therapetics, an organization that trains service dogs for those with disabilities. One of my bosses is their executive director (she's seriously one helluva superwoman!) and she's been slowly wearing me down to go and see what this organization does and to agree to be a puppy raiser/trainer. I've had my reservations; what about food and vet care [all covered by Therapetics as I came to find out]? Will it be okay that I have Louie and Mina? And many more. At the same time, however, I thought it would be a wonderful thing to do. So, I went to the party, ate the nice food, and was introduced to some of the dogs and the people that they helped.

I was in before I knew it!

I was introduced to a young woman named Amanda. She's around my age, if not younger, and suffers from MS. I met her dog Uli, who was recently placed with her, and we got to chatting. I listened to lovely stories about how the dog sleeps during her classes at OCU, grabbed a scarf for her when she was cold (without being asked to), and so on. What really got me, however, is when I found out that thanks to Uli (and a specially designed harness w/a handle) she was able to stand up and put on shoes for the first time in years.

Could you imagine? I put my shoes on standing up several times a day! It's something I don't even think about. And here Amanda was, talking about this activity as a major milestone. All thanks to her dog learning how to brace and stand still to assist Amanda.

So what could I do? When the puppy raiser coordinator, Lisa, contacted me via email asking if I wanted to be a raiser I couldn't say no. A litter of Golden Retriver puppies is due in January and if all goes well I will have a puppy to begin raising and training in March. It's a committment it is. There are classes to go to twice a week, paperwork to keep track of, and so on.

Maybe I will be the one who has to suffer all the headaches, and the final heartbreak whenever a dog I raise goes to someone leaving me forever. However, I've come to realize that's a small price to pay to give someone more freedom in their life. These dogs are given to people who need them at no monetary cost to them* which is extraordinary considering that most people who get service dogs must pay thousands of dollars. Therapetics can do this, in large part, thanks to the volunteers who raise the puppies helping to curb costs to those in need. To see tears of joy when a person describes what their dog does for them, how much they mean to them and to see the dogs themselves lovingly and protectively look up at their companion is very moving. When I add it all up, I think I can deal with a little bit of heartache.

*They are required to come to the classes to learn the commands and work with the dog that will be placed with them once he or she reaches maturity.

Introducing My Piano!!

May not be much to look at, and no it's not a concert grand, but, it's all mine and plays better than no piano. I'm a lucky, lucky gal!

Photos Coming Soon!

The camera is back in action!!! My friend Scott_O., a talented architect and fabulous photographer came to my house to drop off the photography book I ordered. Of course, I took advantage of him and showed him the camera. After messing with a dial everything was coming out clear!! Hallelujiah!!

So, fyi digital SLR cameras have this cute, indiscreet, little dial next to the window you put up to your eye to take a picture. This tiny little dial will adjust how you see when you look into the camera to take a pic. It's intended for those who take off their glasses when they are taking pictures. But, if you have your contacts in, like me, or are one of the fortunate "sight capable" peeps you will get a very distorted picture unless you turn the nice little dial to neutral. A simple, fix, that took nearly two months and the aid of a saavy friend to figure out.

Lesson learned!

Holiday Joke

A little girl sends Santa a letter asking for a baby brother or sister this year for Christmas. Instead of a doll to appease the child Santa sent a letter to this girl simply saying this,

"Dear Susie- Send me your mother. Thanks, Santa"

Forgive Me Blogger for I Have Sinned....

Okay so it's been a little bit since a new 'here's what's going on in my life' post. To be quite honest life just got busy and thus I was T-I-R-E-D. Too much going on, info scattered and jumbled in my brain, and lots of fatigue made it difficult to sit down and sort through it all on my blog. So I will try to give a little recap to catch everyone up on the latest and greatest. Again no pictures because yeah... the camera has just not been taken care of. I think I'm going to make some serious threats to Jon to get that thing fixed... stay tuned.

On with the show!

Thanksgiving was celebrated at Jon's sisters house on Wednesday night. Everything went well- and I didn't have to bake a thing! Jon's sis is amazing, very much like him, in that she LOVES to cook and she handled it all with calm and holiday cheer. If I had to be in charge of an entire Thanksgiving meal for 15 people I would be having a series of mini-meltdowns- at best! We ended the night playing Cranium with Faith's whole family plus a boyfriend. Jon and I totally lost, but, I did know the answer to a little known factoid proving once again I have way to much random information in my brain.

Thursday Jon and his father cleared out the way too small storage unit and dropped everything off at his house. This proved to be helpful come Sunday when the big move occured.

Friday Tia and I rented a U-Haul to pick up the piano in Broken Arrow (a city just south of Tulsa). Thank goodness for Tia's brother and father though! The piano is a spinet or console, meaning it's the smallest upright piano you can get. Still, that sucker weighs easily 300-400 pounds! Fortunatly man power (literally), wheels on the piano, and a ramp got the piano safely in the truck. Add some scarves (yes I said scarves! We didn't pack any rope- real smart move) and we got the piano safely into our house. I've been playing LOTS! The joy of having a piano in my home after 6 years of not having one has been bliss!

Oh and Jon braved Black Friday madness and bought a fridge and a couple of random items for the house. Give me piano moving any day over retail madness!

Saturday brought about moving two loads of small boxes from Jon's parents house to his new abode. That took all afternoon. So the evening was spent in proper style over at a friends house with Wii playing and pizza eating good times.

Sunday- ie "D-Day" ie "The Big Move". Four friends volunteered to help with the promise of two paid for meals as payment. Jon rented a U-Haul and I drove it. Yes, I drove a U-Haul around as I wasn't going to be able to be much help when it came to the heavy lifting- had to contribute in some way! Of course Sunday was cold and dreary with the threat of rain. Still we managed to clean out most of Jon's stuff from his parent's house and all the stuff that was stored at my place (due to the before mentioned storage unit being tiny). This was accomplished in about four hours and we beat the rain. Some doors had to come off their hinges, but, large items were put in place and our friends were rewarded with a large Indian meal bought at a nearby restaurante.

So to summerize... several days of on and off packing and three days of moving culminated in Jon finally out of his parents house and into his own place- FOR GOOD! If I hadn't been so exhausted I think I would've done cartwheels all over Tulsa. However, for me, the adventure didn't stop there. Monday I went down to Norman in a rental car (my roomie works for a large car rental company and it was going to be cheaper than filling the tank my big hooptie car) to see an aunt and uncle I haven't seen in over 8 years! They live in California and they were in town to see my cousin's family. So, I made the trek in hopes of reconnecting with more of my family. The trip was a success. Nothing major really went down, just lots of catching up, and helping with a project my aunt and cousin were working on. I finally got home around 11pm and in bed after midnight.

As a result of all of that 'activity', yesterday I woke up EXHAUSTED beyond comprehension. So that's why this rather long and drawn out post came today.

So there's what I've been up to! How are you all doing?