When my hubby and I moved into our first house, we were so excited to share our joy with our friends. So we had a big Independence Day party; complete with a pot-luck barbecue and pool party. The guests were completely enamored of our litter of five week old keeshond puppies, which were confined inside their six foot tall chain link kennel run.

One of our guests (which I did not want invited but hubby insisted) decided that he would light a string of black cat firecrackers and throw them into the kennel run. The quick bang-bang-bang and yelp-yelp-yelp brought my hubby and me running quickly to see what in the world was going on. When we saw the inebriated guest laughing at the upset puppies, we asked him to leave the party. Needless to say, feelings were hurt.

The next morning when we went out to feed the puppies, we discovered that someone had removed them from their kennel and put them inside the fenced in pool area. The puppies had all drowned in the pool. My heart was completely broken. Later that day we went to the pool supply store and bought a pool cover for our swimming pool in the hopes that this kind of tragedy never happens again. And I never spoke to that guy that had thrown firecrackers into the puppy pen, as we suspect that he was the one responsible for relocating the puppies. It would have been impossible for the puppies to escape their pen and enter the fenced in pool area on their own.

One thing worries me, though. If I recall correctly I saw a special about the Tom Kincaid dynasty and I worry that my sister is over-valuing her collection. Sure, they are limited editions, but there are thousands of them out there. Not quite as valuable as if the limited edition only had less than a dozen. I guess only time will tell, and for now she is just as happy as a pig in mud with her collection, so who am I to rain on her parade? As a famous advice columnist advises from time to time “MYOB.”

Surf Camp offers surfing programs for kids, teenagers, adults, and families.  They offer day camps and overnight camps.  My sons are too old for the teenager’s camps, so they want to sign up for the overnight adult camp.  The overnight adult camp would be for one week, off the coast of North Carolina.  The camp takes them to several different islands for them to learn how to surf, and includes side trips that includes a boat trip to an undeveloped barrier island and a trip to the new 84,000 square-foot Fort Fisher Aquarium.

I told her I’d help her look online for them. Seems to me I’ve seen them before online when I wasn’t even looking for them!   I’m pretty good at finding things on the Internet. Maybe I just use better keywords, maybe she just is too busy to try it herself and knows she can count on me for help when she needs it! Regardless, I’m always glad to help!

Well, my entire family is quick witted, and we have a great time sharpening our teeth and using sarcasm right back on this man!  He tries so hard to get the “upper hand” but he doesn’t have a chance against us!  It’s very funny to see how hard he tries, and yet always ends up licking his wounds.  It’s very ironic because he is always the one who starts the “match of wits!”

A few years ago I actually took a few lessons in figure ice skating, and I thought I did pretty good!  I only took a few lessons because money was short at the time (actually it still is!)

I’d like to take lessons again in the future, I had a lot of fun learning how to figure skate!

The vast majority of my home made gifts have been well received, and I often get special requests from the people who are on my gift list.  I have been surprised, and sometimes dismayed, when I discover that my gift ends up being turned into a cat toy (by a child too young to appreciate the money, time, and effort put into making the gift) or tucked away in a closet because it is appreciated so much that the recipient thinks it is “too good to use” and is afraid to use it!  Or even more dismayed when the recipient turns up their nose at the gift because they think that the homemade gift represents the thought that I was “too cheap” to “buy” them something from the store.  Those people don’t realize that the raw materials used to make the gift often will cost more than buying a gift from the store.

So, giving home made gifts can be tricky sometimes.  I need to research the individual and make sure that they will actually appreciate the home made gift before I go through the time and effort to make it.   Sometimes the best gift to give someone can simply be a gift card, to let them buy what they REALLY want.

His wife recently had a baby girl; their very first baby. Sunday was telling us that she sings Nigerian Songs to the baby and that they watch Nigerian Movies at home on his days off. We tried to convince him that he should start to watch shows like Sesame Street with his daughter, but he said he didn’t have any interest in watching shows like that.  I’ve noticed that there are a lot of adults that don’t like to watch children’s shows with their kids, and I think that is a shame – I can remember watching Sesame Street with my kids when they were small! I suggested that he put on headphones and listen to Online Nigerian Music while watching children’s shows with his daughter to at least give her the impression that he was spending time with her watching something geared towards children. But knowing him, he won’t follow my advice. Guys rarely do.

My husband never wanted to go to any of these, even though I DID want to go. Since he didn’t want to go, we never did go. Not once. I knew if I pushed the issue he would just pout and make me miserable with his passive-aggressive behavior, and it just wasn’t worth putting up with his crabby attitude.

We were married for thirteen years, and every year he would say he did not want to go. When we broke up, all of a sudden he started going to those Cape Cod family weeks! Wouldn’t you know it! When we were going through marriage counseling he admitted that there were a lot of times that he wanted to go and do things but declared himself uninterested and unwilling to do them simply because he knew that I wanted to do them and he wanted to prevent me from doing them. What a guy!

I’ve been to Cap Code once – to drive around the town, and never did get to leave the car. Maybe one day I’ll be able to actually go there and spend a couple of days and find out for myself why so many people like to go there!

I changed it a little bit by using a burnt out vanity light bulb instead of a Christmas ornament ball.  I think it came out adorable!

Really the only kind of Tv shows that I like to watch are comedies. If I’m going to watch something for fun, I want to make sure that I’m going to have fun watching it. I just can’t do that when I’m watching something that’s really dramatic, scary or just plain depressing. Right now my new favorite comedy TV show is The New Girl starring Zooey Deschanel.

I really love Zooey anyway as an actress. Plus, she isn’t a bad singer either. I read lots of reviews before it came on TV with my Clear Philadelphia because they released it for free on iTunes two weeks before it was on the show.

I really did agree with most of the good stuff that was written in the reviews. I think us girls needed a female lead that was completely dorky. One that is really dorky and is adorable at the same time. Zooey can really pull that off and make it bearable to watch. Now that show Whitney is another case altogether. I watched it and I can’t stand it.

For now the photographs are still in the developer’s envelopes, with the approximate dates written on the outside of the envelopes.  Anyway, I was rather surprised how many photographs of the kids revolved around the kids receiving tricycles or kids bikes for gifts throughout the years. I can remember my first two-wheeler bike – it was a Schwinn. I can still remember how proud I was when I didn’t need training wheels on my bike!  I felt so grown-up! I think that kids getting bikes for gifts is a rite of passage, don’t you?