I moved to Virginia from South Jersey in 1998. I was a Body Builder when I lived there. I competed in 1996 and did pretty well (I'll post pictures sometime...). It was a lifestyle and I loved it. When I moved to Virginia, I found myself in "the land before time". There were 2 gyms. The Nautilus (now Gold's) is the sole ownership of every college student that attends JMU. It's not really a gym, but a social club. There was also a little tiny gym at my end of the county. It's run by a Christian family, very nice people, who play only Contemporary Christian music in the gym. The music doesn't seem to enhance my work out in any way. One day while I was working out on the leg press, the owner came through with a potential new member on tour. The leg press was always my strongest exercise and naturally my favorite, so I had it completely loaded with 45 pound plates. As I was leaving the gym, the owner politely asked me to avoid the leg press whenever he was showing the gym, especially if it were police officers from the next town (his friends), he said it makes people nervous that I use that much weight. I realized that this was not going to be the gym for me either. Then recently that same town opened a community center with a work out area. How exciting I thought! Husband and I went and checked it out. No free weights (too dangerous) and a lot of elderly people. We joined anyway and decided to try it, we needed to do something. We were members for two months and we had to reorganize the workout schedule every week because of something being repaired... It wasn't working. So now we are back to the beginning.
My mind has never recognized me as a "fat girl", and that has always been a problem for me. I had a lot of self esteem issues as an young adult. I was in that "follow the crowd" mentality. I gained a lot of weight. In 1991, I decided to quit smoking. In order to keep myself from gaining even more weight, I also joined a gym the same day. There were three gyms between my home and my job, and I only worked in the next town. I started working out and I was hooked! I loved it! The endorphins were the best "high" I'd ever known! I met a lot of great people and found a trainer! I started training seriously for competition in 1993. I lost the equivalent weight of a 8 year old child!
So now here we are, I've gained the weight again. Not as much this time, though. But this time I have a real work out and diet partner, my wonderful husband. Husband quit smoking on December 3, 2009, and has gained a bit of weight. We found a great program online ~ caloriecount.com ~ that will even allow me to list my recipe ingredients and it will calculate the nutrient values for me. We've been using the program for a week now. Through my bodybuilding programs I learned the importance of a food diary, which is essential for me to stick to my eating plan. A food diary shows me everything I ate and the nutrients in those foods. It makes it easier to adjust the foods I'm eating, and it makes me accountable for everything I ingest. Everything I eat is written down, so if I don't want a particular food on my diary for that day I won't eat it. My biggest problem with an eating program is that I tend to eat too few calories just because I'm being so very careful.
So this is our diet plan:
1.Keep the calories and nutrients within the recommended range for our weight loss goals.
2.No dieting on Sunday. Everyone needs to have treats and "bad" foods from time to time and if it's not in the diet plan, you will cheat everyday, guaranteed!
3.Stay as active as possible.
4. We're working on figuring out a place to set up our own work out equipment. Once we do that, we'll set up a work out schedule.
5. Drink at least 2 quarts of pure water every day. Yes, I know coffee is a liquid too, but it's not a pure liquid. Pure liquids help to flush out some of the bad stuff that you accumulate through bad diets.
6. A multivitamin every day, insurance that we're getting our minimum...
OK, here we go, I can feel the fat melting off as I type these words!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Kids Today
I remember when I was a kid things were a lot different than they are now. The pressure to fit in was the same, but the urgency wasn't the same. We moved a lot when I was growing up. I think the longest I spent in any one school was 3 years. When I was Junior High age we moved to a much bigger community than I'd ever been in and I started smoking cigarettes because everyone else seemed to and I wanted to fit in. I was almost 12 when I started smoking (I quit in 1991). The teenage girls that I've had the opportunity to associate with since I started helping out with our store have given me an interesting perspective on today's youth and the pressures they face. Many of these girls smoke pot, many of them have tried alcohol in some form or other and most of them have either started having sex or have decided to call themselves gay. I'm not sure how many of the gay crowd really are or if it's just the "in" thing. I'm sure they'll decide at some point, but my thoughts for today revolve around the girls who have decided to become sexually active as teens. I do have some advice for these girls. I'm sure many of you also have some advice and I welcome your comments to this missive.
First and most importantly, if you're not ready to have sex, Don't. Just because some of your friends have and maybe one of your friends is pregnant, doesn't mean that it's expected!
If you know your parents are going to go completely bonkers if they find out, you can be guaranteed they will find out.
Pregnancy is a very real and very possible outcome. Are you sure that you want to deal with boy for the rest of your life? You will be connected to him by this child.
Are willing to share custody? It will probably mean that you would need his permission to relocate. You not going to be accepted a college scholarship in California and even if your family moves to Florida you may be stuck in NJ.
Who is going to pay for this child's needs? Diapers, formula, clothes, toys, doctor bills are just a few of the expenses. Are you ready to get a job and hire a babysitter? Most parents work, including your own, they're not going to be able to watch your child all the time. You're not going to be able to hang out with friends or spend hours on facebook if you have a child. Most of your friends aren't having a baby this year and they're going to be hanging out at the mall, not home watching you care for your child. Are you willing to give up new clothes and electronics in order to buy your child diapers?
Now about this boy; What is his earning potential? Can he afford child support payments? Is he even willing to admit that it's his baby? If he says it's not his, then all of the expenses are your own. maybe it would be a good idea to find out how much the average Labor and Delivery charges are at your local hospital. Do you have that much in savings? Can your parents afford to help you with the expenses of this family? Please consider these things before you decide. Sex is fun when you are with someone that you love and trust implicitly. For a night or just to get that pesky virginity thing out of the way means many very real considerations. I haven't even touched on the number of young people with STD's and yes, they're real. Syphilis is forever, even with penicillin. That is if you're not allergic to penicillin... Maybe you could Google "syphilis" before you decide to have sex... If you don't feel comfortable talking to your parents, talk to some other adult!
First and most importantly, if you're not ready to have sex, Don't. Just because some of your friends have and maybe one of your friends is pregnant, doesn't mean that it's expected!
If you know your parents are going to go completely bonkers if they find out, you can be guaranteed they will find out.
Pregnancy is a very real and very possible outcome. Are you sure that you want to deal with boy for the rest of your life? You will be connected to him by this child.
Are willing to share custody? It will probably mean that you would need his permission to relocate. You not going to be accepted a college scholarship in California and even if your family moves to Florida you may be stuck in NJ.
Who is going to pay for this child's needs? Diapers, formula, clothes, toys, doctor bills are just a few of the expenses. Are you ready to get a job and hire a babysitter? Most parents work, including your own, they're not going to be able to watch your child all the time. You're not going to be able to hang out with friends or spend hours on facebook if you have a child. Most of your friends aren't having a baby this year and they're going to be hanging out at the mall, not home watching you care for your child. Are you willing to give up new clothes and electronics in order to buy your child diapers?
Now about this boy; What is his earning potential? Can he afford child support payments? Is he even willing to admit that it's his baby? If he says it's not his, then all of the expenses are your own. maybe it would be a good idea to find out how much the average Labor and Delivery charges are at your local hospital. Do you have that much in savings? Can your parents afford to help you with the expenses of this family? Please consider these things before you decide. Sex is fun when you are with someone that you love and trust implicitly. For a night or just to get that pesky virginity thing out of the way means many very real considerations. I haven't even touched on the number of young people with STD's and yes, they're real. Syphilis is forever, even with penicillin. That is if you're not allergic to penicillin... Maybe you could Google "syphilis" before you decide to have sex... If you don't feel comfortable talking to your parents, talk to some other adult!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Green Living in the Real World
We're in the process of closing some of our web sites and consolidating our links, and in honor of Earth week I thought I'd re-post some of the Green Living articles here. Enjoy!
An Earth Day Challenge
I am an old hippie and a life time pagan (with brief periods of adulthood!). I was raised in Southern NJ and had no idea that the rest of the country was not as pro active as we were in the 3 R's (reduce, reuse, recycle). This Challenge is and invitation to find ways to reduce, reuse and recycle. It will run for as long as it takes to get everyone into a mind-set of environmental activism.
This is the Challenge:
We make a lot of routine purchases all of which cost of extra money. These are marketed for the convenience. Many of them we've grow up with, but have you ever stopped to consider the fact that before these items were mass produced and mass marketed, our grandparents did just fine without them?
Re-evaluate all of your routine purchases of disposable products (this is harder than it sounds!). Which of these items really need to be disposable and which can you substitute for a reusable?
How many of your routine purchases include more packaging than product? Can you buy that item in bulk and reduce the amount of waste? Can you reuse the packaging, such as butter containers?
Do you compost organic waste? This is much more efficient and cheaper than chemical based fertilizers, and it's free!
Have you considered a rain barrel? Recycled rain water is much better for your plants than the chemical laden water provided by your municipality, and this is also free!
Do you donate items that you no longer need rather than send them to the landfill?
Going Green
I thought I'd start a list of the things we've changed in our lives in order to cut down on the amount of trash going into the landfills and save money at the same time. Maybe you can add to this list. I'm certain that there are still many things I haven't thought of that can be added!
Cloth napkins instead of paper napkins.
Rags instead of paper towels.
Hankies instead of tissues (except when there is a respiratory infection)
Bread wrappers and other "clean" plastic bags instead of "zip lock"
Butter and plastic ice cream containers instead of store bought plastic containers.
No disposable plates, cups, forks, etc.
Reusable cloth shopping bags, even Walmart has these now but you'll have to look around to find them.
Aluminum foil , which can reused and recycled, instead of plastic wrap.
We buy our drinking water from a local spring for 20c a gallon and refill travel mugs, instead of buying bottled water.
Reusable coffee filter screen instead of paper coffee filters.
We also compost all of our organic waste and use it on the garden.
We have a rain barrel and water the garden and indoor plants from that.
We freeze leftovers and reheat them at a later time instead of buying "microwave meals"
We bring our own place settings to pot luck dinners, complete with cloth napkin!
Also. They now make form fitted cloth baby diapers. These are also water proof and very cute. A great option instead of disposable diapers that will be in the landfill for 500 years!
Six Principles for Green Living
by Dr J Mercola www.mercola.com
Living by “green” principles can be extremely satisfying, but how do you do it? Surely, it’s not by purchasing more “green” products, because buying and using more “things” is all part of the problem.
1. Strive for Simplicity: More stuff means more complexity; more upkeep, more keeping track, more things to do. In global terms, it means more wasted resources.
2. Fairness: Much of our consumption-driven market is based on unfairness. If everyone along the chain, from a Bolivian granny making hand-woven grocery bags to the Wal-Mart worker, actually were paid what you’d expect, that hand-woven grocery bag would be out of most people’s price range.
3. Community: If you’ve ever had the pleasure of attending a local farmer’s market, you’ve experienced something few of us do these days: an encounter with a part of your community, an actual living and breathing person, who made that which you’re about to buy.
4. Sustainability: A system is sustainable when the negative outputs of that system are accommodated and turned into positive outputs. However, most of our global production is not sustainable.
5. Planning: Planning means looking ahead toward a desired outcome. It also means thinking a little bit about the community that isn’t here yet and dealing fairly with them. The decisions we make now will create the conditions our grandchildren and their grandchildren will have to deal with.
6. Transparency: Planning, community, fairness, and ultimately sustainability require transparency, but most decisions these days are made behind closed doors
The Hemp Revolution
Does it make sense to ban a crop in the United States that can have a large, positive economic and environmental impact and is completely harmless? That is exactly the position of the hemp advocates.
Because hemp is a relative of marijuana it is lumped by law into the illegal drug category. It is against the law to grow it, although some products made from it can be imported from other countries. And most importantly, industrial hemp is not marijuana. It contains just 0.3 to 1.5 percent of THC, the chemical that gives marijuana its drug-like effects. By comparison, marijuana contains 5 percent to 10 percent THC. Smoking hemp is not going to make anyone high.
But what are some of the benefits of this harmless crop?
*For starters, Hemp can make take-out containers, and save our landfills from styrofoam.
* The fiber from the hemp plant possesses strength and durability, resists rotting and is easier to bleach than wood pulp, which means whiter paper at lower cost. That would be a boon to the book-publishing industry, to cite one example.
* Hemp oil was used to lubricate the engines of Navy fighter planes in World War II, and hemp activist Woody Harelson used it to power a diesel vehicle to demonstrate the benefits of it. It can also be fermented into an alcohol-based fuel, offering a potent and truly renewable energy source.
* Hemp won't put an end to the logging industry, but it would spare some forests from being cut down for paper products.
* Unlike trees, which take years to grow to the point at which they can be harvested, hemp plants can reach a harvest-able state within four months. For paper manufacturers and users it could provide a cheaper source of pulp than trees, which take too long to renew.
Happy Earth Day!!
An Earth Day Challenge
I am an old hippie and a life time pagan (with brief periods of adulthood!). I was raised in Southern NJ and had no idea that the rest of the country was not as pro active as we were in the 3 R's (reduce, reuse, recycle). This Challenge is and invitation to find ways to reduce, reuse and recycle. It will run for as long as it takes to get everyone into a mind-set of environmental activism.
This is the Challenge:
We make a lot of routine purchases all of which cost of extra money. These are marketed for the convenience. Many of them we've grow up with, but have you ever stopped to consider the fact that before these items were mass produced and mass marketed, our grandparents did just fine without them?
Re-evaluate all of your routine purchases of disposable products (this is harder than it sounds!). Which of these items really need to be disposable and which can you substitute for a reusable?
How many of your routine purchases include more packaging than product? Can you buy that item in bulk and reduce the amount of waste? Can you reuse the packaging, such as butter containers?
Do you compost organic waste? This is much more efficient and cheaper than chemical based fertilizers, and it's free!
Have you considered a rain barrel? Recycled rain water is much better for your plants than the chemical laden water provided by your municipality, and this is also free!
Do you donate items that you no longer need rather than send them to the landfill?
Going Green
I thought I'd start a list of the things we've changed in our lives in order to cut down on the amount of trash going into the landfills and save money at the same time. Maybe you can add to this list. I'm certain that there are still many things I haven't thought of that can be added!
Cloth napkins instead of paper napkins.
Rags instead of paper towels.
Hankies instead of tissues (except when there is a respiratory infection)
Bread wrappers and other "clean" plastic bags instead of "zip lock"
Butter and plastic ice cream containers instead of store bought plastic containers.
No disposable plates, cups, forks, etc.
Reusable cloth shopping bags, even Walmart has these now but you'll have to look around to find them.
Aluminum foil , which can reused and recycled, instead of plastic wrap.
We buy our drinking water from a local spring for 20c a gallon and refill travel mugs, instead of buying bottled water.
Reusable coffee filter screen instead of paper coffee filters.
We also compost all of our organic waste and use it on the garden.
We have a rain barrel and water the garden and indoor plants from that.
We freeze leftovers and reheat them at a later time instead of buying "microwave meals"
We bring our own place settings to pot luck dinners, complete with cloth napkin!
Also. They now make form fitted cloth baby diapers. These are also water proof and very cute. A great option instead of disposable diapers that will be in the landfill for 500 years!
Six Principles for Green Living
by Dr J Mercola www.mercola.com
Living by “green” principles can be extremely satisfying, but how do you do it? Surely, it’s not by purchasing more “green” products, because buying and using more “things” is all part of the problem.
1. Strive for Simplicity: More stuff means more complexity; more upkeep, more keeping track, more things to do. In global terms, it means more wasted resources.
2. Fairness: Much of our consumption-driven market is based on unfairness. If everyone along the chain, from a Bolivian granny making hand-woven grocery bags to the Wal-Mart worker, actually were paid what you’d expect, that hand-woven grocery bag would be out of most people’s price range.
3. Community: If you’ve ever had the pleasure of attending a local farmer’s market, you’ve experienced something few of us do these days: an encounter with a part of your community, an actual living and breathing person, who made that which you’re about to buy.
4. Sustainability: A system is sustainable when the negative outputs of that system are accommodated and turned into positive outputs. However, most of our global production is not sustainable.
5. Planning: Planning means looking ahead toward a desired outcome. It also means thinking a little bit about the community that isn’t here yet and dealing fairly with them. The decisions we make now will create the conditions our grandchildren and their grandchildren will have to deal with.
6. Transparency: Planning, community, fairness, and ultimately sustainability require transparency, but most decisions these days are made behind closed doors
The Hemp Revolution
Does it make sense to ban a crop in the United States that can have a large, positive economic and environmental impact and is completely harmless? That is exactly the position of the hemp advocates.
Because hemp is a relative of marijuana it is lumped by law into the illegal drug category. It is against the law to grow it, although some products made from it can be imported from other countries. And most importantly, industrial hemp is not marijuana. It contains just 0.3 to 1.5 percent of THC, the chemical that gives marijuana its drug-like effects. By comparison, marijuana contains 5 percent to 10 percent THC. Smoking hemp is not going to make anyone high.
But what are some of the benefits of this harmless crop?
*For starters, Hemp can make take-out containers, and save our landfills from styrofoam.
* The fiber from the hemp plant possesses strength and durability, resists rotting and is easier to bleach than wood pulp, which means whiter paper at lower cost. That would be a boon to the book-publishing industry, to cite one example.
* Hemp oil was used to lubricate the engines of Navy fighter planes in World War II, and hemp activist Woody Harelson used it to power a diesel vehicle to demonstrate the benefits of it. It can also be fermented into an alcohol-based fuel, offering a potent and truly renewable energy source.
* Hemp won't put an end to the logging industry, but it would spare some forests from being cut down for paper products.
* Unlike trees, which take years to grow to the point at which they can be harvested, hemp plants can reach a harvest-able state within four months. For paper manufacturers and users it could provide a cheaper source of pulp than trees, which take too long to renew.
Happy Earth Day!!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
My Interview on You, Me & Religion
http://youmereligion.blogspot.com/
also, check out my other blog
http://mystikdoveshoppe.blogspot.com/
also, check out my other blog
http://mystikdoveshoppe.blogspot.com/
Sunday, March 28, 2010
My New Computer
I think I’m in love with technology! Does that make me a geek? The new lap top was ordered on Monday and arrived on Thursday. Now, keep in mind that the last time I bought a computer was in 1999 when my old windows 3.1 finally needed to be replaced. It was windows 98, which of course went to blue screen soon after. Circuit City ended up replacing it for me with a windows 98se, which worked great until around 2006 when I finally replaced the hard drive and installed windows xp. Well, as of last year, the computer itself had gotten to slow for the programs on the internet, I could only hook up with dial up, it had no Ethernet card, and I decided it wasn’t worth buying one for that computer. So, Rick and I shared his computer, which he bought around 2000. His computer has Ethernet and was already windows xp so it started out a little fasted than mine. Sharing a computer is fine, but now his computer is too slow to play games on facebook. Yes, I moved out of Yoville and Farmville because of my computer! It was a good habit to break in the long run (have you heard about all of the viruses being blamed on Farmville attachments??). So we finally decided it was time. We had to get a new computer! We found a nice Toshiba on walmart.com in our price range and ordered it. Now the fun part. All of my files for the store were written on Microsoft word processor version 2000, now we have version 2007 and the two programs are not compatible. So, I have now begun re-entering all of my store information, all of my Sanctuary information, and all of my previously saved recipes manually. But on the plus side, this computer is so fast, I don’t have time to run to the bathroom while I’m waiting for the page to load! I had gotten in the habit of turning on the computer in the morning when I get home from work, getting changed, emptying the dishwasher and making a bowl of oatmeal while I waited for the computer to boot up and the internet to load, and I still had time to eat my breakfast before it was finished loading! Now, I don’t even have time to fix breakfast before the internet is up and running! I can switch between my facebook page and Rick’s without waiting, and the games load! I’m currently hooked on Mahjong Dimensions, but that’s another story… But I am having so much fun! I have been clicking on icons on this computer to see what they do. I love the sticky notes! I’m a Virgo, I have to have a list… I’ve been using the sticky notes to remind myself of things I need to search and websites I need to go back too. I love it! I don’t have access to the internet connection at work but I can write blogs on the word processor and copy and paste when I get home or when I finish writing. I have also started re-entering all of my store and Sanctuary information. So, I imagine it will be a while before needing an internet connection at work is even an issue. Of course, on the nights that the baby isn’t feeling well or had a late nap I won’t get much done, but as a chronic multi-tasker, I am in my element! It’s always bothered me that I am at work with work to do at home and I can’t do both at once. The lap top is definitely a good choice. Maybe I’m not quite ready for geek-dom, but I have certainly enjoyed the adventure of learning a new computer! I’m thinking about uploading some novels…. Any suggestions?
Friday, March 26, 2010
Charlie
Charlie is 12 years old now. I got him from the Pound in 1999, he was about a year old then. He is a German Sheppard / Collie mix. Charlie was terrified of everything when I brought him home. Every sound, every person, just everything. He wouldn’t eat anything but table scraps, and he certainly wouldn’t eat if anyone was around. He wouldn’t bark, and he didn’t know how to play “fetch”. I took him to a trainer to have him evaluated. I had decided that if there was no chance of improvement, I wanted to take him back to the Pound before I had a chance to get attached. The trainer explained that he had obviously been mistreated. She said that the way the fur was matted around his neck, even after a few baths, showed that he had been left out on a chain. He was also, in her opinion, left alone most of the time. He was very timid around people. He was terrified of sticks, she thought that this may have indicated that he had been teased, maybe even poked at. But, she also said to give him plenty of time and he would come around. Of course, this was not what I had in mind when I went to get a dog. I’ve always been envious of those folks who can leave their dog off leash and the dog stays with them and never creates a problem… Charlie is still timid around some people, not all, and we’re not sure how he would react if someone tried to hurt me, but what a difference! He loves to be the center of attention, and if the neighborhood kids are outside playing he barks and barks and barks. He wants the kids to come and play or at least talk to him! If he hears one of the kids crying he gets upset and barks and cries until they stop or are out of his hearing range. He loves doggie ice cream (Frosty Paws) and this year during the holiday’s I made home made dog biscuits for him. (no, he’s not spoiled, just well loved!). I’ve always had this vision of the perfect dog for me. This is a dog that can be off leash and stay there beside me. And my “perfect” dog is supposed to “stay” when he’s told, and “come” when he’s told, and not beg at the dinner table… Well. Let me tell you about Charlie… One day last week, Rick and I were sitting at the dining room table working on packaging for Wildflower’s Organics. Charlie must have thought we were eating something. He came dancing into the room, tail wagging, ears up and just as pretty as he could be. He sat pretty, begging for a treat. Rick reached across the table to the bag of dog treats just as Casey, our cat, came flying in through the doggie door. Charlie stopped mid-beg, he had to sniff and nuzzle Casey. By the time he was finished, he had completely forgotten that he was begging for a treat!
Charlie and I usually go for a walk when the weather is nice. Just to the end of our street. He’s still afraid of the traffic and there is almost no traffic on our street. The trainer said teaching him to walk on a leash wouldn’t be too hard. She said start with a longer leash and progress down to a shorter leash. We tried it. It looked like I was skiing on asphalt! He could not remember to stay beside me. If he sees a butterfly, he tries to follow it. If he sees a cat, he tries to follow it, if he sees another dog, he wants to follow him too! We ended up getting a retractable leash! Sometimes, I’ve said that we don’t go for a walk we go for a “sniff-n-pee/stop-n-bark” because that’s what we do! Every blade of grass, every clump of dirt, every mailbox needs to be watered by him! He barks at every dog, and every neighbor he sees., more in greeting than anything else. But if a car comes down the street. He sits exactly where he is. It’s like trying to move a brick wall with kite string!
I said Charlie isn’t spoiled, he’s just well loved and that’s the truth. Rick and I were married in 2007 and Charlie liked Rick from the very beginning (which had a lot to do with marrying him…). Charlie now has a doggie door and a patio completely enclosed by a privacy fence. He has plenty of room to meander and play. He’s even learned to play fetch and sometimes we play “fetch it yourself”! He can see the neighbors through the fence and he loves to bark at whatever it is he thinks he sees in the night. On the days that I help out in our store, Mystik Dove, he spends the day with Rick and I in the store. He doesn’t spend a lot of time alone, and he likes it that way!
Charlie is starting to show his age now. His muzzle is turning gray, we’re not sure how good his vision or hearing are sometimes, he sleeps more than he used to, and some days he seems to have more trouble getting starting in the morning, but if Rick lights the grill, Charlie is like a puppy, all revved up and ready to beg!
Charlie and I usually go for a walk when the weather is nice. Just to the end of our street. He’s still afraid of the traffic and there is almost no traffic on our street. The trainer said teaching him to walk on a leash wouldn’t be too hard. She said start with a longer leash and progress down to a shorter leash. We tried it. It looked like I was skiing on asphalt! He could not remember to stay beside me. If he sees a butterfly, he tries to follow it. If he sees a cat, he tries to follow it, if he sees another dog, he wants to follow him too! We ended up getting a retractable leash! Sometimes, I’ve said that we don’t go for a walk we go for a “sniff-n-pee/stop-n-bark” because that’s what we do! Every blade of grass, every clump of dirt, every mailbox needs to be watered by him! He barks at every dog, and every neighbor he sees., more in greeting than anything else. But if a car comes down the street. He sits exactly where he is. It’s like trying to move a brick wall with kite string!
I said Charlie isn’t spoiled, he’s just well loved and that’s the truth. Rick and I were married in 2007 and Charlie liked Rick from the very beginning (which had a lot to do with marrying him…). Charlie now has a doggie door and a patio completely enclosed by a privacy fence. He has plenty of room to meander and play. He’s even learned to play fetch and sometimes we play “fetch it yourself”! He can see the neighbors through the fence and he loves to bark at whatever it is he thinks he sees in the night. On the days that I help out in our store, Mystik Dove, he spends the day with Rick and I in the store. He doesn’t spend a lot of time alone, and he likes it that way!
Charlie is starting to show his age now. His muzzle is turning gray, we’re not sure how good his vision or hearing are sometimes, he sleeps more than he used to, and some days he seems to have more trouble getting starting in the morning, but if Rick lights the grill, Charlie is like a puppy, all revved up and ready to beg!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
PopPop's Shop
Blessed Ostara! Happy Spring! This has been a long and cold winter. I'm really happy to see that it's finally ending!
We opened another section on our dovesart.etsy.com shop. It's titled PopPop's Shop. All of the items in the section were made by my Dad, whom the kids call PopPop. PopPop will be 74 years old in April. He retired about 10 years ago from his "real" job and now works full time in the hardware department at Walmart. Mom passed over a few years ago and Dad is alone now. Working at Walmart gives him something to do every day and I know that he's not sitting quietly in the house all by himself.
For as long as I can remember, PopPop has had a workshop. The workshop has been expanding slowly over the years, but it has always been there. PopPop loves to build things. He's made shelves for everyone, Blanket Chests, and anything anyone needed. I lived in one house that was rather small. I gave him the dimensions for the living room tables that would fit and he built them. I showed him a picture in a magazine of another table I wanted and he built that one too! Recently he built himself an Entertainment Center (he needed a new one to go with the new TV!) and he built himself a beautiful computer desk. He doesn't use the computer much, but he has one and it sits on the new desk. (Or some other excuse to build something!! LOL!)
PopPop will make whatever he's in the mood to make. The items in the PopPop's Shop section of dovesart.etsy.com, are those things that he was in the mood to make. Of course, he made 3 or 4 or more of some of things! I like to think of it as a way to encourage him to keep making the things that he likes and maybe make back a little of the money and time he's put into it. We haven't told him about the etsy shop yet... Maybe we'll wait until his first sale. All of the items on dovesart.etsy. com and on wildflowersorganics.etsy.com are also available in out brick and mortar store Mystik Dove.
We opened another section on our dovesart.etsy.com shop. It's titled PopPop's Shop. All of the items in the section were made by my Dad, whom the kids call PopPop. PopPop will be 74 years old in April. He retired about 10 years ago from his "real" job and now works full time in the hardware department at Walmart. Mom passed over a few years ago and Dad is alone now. Working at Walmart gives him something to do every day and I know that he's not sitting quietly in the house all by himself.
For as long as I can remember, PopPop has had a workshop. The workshop has been expanding slowly over the years, but it has always been there. PopPop loves to build things. He's made shelves for everyone, Blanket Chests, and anything anyone needed. I lived in one house that was rather small. I gave him the dimensions for the living room tables that would fit and he built them. I showed him a picture in a magazine of another table I wanted and he built that one too! Recently he built himself an Entertainment Center (he needed a new one to go with the new TV!) and he built himself a beautiful computer desk. He doesn't use the computer much, but he has one and it sits on the new desk. (Or some other excuse to build something!! LOL!)
PopPop will make whatever he's in the mood to make. The items in the PopPop's Shop section of dovesart.etsy.com, are those things that he was in the mood to make. Of course, he made 3 or 4 or more of some of things! I like to think of it as a way to encourage him to keep making the things that he likes and maybe make back a little of the money and time he's put into it. We haven't told him about the etsy shop yet... Maybe we'll wait until his first sale. All of the items on dovesart.etsy. com and on wildflowersorganics.etsy.com are also available in out brick and mortar store Mystik Dove.
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