Peaceful First Quarter of 2013!

On the estranged family front, things have been very peaceful.   I am hopeful that it will remain thusly!   The business is doing well, my remaining dogs are doing well, and life is good.   I even managed to take a little me time off and go on a mini vacation.


Maine still has some snow, and possibly another "snow event" to go.   I am okay with that, however:)   I am looking forward to seeing the ground again hopefully in the near future.

We have been taking care of some personal financial business.   Hopefully that will all fall into place as hoped.

It's been very nice not having the additional stress of unwanted attentions of people that really have no interested in me.  Instead of feeding any energy into futile relationships, I am able to funnel my energy in the relationships and things that matter.

I hope all the best for everyone else who has had a similar and unpleasant journey.   When things work out for the best for all involved (including yourself), then everything gets a little better and easier to deal with.

2013 Should be a Peaceful Year

I am expecting 2013 to be a peaceful and drama free year:)   My mind has not been renting any space to them as of late.   I plan to continue this trend into the foreseeable future!   It's a nice relaxing trend that allows me to attend to those things in my life that have actual importance.

2012 Year in Review

Except for one very tragic and devastating incident, we had an other wise great year.  Our wonderful canine companion, Leon, died suddenly on 9/20/2012.   I am still not over it, and will never really be over it.   It will just get a little less painful as time goes on.   Leon was a very special and loving soul.   He did a lot of work with me in my business.  He provided a lot of love, fun, and joy for us all as a family.   It is believed to have been a cardiac incident.   By the way, 40% of Dobermans are thought to have cardiomiopathy.  Still they remain my very favorite breed due to their sense of fun and their athletic ability.

Sigh, he is very very much missed.   There are all sorts of little jobs he would do for me during the day, that remind me how very much he loved working with me.   Everyday there is a reminder of that.

So here is the good parts of 2012:

1. Business up by 18%
2. I was able to take a few actual days off for a vacation this year.   First time since 2005, I think.
3. Summer was perfect in that it was not sweltering hot.   It was a very comfortable and enjoyable summer.
4. We had many many good times with our dogs on the beach this year.
5. My husband and I were able to have a lot of good times this year.  
6. We have been able to afford things like heat and health insurance this year:)
7. We have been able to get our savings going again.

It would have been a really stellar year if Leon could still have been with us.  

Thankful for 2011 Thus Far & Wierd Dreams

I find myself thankful again (and I almost hate to say it so as not to jinx it) to have no deaths in the immediate family and/or our dogs thus far.   We did loose two dogs of clients this year due to old age and cancer.  We also have a family friend's father (and someone we know) who has suffered a stroke and heart attack right around now.  We are hoping for the best outcome for him, and his family.

All in all, after about an eight year stint of having close family deaths and deaths of our elderly pets (and one that was too young to leave us), it looks like we have managed a two year reprieve.  Just a little over 30 more days to go, and we will be into 2012.

I have been having some really bizarre and recurring dreams.   The circumstances of the dreams are all different, except for the pregnant bunnies and cats.   I never actually see the births, although sometimes I hear the baby animals.   One was a murder mystery dream, one was a dream about old friends whose house (this was never in real  life the case) was filled with pregnant bunnies and cars in cages.   And I have had some more that I can't remember, just know that they were different.

I looked it up a little, and gather it might be about creativity and taking risks.   Somewhere that is not far from where my mind is at these days, in order to further grow my business especially in light of some new challenges we are facing:)

The Shrinking Family

Robert and I are doing great on our weight loss goals.   It hasn't been easy in some ways, and easy in other ways.  Just good old fashion watching what we are eating and exercising.   We did get some tips from a nutritionist that were helpful as follows (and simple);

1. Do this together which has always been a problem.  One or the other was attempting, and then "the temptations" would come in (and I am not talking about the singing group).
2. Food shopping together (we have not been doing so great on this lately).
3. Eating the same meals (we do this a lot more, but sometimes are tastes still differ).
4. Eating more vegetables (never a problem for me, and husband discovered he likes carrots and sweet potatoes after all).
5. Two thirds of plate should be vegetables.  (better on this but not up to two thirds all the time)
6. First word in bread and cereal ingredients should be whole.
7. Three meals, and two snacks a day.
8. When you wake up, eat no more than 1 hour after waking (I have not been so great on this).
9. Start exercising slowly(have been good on this)
10. Make menu plans (was good on this in the beginning, but now that we basically know what we are going to be eating, we don't bother so much anymore).

Great tips, and unfortunately the nutritionist that we used left:(   We may make some follow up appointments.

Only news on the Spermy front is that we were recently at a flea market.   One of my dad's old friends, who incidentally lives right next to his summer house and has for ages, saw me and came to say hello.   Apparently Spermy never goes to see his old friend, and when he does see him, he disappears inside the house.   This is someone who sold the summer house to him, very low, because they were friends, and no doubt he thought Spermy would keep up the friendship in some way.    His friend actually asked ME to say hi to my dad for me.  I didn't have the heart to tell him I haven't talked to Spermy in over five years.   This is just the way Spermy treats people, dispose of them once they have given you what you wanted.   Nice.  At least it's not just me Spermy treats this way.

This Year of 2010 Ending Well

2010 brought us difficulties in the job world this year.  The merger and acquisition challenges combined with the new company entering into an unfamiliar business during a recession kind of challenges.  One might think that a sharp decline in income from corporate America would make this a bad year.

I'll tell you why (assuming this lasts until midnight) 2010 is a banner year.  So far (knock on wood, and hoping not to jinx myself) we have had no deaths of participating and loved family members, friends, or our personal canines this year.   A client did loose his dog, Petey, who I have known since puppy hood this year.   That was very sad, but (again knock on wood) our current dogs remain alive and healthy.   To me that is a good year.   We have gone seven years in a row of loosing human and canine family member friends.   At least five of whom were in five different years but in the same month of December.

You can imagine why I get a little blue in December and expect that some horrible thing is going to happen.   As a matter of fact, I should have accompanied my husband to the grocery store just to keep a watch out.   Traditionally, we stay in on New Year's Eve because there are a record number of drunk or tired drivers out that night.  

I did hear that the Monster got sick on Christmas Eve, and had to cancel the celebrations at her house.   My cousin picked it up instead (we did not get the notification personally).   I would like to share these comforting words that my father had to say about my mother in law dying and other difficulties he was unable to be a human being for:

"Join most of the human race. Life is tough some times, people loose loved ones, they get cancer, they get hurt, bad things happen all of the time."

Only I am not that cold hearted or selfish because an event is inferring with my self interest.  I wish I were.   I was tempted to inquire that nothing was seriously wrong with the monster.  It does figure into the realm of reason, knowing how she truly felt about preparing the Christmas Eve fest, that she simply did not want to do it and lied.   Course she is also morbidly obese with diabetes (supposedly or that was the excuse I was given for behavior), so she could be seriously ill.  I do figure that she is such a martyr, she would have to be very ill in order not to "suffer through it".

However, the thought above is more thought than the monster deserves, and does not change what kind of a human being she has been or how Spermy has aided and abetted her in her mission(s).  Or the fact that they take such horrible care of themselves.  I'm just thankful that I am not as miserable as they are OR trapped in that particular marriage.

Karma, she is a bitch.  That's two for two for Karma this year, as Eggy got someone stealing from her in cyber space as well and harassing her.  Karma did just fine by me in 2010.   My more materialistic donors would think I had a horrible year though:)  Hence, most likely, why they seem so miserable.

Snow, snow, snow and then some more snow

We will be enjoying our first real snow storm today.  I have six dogs to get out in the snow (that means we have four guest boarders).  Our daycare may come along if his owner feels like braving the blizzard today.

I tried to complete a blog posting titled "Apologies, Acknowledgements, and Boundaries, Oh My!", but my mind is distracted by going out and having some fun!

That is a good thing:)

December is Not Christmas Time Anymore

Here we are in December, a month that I very much enjoyed as a child.   Being an only child, I did actually get a lot of gifts on Christmas and during the family part on Christmas Eve.  I loved the decorations, making up the tree, and most of all Gram's house.   I don't think it's faulty or sentimental on my part to think those Christmas's and other holidays at Gram's house were filled with a little magic.   Okay, maybe that is a little exaggeration there LOL.   Those were the holidays that I loved, and they were gone many years before Gram finally succumbed to old age and all of it's problems.

I did go on celebrating Christmas with my little family.   On the first of one of my dog's deaths, Neptune, on December 21st that magic started dwindling away.   Since then this month (not year) has seen the loss of my Mother In Law, Mustache our cat, Jazz our first dog, and finally Jackie last year.   These are by far the worst of estrangements.   My grandfather passed away a couple of days after being too sick to spend Thanksgiving with us.  I missed my last Christmas with my Granmother, because monster did not want her to come and then complain about going back to the assisted care facility.   I should have just gone and spent Christmas with grandmother!!  In my current frame of mind, the thought that I just could have done that did not even occur to me.

So while in general I enjoy holidays more because I don't have the past obligations to the estranged, I do not think the month of December will ever hold the joy for me that it once did.   I am okay with that, it's nice to remember my fallen friends and family who have been estranged through the event of death.   That is more important than a holiday made to commercialize everything:)

However, though these are joyful memories, they do make me a little blue, as my time with those friends and family members have passed.   December is filled with so many days of passed family and friends.   So it is important to get out and enjoy life in honor of those that have passed.  

A lot of my pick me up comes from my husband and my dogs.   We have been watching the first season of Columbo on Netflix, and also whipping each other's ass in Playstation 3 fighting game.   I have continued to cook with my husband.   We have been having a lot of fun doing this.   I used to hate cooking as I had no instruction pre my marriage in the correct way of doing things, and so my meals turned out like crap.   I need A LOT of instruction just to get through the little things that go wrong, or what the consistency should look like, or what's the difference between this mixing and that mixing.   With instruction, go figure, we have had some excellent meals that we made together.

Yesterday, I started clearing out some skating paths in our wetlands out back, which have frozen over.  Good work out, and kept the dogs out there for about four hours while I worked on it.   I think we all got good and frozen, and then took a nice long cuddly nap together.   No doubt some good exercise came from it too, as I am clearing the brush ET and that blocks the paths in the wetlands.  It snowed yesterday, so now I have that to look forward to clearing.   I don't know if the rink will be done today, but it should be done by Christmas if I work diligently on it.

My In Law family is Jewish.   Traditionally, they have not done the big family thing around Hanukkah.   Although my family alternates it between my cousin's house and the sperm donor's house, I have wished more to see other family during times when I won't be around the sperm donor and the monster.   Also it seems that side of the family thinks if we see each other, we will run straight into each other's arms.  Now spermy might put on a good show for the family, but I have seen him outside the family and did not feel an out pouring of love and good wishes from him.  I also saw him a long time ago at a family event, where the monster spent her time coming up to any family member that I was trying to talk to and getting in between us to try to prevent it (she is an utter peach that way).   I just don't need that kind of drama and selfishness around me.   Not even because it's the holiday, it's because life is too short for me to have to deal with that.  

If family does not make other times available to see me when we are not even a mile away from each other, then clearly they have no interest in me.   As such, they are hardly family in any sense of the word besides biology.  That does not mean I hold hard feelings towards them, I don't.   But why would I be putting myself out there in an uncomfortable situation with people that I barely saw once a year previously?  To me, that is not family.

There is one to three relatives that tried to have any sort of forward/future relationship with me in any active way:)

Thanksgiving !!

I am thankful for sleeping in this morning (clearly).   I am thankful for my husband who has started Thanksgiving dinner, and is waiting for me to come down and cook with him.   I thankful for warm cinnamon buns and coffee.   I am thankful for Leon and Boris who keep it warm under the covers.   I am thankful that the wind gusts are gone so that I can walk the dogs (including Lola, Gus, Buddy, Jake, and Tommy) in the woods without being too worried that a tree will fall on me or a dog.  

I am thankful for the yummy food that I am going to eat and help prepare shortly.  And again, mostly thankful that everyone and everything that I care about is alive today:)

The Month of Thanks-Will Be Most Thankful For

I don't mean to start on a downer OR to jinx myself, but I am MOST thankful that no one has died this year.   We did have a customer's dog, Petey, who I have known from puppy hood that left us this year.  However, that is bound to happen especially as I am entering a decade in the business.

so far our loved family members and our beloved pets remain healthy and happy.   This will  be a truly magical year if we can make it to the end.  We have had a personal major deaths for the last seven years.   We actually thought last year we were going to be spared, but our dog, Jackie CD, died on the morning of Christmas.

By the way, the majority of these deaths have occurred in November or December, so I am not the holiday freak that I used to be.  What I want for Christmas is for everyone and thing that I love to be alive not only this year, of course, but for as long as it is physically possible for them to be.

Uh, honey, where are you going with that ladder, extension cord, and chain saw?

13 Thirteen Good News Stories and Blog Search

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/10/good_news_day.html Not only an excellent self healing story, but a blog to revisit with good news of or own:)

http://www.masslive.com/holyokeplus/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1166605889110420.xml&coll=1 Firefighters given animal rescue gear. As a dog trainer, I imagine certain gear is key in rescuing a pained or frightened animal from such a situation!!

http://news10now.com/content/all_news/central_new_york/?ArID=88547&SecID=86 Dog alerts family and is recognized.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/copbriefs/entries/2006.12.19.119568.html Two girls found safe after snatched with grocery cart.

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=46805 Two kids leave home before mom gets up and go out on an adventure. Found safe thank goodness. The benefit of dogs is most can not operate door knobs, or we'd all be in big trouble. Leon's close though.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/16300263.htm Car and Christmas gifts stolen and then all recovered:)

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_4889770 Family who received help after they immigrated here, now help others in better times.

http://www.paysonroundup.com/section/frontpage_lead/story/26670 Santas helpers provide bikes for deserving children.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/10594428/detail.html Older brother saves younger brother from drowning.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6197157.stm 80 year old man's job has been lost and found for families in large festivals.

http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2006/12/23/a_soldiers_christmas_story.html Soldier reunited with family to spend holiday with.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2097805.ece Homeless tean meets with prince, and looks forward to media career.

http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1089202.0.helping_homeless_to_feel_cared_for.php These homeless people are getting food, shelter, shower, and the pampering that they deserve.