My "Kids"

I don't have any human kids yet, but here are my four-legged ones!

The black lab is Casey. We adopted him from Athens Canine Rescue. Actually, he was our first foster, and he was too good to be true. So we kept him. He is still the best foster we have ever had. The first picture is Casey taking a turn at driving during a trip to Lexington, Ky. The second is him showing off his bone for his Aunt LV.

The cat is Riley. We adopted him from the Humane Society in Lexington shortly after we were married. His name was Trey then. How preppy! We adopted him on the first day he was allowed to be adopted, so everyone was sad to see him go so quickly. The first picture is Riley being ever so lazy on our bed in Lexington. The second is Riley jumping off the piano. He is saying, "I am going to eat Casey!"

Okey dokey...

Iowa State University's Tasty Insect Recipes

Mable, Mable

Update on the dog situation. The owner never came to reclaim her from Animal Control, so Athens Canine Rescue has taken her in. Another foster agreed to foster her since I am so busy as Adoption Coordinator and babysitting other fosters, so that is a big relief. I also have lots of trips planned for the rest of the year, so I was worried about what to do with her while I am gone.

Anyway, her name was Diamond, but I renamed her Mable. She is about a year old, 30-35 pounds, and a shep/hound mix. She is still a little underweight, has a sore on her back that is healing, her neck is a little raw where she was tied to the tree, and she has a touch of mange that should clear up in a week or two. She is heartworm negative, though. That is wonderful news! If I were LV, Mable definitely would have been heartworm positive, because LV always seems to find the dogs with heartworms. It's very expensive to treat heartworms, and it's not too fun for the owner or pet.

So, Miss Mable is getting spayed this morning, and then I will drop her off at her foster's home--who has assured me that Mable will feel absolutely spoiled in just a couple days!

New Developments

Well, to make a long story short, an Animal Control Officer came to pick up the dog I found behind my house. She said it was on public property, so she had a right to take it, and that's what she did. I helped her load the dog up in her truck, and off she went.

Tonight at about 9:50, Xon went out to the car to get a book. A man and woman were walking down the street. The woman approached Xon and said she was looking for her dog. She said, "I keep her tied to a tree in the woods right behind your house," and that "she barks a lot." The woman said she did not live in our neighborhood but she walks here a lot, so she suspected the dog would come here. She gave Xon her phone number and said the dog's name is Diamond. Xon told her that she should call Animal Control.

So, I wrote up a little "report" to give to Animal Control. The dog was obviously underweight, dirty, and had gunky eyes. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'll certainly be keeping tabs on the situation.

What To Do

Most people know I volunteer as the Adoption Coordinator for Athens Canine Rescue, a local dog rescue group. We rescue dogs from places like Animal Control before they are put to sleep. Our local Animal Control keeps a dog for five days , and then if it hasn't been adopted or reclaimed, it can be euthanized at any time. The Animal Control officers hold on to the dogs as long as they can, but they are always very full, so some dogs don't make it much past the five days. For some reason, stray/lost dogs are a huge problem in the southern states. Northern rescue groups are infamously empty and are always driving vans down here to get dogs to take them back to be adopted. They often have a home lined up before they have even gotten the dog!

Anyway, we at ACR rescue the dogs, put them in foster homes, make sure they're checked out by a vet, etc. And then we take applications on them so they can be adopted into a "forever home." It doesn't take too long to get each dog adopted, especially because we try really hard to give the dogs obedience training, and we take care of the spay/neuter, heartworm and flea meds, etc.

Well, once people know you're associated with ACR, every person in the county is asking you to take a dog they found. There are just tons! I've seen a lot of homeless dogs in the few years I've been working with ACR--many of them purebred, beautiful, healthy dogs that just got lost. But last night I found my first homeless dog. Let me tell you, that is a totally different experience. I know my friend LV would laugh at that, because she has found countless dogs. They seem to flock to her because they know she will take care of them.

Well, I was walking around in the woods behind my neighborhood last night. There is a lake with a path around it. I heard a dog whining, but I just thought it was one of the neighbor's dogs. When I stopped to look, there was a white and brown dog tied to a tree back in the corner of some trees. There was a food bowl, but it was turned over. It obviously hadn't had any food in it in a while. There was a bench turned over so the dog could get under it, a collar on the ground, and some plastic bags of trash hanging off one of the tree branches. All I can figure out is that someone was staying there for a couple of days and left their dog when they moved on.

Right now, I'm waiting for Animal Control to get here so we can investigate a little bit. Animal Control can (and does) prosecute people if they know they are abusing/neglecting a dog. Of course a lot of times, they can't find out who the owner is. That is most likely in this case.

I took a dish out to the dog with some food and water, and of course he/she (I haven't checked the gender yet) completely gobbled it up. The second time I went out there, she could hear me coming and whined and wagged her tail at the speed of light. I promised her I would come back as soon as an officer from Animal Control got here.

So at this point, I have to decide what/how much one does for a dog they've found. More on this ethical dilemma later--when I've found out some more details.

New Look

You'll notice my blog has a new 'do. I figure no one will have a template that looks like this.

The pictures are of my great-great grandma (I had never seen a picture of her until today when my grandma's sister sent me one), my great grandma, my grandma, my mom, my sis, and me. Isn't that wonderful? We certainly all come from the same genes!

That Time Again

Ah, the start of a new semester... In a week or two, all the budget C-R-A-Z-I-N-E-S-S will be over for another year. I will have absolutely nothing to do, and Wendy will be swamped with syllabi and evaluations. :-)

I'm trying to write down some notes so I will do a better job next year. There is so much budget stuff to do for the start of a new year. And half the time the computer programs aren't working properly so you have to fill out the same form 3 times before it works. But I did better this year than last year, so hopefully I can do the same next year. They can't really train you how to do these things, because you only have to do it once a year--and it changes each year. So they just have to tell you when they need something or if you did something wrong.

I have a great budget rep. this year. She is new, too, so she doesn't know the answers either. So she just says, "We'll just do the best we can and handle things as they come up. No reason to get uptight about it." I like that attitude.

I don't think we have any rooms double booked, so that is always a step in the right direction. Although an entire speech class showed up to use one of our rooms that a philosophy class was already using. The philosophy professor told the speech class to "get the hell out of our building." That was fun.

Here's to the first day of classes!

Roots

While we were driving to see the 'rents, I realized that I have a memory of or connection to virtually every town that we passed in eastern Kentucky.

WILMORE, KY: 4 generations of my family have attended Asbury College, which is located in Wilmore. Granny studied home economics and music, so I always like to picture her playing the pianos in the same practice rooms that I used when I was there studying music. Dad went to Asbury after Vietnam and got a degree in education. He graduated in May of 1979, just two months after I was born. He was the first person in his family to graduate from college. He then worked as a substitute teacher. Mom says Granny washed me in the sink of the Glide-Crawford dorm before the graduation ceremony. Granny, Mom, Dawn and I all lived in Glide-Crawford when we were at Asbury. So I guess you could say it's in my blood. ;-)

The good thing about Wilmore is that you can walk everywhere, and you know pretty much everyone. However, you eat a lot of Subway, because that's about the only restaurant in town. There are two traffic lights. My choir director's teacher remembers when you had to wear a skirt to walk around town and go to the grocery store or people would think you were obscene. ;-)

Dawn got married at the Wilmore Free Methodist Church.

LEXINGTON, KY: Mom and Dad got married in Lexington in 1973 and lived on South Addison. Dawn was born there in 1977. I would have been born there, too, but Mom and Dad were in the process of moving to Ashland, and I surprised them by coming a month and half early. :-) Dawn lived in a beautiful old house in Lexington for a little while after graduating. Xon and I lived there for the year after we got married.

WINCHESTER, KY: Mom worked as a teacher in Winchester (of Ale-8-1 fame) after she got married.

MOUNT STERLING, KY: I remember passing Mount Sterling every time I drove home from Asbury. It seemed like it took so long to get there!

OWINGSVILLE, KY: My dad has a farm here where he hopes to retire. It's also where we go out on the lake in his pontoon boat--at Cave Run. The town doesn't have a whole lot at this point, but I suspect that Lexington will keep growing out that way, so it will get easier and easier to get to Lexington. I like that you can be totally secluded on the farm. My dog, Casey, loves going to the farm! It is worth the long drive from Georgia.

VAN LEAR, KY: My dad was born in Van Lear (of Loretta Lynn fame). His dad worked in the coal mines, as did many locals.

PAINTSVILLE, KY: This is where Dad's sister lives. Dad's parents are buried here.

MOREHEAD, KY: This is where Dad's mom lived when we visited her. It's also where her funeral was.

LOUISA, KY: This is where my grandpa was born and where my grandparents are buried--as well as a few other family members. Mom has some land here.

GRAYSON, KY: I was in an outdoor drama here one summer. Fun!

ASHLAND, KY: My mom was born in Ashland (of The Judds fame), as was I. It's where my grandparents got married, lived and died, and where my aunts and uncles still live. Mom works/has worked at a couple of hospitals in the area. My grandpa worked at Ashland Oil. My great grandpa pastored a church here.

I'm sure I could add lots more, but those are the basics. I love roots.

Subconsciousness

I am visiting my parents for a couple of days so we can go out on the lake in the "happening" town of Owingsville, Ky. We got here about 9:00 last night, and the strangest thing happened to me after I went to bed. I woke up suddenly and COULD NOT for the life of me get back to sleep. For some reason, I was really upset because I missed Granny and Grandpa so much. I had not really thought of them a lot earlier in the day, so why was I suddenly wide awake missing them? I went out to the couch, because I can ALWAYS fall asleep on the couch, and I realized that the date was August 9th.

August 9th was Granny and Grandpa's wedding anniversary. And Grandpa died on the evening of August 8th. I guess I had realized that subconsciously? How strange!

Granny died when I was just seven. And Grandpa died a couple of days before my wedding in 2001, but it seems like the older I get, the more I miss them.

I Can See the Light

My mama really wanted me to get some solar lights for the pathway from the driveway to the patio since we don't have any lights on that side of the house. Since she and Dad did all the work on the pathway, I figured I could at least go shopping for some lights. (I know, I know. I get the easy work.) Little did I know when shopping for a vinyl tablecloth in Big Lots that I would find these cutie lights. I did not, however, find the vinyl tablecloth.

So here are some pictures for my dear Ma. I think the last one is pretty creepy.

8 Months and Counting...

You could say this has not been the most "fun" year of my life. Certainly not carefree anyway. I have been caught off guard several times. The year is not quite over. In fact, the most exciting part of the year is yet to come--my nephew's birth! But I've learned about a LOT of different subjects thus far.

I've learned about landscaping, drainage, planting grass, fencing, installing pathways, buying a truck, taking care of and training dogs, fixing a bathroom vent. I've learned that anything can be taken apart and fixed, including dishwashers and vacuum cleaners. I've learned about being an aunt, what pregnancy is like, what childbirth is like, what parenting is like (not from my own personal experience, of course). I've learned that I don't need to keep everything and that "things" don't really matter. So I've gotten rid of a lot of "things." I've learned about nutrition. I've learned new recipes and cooking methods, how to keep a house clean (even if I don't do it all the time), that doing things for myself like going to aerobics makes me happier. I've learned about trusting people and not trusting people--and how to deal with people who are mad at me (justifiably so or not) without letting it absolutely crumble and consume me. I've learned about giving people the benefit of the doubt and cutting them some slack. We're all just doing the best we can, even if our best is not very good sometimes. I've learned it's better to do something right the first time, because you're just going to end up having to do it again. I've learned how to negotiate in my professional life--and how University politics work.

I don't want to be a hypocrite. I certainly haven't practiced all of these lessons. But they've all been very practical, and even if I won't ever have them perfected, I am "giving it a go." It is important to have supportive people around you--at the very least one person who is involved in your life everyday who will hold you accountable for the things you say and do. Having someone like that, in the flesh, keeps us grounded and helps us to keep growing and improving--rather than staying still and getting stagnant. My mom encourages us to only surround ourselves with positive things--images, people, situations, etc. It is so easy to be negative. We certainly don't need to add to it by purposefully allowing, and even inviting, negative things in our lives.

Yes, this is the year of learning. Thanks to my family and friends for being nothing but supportive and patient while I learn these things (again). Keep keeping me accountable!

Weekend Makeover

It has become the custom to tackle a gigantic yard project when my parents come to visit. Partly because they have a truck to haul the materials and partly because they know how to do these things! --I'm afraid it also has become the custom for us to think up ideas for gigantic yard projects, and then Xon and Dad sneak off to a Braves game in Atlanta. But Mom and I wisened up this time and toured the Coca-Cola museum near Turner Field so we didn't have to stay at home and work while the boys played! ;-) We also shopped at Underground Atlanta, where we snacked on candy apples and learned about African quilting methods. We topped off the day with a yummy dinner at an Italian restaurant named Lombardi's.

Finally, on Monday, it was time to start on the gigantic yard project. Here are the fruits of our labor. Wasn't it nice of them to practice on their own house first so mine would be perfect? :-)

BEFORE:

AFTER: