faith in love.

to say things have been a little tense around here is an understatement. that's okay though. everything in life has its ups and downs. every relationship has a rough patch here and there every now and then. while its true that sometimes love just isn't enough in a relationship, love IS enough to comfort and sustain you through these rough patches. i don't have faith in a lot of things, being the ever quirky, mistrustful pessimist that i am, but i do have faith in love. and right now, that love is acting as the bridge to "cross over troubled waters."










i have been sick for about the past two weeks; i just can't seem to shake this damn thing. i have been to the doctor, had a round of antibiotics, a round of cough syrup, and tested negative for the H1N1 (swine) flu. i don't know whats wrong with me. but i feel uber yucky.




honey pot mowed the grass this week and our furbabies watched her. it was so cute. i realized that harley and sophia's ears are almost identical in the way they hold them; like chihuahua brother, like chihuahua sister. sophia seems to have discovered that she can pick on lizards, since they are just her size. so far she's tortured two. bush's water boarding doesn't have shit on sophia's torture attacks!!

sunday randomness.

we went riding on the four wheeler today and we spotted this stuffed bear lying on a fallen log. how random.






our children know not the meaning of privacy. even whilst you are trying to utilize the loo.

silliness.

Let it be dually noted that the aforementioned serial assailant has now escalated his crimes to a whole new level; murderer. BOLO: Jackson is a 3.5 year old male 'dapple' Wiener Dog, at approx. 16-19ish pounds (fluctuating weight is in direct correlation with visits to Grandma's house) and should be considered slobbery and stoned. (Frog paraphernalia has been found in the line of his path.) If spotted, provide him with a Frog so he'll be stoned (semi-sedated) until the proper authorities arrive.




WARNING: DO NOT BE FOOLED BY BEAUTIFUL DACHSHUND EYES OR BIG WET NOSE OR WONDERFUL DOXIE KISSES!!




my father-in-law has a beer can sitting atop his tractor's exhaust pipe. this is not the first time this phenomena has taken place on any of his tractors. in the below pictured tractor, there was another bottle of alcohol posted atop the exhaust pipe. however, that bottle was a glass beer bottle. such silliness easily amuses me.

oh the humility!!

there is a disturbance in the force somewhere, because our dachshund, jackson has been on a rampage in the past week. this serial assailant has been targeting kermit the frog's relatives. when questioned about this blatant prejudice against his own kind, kermit stated, "if this were a homophobic incident, or great heavens help us if it'd been an racial attack, there would be outrage! where is the outrage?! now if you'll excuse me, i must go seek out gloria allred, the reverend al sharpton, and PETA. this is a great injustice to the amphibian class."


have you ever scared the shit out of a lizard? well i have. check that one off my bucket list. :-)

GPS systems.

GPS Dachshund says, "Dis not way to Grandma's!!"











Backup ChiWeenie GPS agrees.





Hell hath no fury like a Dachshund upset over leaving Grandma's house.

incalculable cuteness.

note: the simultaneous waggling tails AND Sophia's ear action.

/sigh.

my children are too damn adorable.

familial afflictions.

i am elated to have returned to our nice, CLEAN, quiet abode where i have my wifey, our furbabies, our fishy, my plants, and the rest of our things. i LOVE, LOVE, LOVE going back home where i come from. but i LOVE, LOVE, LOVE coming home to MY home even more so. my time in Florence was riddled with anxiety, restlessness, family drama, and complete exhaustion in every possible aspect.

first thing's first: my mama. she had to have very serious surgery to correct some horrid conditions she had. it most certainly was not life threatening at the time, but the ramifications of the surgery were if proper medical care was not given for her recovery. the surgery initially took only a couple of hours, but it revealed her condition to be worse than expected. one night in ICU was followed by 3 additional nights on a regular room floor. my mommy was in the hospital ON HER BIRTHDAY. i know that sucked balls worse than a crazy old coot pissin on ya living room floor. it was truly heart breaking seeing my mom in writhing pain. what got to me worse than that was seeing her breakdown when my dad left to go buy himself some supper. he left me in the hospital room to look out for mama. my dad is such a great man to her, but there were a few times during her hospital stay i could have knocked him out a time or two.


with the head of the family being hospitalized, it brought MOST of the family issues/drama from simmering nicely under the surface to boiling, scalding hot in your face. it made me realize even more how lucky i am to have a wonderful mom who never gave up on me, and who somehow had enough strength to win me over from the dark side, that was my biological sperm donor and his sad sack of shit family. (one particular cousin excluded, however.) i guess in growing older, i am becoming more and more acutely aware of just exactly how great my mom was and is to me. one thing i did take note of, particularly, was when i saw her lying in her ICU bed, it scared me. as much as i disliked my biological sperm donor, he was my father. MY genetic donor. MY father. and the hard cold fact is, that the son of a bitch is dead. i only have one biological parent left. and seeing my mama like that just scared me down to my core.

i am happy to report that my mom is recovering very well. she is currently at her M-I-L's for her recovery. (if ya ask me, that is no recovery; its damnation. that's an entirely another story for another time, "but i digress,...") she can begin driving again in a lil over a week, she can't pick up anything over 15lbs, and she may be able to begin school when it starts about midway through august. she was upset by the realization that she would be unable to pick up her favorite grand fur baby, jackson. my "miniature" dachshund is a damn porker, weighing in at approximately 18lbs. (that's all solid too, no fat.)


my sister and i were able to meet in the middle and act like civilized human beings once again. apparently teenagers get mighty pissy when you bust them at a party and tell their parents. gee, who'da thunk it?! she and i worked out a schedule that everyone would be pleased with, as far as it went for staying the week with our rockin awesome grandmother. who, by the way, i found one night i was there, cradling, rocking, petting AND singing a LULLABYE to sophia, my baby girl furbaby. i thought my own mama was bad with jackson, our wiener dog!! noooooo, my grandma has her beat by a country mile!!


and lastly, i found this particular picture at my grandma's. yes, yes. here i am being held by my mother, whilst my bio-pop is giving me beer. freaking LOVELY. now i have heard of children tasting a sip of beer, but they were usually CHILDREN or toddlers, at the youngest. here i was, having MAJOR health issues at barely 15 months old, and he's giving me beer. yeah, that's one HELLUVA father, ain't it, yall?! looking at my mother's face, you can easily see the look of disgust for all to see. (okay well maybe except yall, since i have blurred out their eyes to "protect their identities," so certain people wouldn't come bitching to me about it.) i had not even had my open heart surgery tet when this was taken. i was laughing with my wife, telling her this explained EVERYTHING. everything from my issues, to even a haunting foreshadowing of his death.
but alas, my bloggy blog readers, this is all i have for yall today. i do apologize for the break in between posts. hope yall are doing well!!

life as i know it.

hello, my pretties. this past week has been a fun one. one of my BFFs, "Laverne", and my baby brother, "Wily Cyote," came up for a 3 day, 2 night visit. it was quite nice. we hung out at the pool two days in a row, as you'll see from the following pictures. Wily Cyote had an Evel Knievel moment; he dared to go down the slide on TOP of various floatation devices. yeah. the wife's warning to him was that the hospital was just right down the road. trust me, this is not a threat to my brothers, as they are pro's at ER visits due to their carelessness and/or reckless stupidity. every time Wylie Cyote would attempt to slide down the slide in true Evel Knievel form, i felt a lump rise in my throat and my butt cheeks clench. i suppose the outcome could have been worse, after all, he is an ADD 13 year old preteen who is fearless as hell. the only token of remembrance he received for his dare devil trick was a jammed toe. not too bad, indeed.
the four of us played poker the first night and had a blast. the wife was the first one out, followed by me, then a magnificent show down between Wylie and Laverne ensued. Laverne proved to be the night's victorious winner. my middle child, my wiener fur baby, jackson, had to be right up in the midst of what was going on during our game. he was so cute in Wylie's lap. ever the nosy one, he is never satisfied unless he is literally IN.THE.MIDDLE. of what you're doing. nosy weiner.
and speaking of animals,... i'm putting the finishing touches on my wooden wiener and will unveil it upon its completion. next animal up is a yellow bellied turtle that the wife and i rescued from Fat Man's yard. we re homed it to an excellent water source a few miles away. it had crawled across the highway somehow and had the burns on its underside to prove it. there was even a smidgen of blood. it gave me the sads. but it should be happy in its new home, hopefully. when the wife picked it up off of our tailgate to look at it closer, the damn thing wee'd!! i didn't know turtles had bladders that could hold that amount of pee! seriously. my lil girl, Sophia, in all of her four-ish pounds of her, cannot pee that much!! and the final animal in this bloggy blog entry is a cute wittle bunny. yesterday evening after everyone left, i let the dogs out in the back yard to do their thing. that was when i spotted a bunny literally right AT the fence. i tried my best to get a picture with my phone. its a sucky picture, but it'll have to do, even though you can't really see it. i was quite taken back by house it sat there chomping on grass with the dogs and me so close in its proximity. it was so freakin cool. i love our backyard.


i will be away from this here comfy corner of my interwebs for a good lil while. it looks like i'll be spending roughly a week and a half to two weeks back home in Florence. i have family obligations i must tend to. i don't mind doing them, because i'd do anything in the world for my family. but i must confess; two consecutive weeks at home with... that sordid crew is not something i am looking forward to. i love, love, love going back home. but i LOVE, LOVE, LOVE returning to my QUIET, TRANQUIL, SANE home i share with the wife. it will all be okay. either way, it'll be one hell of an adventure. it could be fun or it could all be one giagantic headache. either way, i guarantee some hilarious stories upon my return to sane civilization.

sweet summertime.

a snap of reality.

here are some over due pictures:
the first two are honey and the father in law putting down some sod scraps in our front yard. the third one is dedicated to two of mah besties since they thought driving my weiner dog (more) insane was lol. then there's a cool shot of the front of the house from our mailbox, my lantana that is blooming quite nicely, and then there's me on the way home from the pool on Mom's Day.

sorry there's not much to report. these snapshots will have to do instead!!