Lucy Claudette

We had to put down our beloved pug this spring.  She was having some major health issues and living in pain.  It was terribly hard.  She became mine when I was 20.  I adopted her from an abusive home. She slept with me all through college and was our first baby.  She welcomed all our babies home and was the best dog ever for kids!

We still miss Trudie Claudette!

I didn't think we'd get another dog, but the kids were certain the Easter Bunny was bringing a puppy.  So I searched high and low and found this girl - a Boston Terrier!

I picked her up and officially became the #bestmomever!!

Her name is Lucy Claudette.  She's 5 months old this next week.  I thought I was getting a dog for my kids - truth is I got a dog for myself.  I absolutely love this girl! 

She's super sweet, doesn't shed, sleeps in my bed, and spoons me all night!  Plus her nose is freckled - I love it!  Life is good with Lucy.

Plus, I get to say "I Love Lucy" all the time - that is worth it right?!  Yep I think so!

A Good Night

Last night I had a really good night.

I painted some furniture for a client of Ethel Edith.  Then, while painting the chairs turquoise I some how painted Trudie's whiskers turquoise too.  Poor Trudie still has hot pink in her hair from this same clients last chair I painted.  Good thing she has such a colored personality - the paint works on her!

(Sorry for the cell phone pics!)

Jade worked pretty late & when he got home the kids were thrilled!  He did a few twist & jump high fives with Aubrie - that cracks me up that he was like heck yeah - I'll jump, spin, and high five all in one with my daughter.  Then he did a bit of kid tossing - which gets Everett laughing so hard.  It terrifies Aubrie, so Everett is the only kid we toss around here.

Then, after dinner, I gave Aubrie a bath.  She seized the moment & she asked if when she gets big if she'll have a butt just like mine.  Boy for her sake - I sure hope not!!  It's better than a pancake butt, but since having my kids it has decided to chase me around full-time - you'd think it would get tired of running after me all day!

Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Do they wobble to and fro?

Can you tie them in a knot?

Can you tie them in a bow?

Wouldn't you love to just flop down anywhere your heart desired & take a nap!

This big boy, Duke, went missing Wednesday night.  I thought Jade was just going to lose it with worry.  He yelled over and over for him, whistled, and even went on a drive with a flashlight.  He was just sure - Duke was never coming back - after 2 hours of this. 

That's when I remembered, Duke likes to sleep on the walkout basement patio on some big chaise lounges we have down there, we haven't checked there.  And I was right.  This boy was so tired - he couldn't walk up the hill to come in the house for the night - couldn't even acknowledge the fact that his Dad was yelling for him.  Jade was RELIEVED that Duke was alive!  He rewarded Duke's ultimate laziness with popcorn.

How I Miss You

Dear friends,

I apologize...

I have been sooooo busy that I haven't gotten to visit you and your lovely blogs lately.  Please know that I miss your blogs & your stories.  Once Aubrie's dance recital & our Ethel Edith spring show are over, I'll be back to visiting you!

Until then I leave you with Trudie, AKA Hamburgler.  If there is a picnic outside - she's stealing your burger!

A Dog Abode

Oh sweet Trudie! Her dog bed needed some love!

I spray painted it yellow & then scratched it up with sandpaper to make it look aged.

I took an old bed sham & that's her bed pillow. Then I sewed some throw pillows just for her.

She adores her bed - and truly sleeps in it!

Dog Gone It!

Our dogs are part of our family.

Trudie, small in size, makes the perfect foot heater because she prefers to sleep under the blankets.  Her belly is hairless, typing that cracked me up just an fyi, and it makes for the perfect 80 degree storm on a cold winters night!  We love her for her deep sighs, loud snores, and her chubby neck that is larger than her head (collars aren't this dog's best friend).  She's the kind of dog that's so ugly (don't repeat this to her), she's cute!

I think we all can agree, her sneezing in your face and her breath are by far the worst!

Duke, 80 lbs and all, is so large he consumes half of the loveseat.  Finding room by him isn't the easiest, but his ears make up for it - you just can't not love a hound dog like him.  He's so easy going that the kids just flop on him and he takes it.  The worst he will do is a snout punch.  That's right, when Everett has bit him (why would you bite a dog Everett?!?), Duke has turned around and flat out snout punched Everett in the head.  It's the perfect effect.  Everett backs off, and Duke hasn't harmed my kid - other than Everett's pride. 

 Duke's worst quality would also be the hound dog in him. I can't count the number of animal body parts Jade has hauled off this year. So far Duke has scored 2 deer, a few squirrels & rabbits, and of course an occasional goose wing - really? Is this necessary Duke?!?

She's not a poser is she?!  You can barely see Duke hiding behind her.

We accept our dogs for who they are...even if that means washing off their faces & brushing their teeth before they are allowed near us!

Dog Tired

Do you ever have one of those days where you can barely keep your eyes open?

Where all you want to do is curl up on the couch with a big pink fuzzy blanket.

Where you just want to lay on the back of your much larger friend and snore loudly together?

Trudie (the pug) & Duke (the coon-hound) are quite ridiculous together!  However, I envy their deep love of each other & sleep.  Plus, they can lay together on one couch.  That's something Jade & I haven't quite yet figured out.

Aging Gracefully

This is my pug Trudie Claudette.

She was very young and svelte here.  This is before we had kids.  She was our only baby.  I guess I looked young and svelte at that point in my life too!

I adopted her in January when I was 20 years old.  She was 6 months old, and she weighed just a few pounds.  The people I adopted her from had paid good money for her.  I know this because my Mom used to breed pugs, and they were never cheap - think $300+.  However, they paid good money for her - only to abuse her.  I picked her up at their house.  They had left her collar on until it was so tight - she had no hair around her neck.  She was teeny tiny for her age, only skin & bones.  Her hair was coarse, she was terrified, and her legs & tail were a bit odd shaped from being in her tiny cage full-time.  They should have been ashamed of themselves - they had 3 kids - and their kids would have been taken away from them if they were treated in this manner.  Instead - they were happy thrilled to be rid of her.  Now that I'm more grown up - thinking about it really makes me angry - Mom knows what I mean b/c she saw it with me.

I took her home & she got sick the first night I had her.  She ate so much food - I felt awful for her.  I then moved her with me to Carbondale.  I illegally smuggled her into my apartment complex from January to August.  Then in August - I smuggled her into my next house.  She became my baby.  I dressed her up for Halloween.  However, her bikini didn't quite cover her 9 nipples - yes I said 9 - she has one extra!

She was my copilot in life.  When I drove the 2 hours to school - she rode the entire way sleeping on my lap.  Since then she has moved back to Shelbyville from Carbondale.  She lived with me and my parents and then moved in with Jade when we got married.  She daily went to my Mom's to be babysat when I worked too far from town.  Then she moved to our new house.  She will be 8 years old this summer, and is starting to really show her age.  Her black hair is turning gray.  She is gray on her face, her feet, her body & even her tail.  I worry more about her than I ever have.  She's still petite at about 16 lbs, which is never enough to back up a fight with a 2 year old wild boy. 

She is a 5 state retired model.  That's right, she used to model dog sweaters in the weekly Rural King flier.  She is super sassy.  If you come to visit our house she'll bark at you like a piranha, but sit on your lap the entire visit, only to bark at you like a maniac again when you leave.  She's very spoiled.  If it is hot, or cold, or rainy she doesn't want to go outside & must be forced out.  Even at 8 - she can not be trusted with her pottying.  I again blame her original parents for this.  You must force her out or you may get a tootsie surprise in the basement - the only thing I truly hate that she does!  Overall - she's still my baby.  I dread the day she passes, but until then I will share my popcorn with her & spoon her in bed as much as possible!

Mom's House - Part 5 of 6!!!

I will admit - this post isn't as great as the others, but it's important to my family and who we are.  We (as in Mom) used to breed pugs - not in a weird like 20 dog way, but my parents did.  We had Macy Mae, Stella Rue, Rita Rose, & Wally Eugene.  We truly loved these dogs & they all lived in the house in slept in beds with us.  If you ever need a proper dogs for kids - go pug 100%.  I have never met a pug that wasn't nice.  I now own a rescued pug - I have had her since I was 20...she's a brat, but I love her.

This is Trudie Claudette.  She takes daily abuse from my two kids.  They pull her nipples (probably too much information - sorry), they hug and kiss her, occassionally Everett bites her and gets in trouble, and they love her very much.  She's very special to us!

So back to my Mom's house - every great kitchen needs huge old metal letters - that say pug of course.  This is the door to the back porch & yard - where the pugs go out.

  I seriously want these bad (Mom remember this - pencil my name on the back of these!  ha ha)

This is where Rita & Stella sleep - it's their dog bed.  They are obese - so it's a tight fit!  My pug also has one of these at my house - a must for queen dogs!

Here is Stella (black), & Rita (fawn) - they are truly exhausted at my picture taking!  They are literally a good 12 pounds heavier than my pug - almost twice her size - they are obese!  They are both retired from the pug breeding business.  They sleep & eat all day.  We love them very much!

Oh and a special shout out to Jade - Leg Anniversary!  (Inside family joke - Jade ran over Stella with 2 tires one Thanksgiving day in college - about 7 years ago).  Her leg was pinned twice with no luck - now she has a bum leg she carries around, but she's alive!  To this day - we sing leg anniversary - a song made up by of course me - to Jade on Thanksgiving day!  He really loves it - seriously - who wouldn't!

Two Hot Beasts

Trudie Claudette.

I adopted her when she was 6 months old and I was 20.  The people that paid serious cash for her - also are the people that abused her - ignorant.  She was teeny teeny tiny, her collar was so tight she had no hair on her neck, she was bone thin, and freakishly weird.  She has been our baby for 7 years now.  She's very gray and she's still a stink.  She thinks she's a child - well she's kind of right.  She's a 5 state model - I'm not even lying here.  I used to be a pet supplies buyer & she was a dog sweater model for our weekly sales ad in 5 states.  She's hot stuff.  We adore her.  She's a black pug - amazingly great with wild kids.  She barks like she's a pitbull at strangers, but sits on their lap the rest of the night.  She's unique and funny, snores and snorts - she's one of our best friends!

The Duke of Ettes - AKA Duke

He just came to our home Labor Day weekend.  He has his title b/c all our female dogs - meaning my sisters and mine are females & their middle names are something-ette - Claudette, Bassette, Wynette - you get the picture.  So he came to us as Duke and became a Duke of Ettes!

He's a big boy - not going to lie.  He's super sweet though and also deals well with the kids.  When I say kids - I really mean Everett.  He's rough and tough and loves the dogs a bit too much.  Duke mainly sniffs around all day, and then sleeps on the couch or any available bed.  His bark/howl is intense!  It scares the crap out of me at night, but I like it.  He's a serious watchdog packing some mean sounding barks and growls - it's scary if you don't know him!  He's also a lard.  Once he is in your bed, you seriously CAN NOT move him.  Unfortunately, he has slept too many nights in between Jade and I.  Coonhound paws in your back all night are in no way comfortable.  I think it's because her seriously is in love with my husband - they spoon.  Why wouldn't you want to spoon Jade? 

Halloween & Furniture Moving Madness!

My kids were sooo very excited about Halloween this year.  It was fun as a parent to experience for the first time.  Yes, they have been trick or treating before, but now that Aubrie is approaching 4 so many things are actually like firsts to her b/c she actually knows what's going on!  So in honor of the day, they both like twinks, wore matching shirts all over town!

That night, Aubrie could hardly contain her excitement.  We had to do fairy makeup and fairy hair!  She was so stinking cute!  I had a blast too getting her all fairied up!

Everett wants to do everything his big sister does.  So - he had to wear eyeshadow too!  Luckily it worked out with his costume.  He also had a black tooth, but you couldn't really see it in any pictures.  He was so excited about the candy!  He LOVED it!

Here is your enjoyable kid story for the day.  Everett is starting to potty train...can you hear the trumpets sounding when I said that?  He actually is instigating it this time - amazing!  He tells me when he needs to go, and it's always a mad dash to a bathroom.  This weekend he needed to go at a store.  I have never in my life been around a little boy potty training, nor a little boy in a public restroom.  Good lord, it's nothing like little girls and it's HARD!  I got him on the potty - it's not easy to get the boys' junk pointed in the right direction with his hands not touching the potty!  We had success and he went, however it shot right out the toilet crack, down his pull up, and all over my knee.  So for the rest of the day, I had pee knee, but I didn't care!  My baby is going to be out of diapers soon!  It's worth pee knee anyday!

Since you've seen Ethel Edith I also thought I would share my favorite parts of my house with you as well.  I have a different style than most.  I love bold colors and you'll see that throughout my home.  I also have a new love of anything rusty.  It's kind of an industrial look I've been pulled to lately.  I have noticed I have a lot of gray or silverish pieces in my house lately - weird since I'm drawn to color, but all the same I'm digging the new look a lot!

This is something I just threw together.  I was hating what I had in this awkward corner of my house.  It was a sagish green trunk which is gorgeous in Aubrie's room, but it was so out of place here.  I went down to my Mom's shed of stuff and found this gray cabinet.  It's really my Mom's, but that's how all us women operate.  We swap and trade out furniture all the time.  I had the to die for "For Sale" sign that I bought at a sale for a mere 5 bucks.  At that price you can't afford not too!  I loved it and it finally has the right home.  I also found this container bin in the top of my mom's machine shed.  I had eyed it many times, but never had a good place to put it until now.  It's a simple look, but kind of fun, and I'm happy with myself!

The best part of this setup?  Oh that's right - it holds all my beloved magazines, and even better - my kids' books.  My kids LOVE to read and we have books everywhere in baskets.  It was overflowing in my living room.  Now we have a nice tidy place to keep them all - and also teach them how to put them away.  Hooray!  I'm so loving this corner now and so glad I switched things up!

Oh - this is Trudie.  She says hi and thanks for reading!  You'll learn more about this hot beast later!