exhaustion

Today we woke up to the sun shining on the snow.

There are few things as appealing to small children first thing in the morning. They see snow and instantly think snow angels and snow men and snowballs and sledding and snow boards.

I just saw the sun sparkling across that snow and it made my heart glad. Overcast days and I don't get along.


The dog apparently enjoyed the morning snow as well. She kept rolling all over it. I found this picture to be quite sweet.


Besides the snow this morning, the rest of the day was fairly standard.

We did school, played outside had lunch and then we set off for gymnastics. It was just before gymnastics that I felt this immense exhaustion hit me. I felt like I could just curl up on the sofa at home and take a nice nap, but considering the fact that I pay $16 an hour for my kids to go to gymnastics I really didn't want to miss it. So I hauled my rear off the sofa and headed out the door.

At gymnastics I usually sit and chat with my friends and we have a great time. Today, I kinda wanted to curl up and fall asleep on the hard cold metal bleachers. I didn't. I felt I should mention that because there have been times in my life when I have been so tired that I HAVE just curled up and fallen asleep.

One of those notable times was when I was in college. It was in the summer and I was working full time as well as taking full time classes. Along with that, I was living with my sister with a brand new baby and I was dating this amazing guy who was occupying my every thought and my every evening. I really couldn't get him out of my mind and I still feel that way about him which is a good thing, since I am still with him and he does make an amazing husband, BUT this story isn't about him. It is about my exhaustion.

So, I was working during the day doing work on the grounds of the college campus that I went to school at and I was working hard out there. It was a hot, hot summer and I was weeding everyday and hedge trimming and raking and watering baby trees and I was doing something else called rock picking (which is a whole 'nother post). After leaving work I would head over to the local community college where I was taking a Biology class and I would do school there for a couple of hours each evening. We would have an hour of lecture and then we would have a 15 minute break before he would head in for another hour of lab.

The building was so cold and I worked in the heat all day outside, so for me it was even more cold and I just about froze in there everyday. This is probably a blessing because I would probably have fallen asleep if it wasn't so cold.

In the evenings my dear sweet John and I would see each other and we were poor and hadn't known each other all that long so much of our time was spent walking through parks talking and sipping coffee at Dennys as we stared at each other through the smoke. There may have also been a considerable amount of time spent kissing and holding hands and looking all sparkle-eyed at each other. The problem was that we were staying up too late for the rest of my schedule to work well. Actually this continues to be a problem for us. We are night owls.

So by the time I hit biology everyday I was exhausted. Completely and totally and I really wanted to sleep but that building was so stinkn' cold! So I would sit and shiver and make it through. Then I would go out of the building during our break and try to just sit on the hot sidewalk, up wind of the smokers, just to get warm. I would lean up against the brick building and just enjoy the heat.

One day I finally was just over the limit tired and after sitting out there for just a minute or two and trying to close my eyes and just rest them I wondered in my little head, "Why don't I just lay down right here and take a little nap." Now, to the rest of the world this may sound odd, but to someone as tired as I was it made perfect sense. So, I laid down, right there on the sidewalk right outside of the building and I proceeded to take my nap. It would have been great, BUT people kept waking me up. They would stop and ask, "Um... mam? Are you alright?" And I would sleepily look up at them and say, "Yes, just tired... thanks." And try to go back to sleep. It wouldn't be long until someone else would come up and ask me if I was alright. I really just wanted a nap and I ended up being quite annoyed with these people all interupting my nap.

Many years later when I thought about my attempt at a nap I saw how crazy I must have looked to people, but I was so exhausted that I just didn't care.

Today, at gymnastics, I was almost that exhausted. Almost. Apparently I have decided that laying down on the sidewalk for a nap isn't that great of an idea. Probably a wise choice on my part.

Liberty and Justice For All!

My dog is named Liberty. This is her, the sweet goofy spastic Labrador that she is. It is VERY hard for me to take pictures of her because as soon as I pull out the camera and point it in her direction she comes over to see what is going on AND she gets all excited. I was sitting on the floor when I took this one and when I laid down on the floor to get a different angle she had to come over and give me kisses, regardless of my asking her to stay. She kissed my filter on the camera lens. Wasn't that sweet?

This is the best picture that I have ever gotten of my dog. Let me see if I can find some others... you will see what I mean.

Ah yes, you see this is a perfect example. This is what I normally get. Now, I do need to tell you that this picture below was taken with my old camera. My old camera was dropped and it didn't work great, so you get to look at this fuzzy picture BUT this is what she normally does. She runs over as soon as the camera is pointed at her and she looks up at me in her sweet adoring way. This just does not make for the best pet portrait.


This is another example of the same trick she plays. This is when she was younger, she learned this trick pretty early.


This is another little thing she likes to do. She likes to simply roll over on her back and beg me to rub her tummy. She really doesn't care about my picture taking at all. It is all just about her and her tummy needs. She is just so selfish. Man.


Now, this is yet another problem I have taking pictures of Liberty. She is a very dark chocolate brown. She is nearly black and in this picture you basically just get an outline of her on the white snow. Liberty? Are you there or is that just your shadow. Liberty? Well, the shadow sure is moving around fast like her. Who knows, but look at those ears! She looks like she is trying to fly like Dumbo!


Now, the following is a wonderful portrait session done when Liberty was just a puppy. John was deployed and Libby was about seven months old. I had a two year old, a four year old, a spazador chocolate puppy, a teen cat having kittens in my garage and yes, my sweet husband was deployed. My wonderful love was playing over in the Sandbox and he requested that I send pictures of the puppy so he could see how much she had grown.

I had a very good friend of mine assist in taking pictures of the crazy puppy. I need to let you know that my friend spent most of the time cackling with laughter and snapping away. Many, many funny pictures came out of this photo session and I felt that they were very telling of my dog's personality.

Notice the grip I have on her collar. That should tell you something right there.


This is where things started to get a little crazy.

Do you see my eyeballs popping out of my head? My friend was still laughing by the way. Some friend! HA!

This next picture is when the kids came out of the door. Liberty took one look and then all Hades broke loose!


WATCH OUT! YIKES! I think she ripped my arm off in this picture. She probably only weighed about 40 lbs here, but I am telling you what, it was 40 lbs of muscle. Every last ounce.

My Liberty can still be a crazy dog. She can still go ballistic at a plastic bag blowing across the field behind our house. It could be an enemy you know. She still gets outrageously excited when people come to the house. She still LOVES, LOVES to play with kids and she still does find occasion to nearly rip my arm out of socket. She has come a long, long way though and she mainly lays around on her pillow like she is at the top of this post.

That is actually a new pillow that I picked up for her. I brought it home the other night and moved her old worn out pillow and put this one down and she was excited to see me, but she hadn't realized what I was doing. I patted her pillow and told her it was hers and she started wiggling all over and smelling it all over and then she kissed me. She wasn't going to get on that pillow until I told her it was hers and her expression and her excitement were so telling of what was going on in her head.

She is such an amazing dog and though I will never forget what a challenge it was to have a puppy with everything else going on while John was deployed, I could never ever regret having this super sweet, super dedicated, super personalitied dog.


Just look at her. She is mournfully looking at me because I am making her stay on her pillow. She desperately wants to get up and wiggle herself over here and kiss my lens. Sweet puppy, I can't imagine life without this spazzy sweet puppy.

I Have Been Absent <------- (statement of the obvious)

So, we were on vacation to visit family and friends and help with another Vacation Bible School last week, we came back here on Sunday only to turn around today and return to our friends and family for a Fourth of July celebration. While we were home we ran around to Gymnastics and a Swim Meet and a Swim practice. Now, I am frantically setting up the cat and the rabbit for us to be gone, making sure we have another substitute teacher for our class at church that we teach and getting everything we need to make a vacation work with the three kids that go with us... that includes the fuzz ball kid named Liberty.

I hope you all have a wonderful Fourth of July!!! We will be celebrating with friends and family and we are trusting that you all are doing the same.

I promise pictures when I return... I have tons stored up from the last couple of weeks and will get some posted on this blog possibly, but for sure on the family blog.

Much love and happiness to you and yours until I return to blog land!!!