Juliet Birdie Fisher

We have a new addition to our family, a yellow lab named Juliet Birdie Fisher.  My husband loves labs.  We owned two black labs and they passed, but since then he has wanted another.  With all that was going on in our lives, we didn't make a move.  Last week my co-worker posted a picture of his daughter's new yellow lab puppy and that set into motion our lab story.  Thanks Edgar.

Our good friends, The Rackley's had adopted a their lab from Lab Rescue of Tulsa a couple of years back so I wanted to do my part and went on the website, labrescue.net.  They had about 10 dogs, and at the bottom of the page was Birdie.  So adorable!  I couldn't resist so I filled out an application on the spot.  I figured this could be an anniversary present for Fish.  We were approved and her foster parent called me Friday night to set up a meeting.  She told me that she had been turned into lab rescue at 6 weeks.  Normally they don't take them from their litter before 8 weeks.  She expressed concern that the dog might have behavioral problems.  She was an alpha type with lots of energy.  She was also a biter.  The foster mom had three labs of her own and was fostering another puppy in addition to Birdie.  So I got very nervous and started to have second thoughts.  I decided I still wanted to check her out.  I took Jamison and Jasper to meet her.  When we met, she didn't act anything like was described.  She got along well with both Jamison and Jasper.  We brought her home and have been impressed by her.  I think she is potty trained.  She goes by the door when she needs to go outside.  She hasn't had one accident in 2 days.  I haven't noticed any biting or nipping.  I think she's gonna be a once in the lifetime kind of dog.  We named her Juliet after a character on our favorite show Lost.  Happy Anniversary to us.  Can't believe it's been 8 years!

Veggie Garden

I think most everyone in my life knows about my new diet.  A brief recap, I have very high cholesterol.  Normal ranges are under 200 and mine is 266. To avoid taking medication for this, I have decided to change my diet completely.  The diet restricts dairy, except for butter, red meat, sugar, flour, basically anything tasty.  My typical day consists of fresh vegetable juice for breakfast, sweet potato and raw veggie for lunch, and a raw veggie and vegetarian dish for dinner.  I can have one meal a week of whatever I want.  So I'm a month into the diet and have lost 4 pounds.  I'm trying to keep a close eye on it since that is not the goal of this diet.  Anyway, Fish wanted to grow a garden to help me be more excited about this life change.  A month in and you would think I would have turned the page.  I'm at a point where the diet still isn't appetizing, but neither is anything I used to eat.  So hopefully I can find new and healthy things to cook in the coming months as taking medication is not an option for me at this point.  We planted tomatoes, carrots, squash, cucumbers, corn, and beets.  We'll see what we get in a couple of months. 

Caution: Braggy Mom Moment Below

A couple of weeks ago I was working in my office when I heard Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the piano.  My first thought was, "I didn't know my husband could play the piano."  Well I went to investigate and found only Jamison in the room.  He was trying to figure the song out on his own.  Normally I'm not one to think that my kids hung the moon because they can breathe air, but I have to say it was a very proud moment for me.  Not that I had anything to do with it, but it was a very cool feeling to see my kid express interest in something that I never have before, music.  He worked out the second verse the following week.  I looked into lessons and the teacher I found thought it would be best to wait until he could read.  We did some research and found a program called Piano Wizard.  We had bought a new mac and it was easy to find found a piano program.  It is an easy version of Rock Star on the computer.  We bought the keyboard and software for Jamison to see if he likes it.  So far so good.  In this version he is trying to work it out in the lower ranges.