Bat Dog or Bat Girl?

Last Saturday afternoon Tay headed to the Baylor Ballpark with the children's group from our church. She had a really great time and came home with one of her favorite souvenirs EVER - a miniature bat. Apparently they were having an autograph session after the game so each person received a small bat for signatures.

Unfortunately, one of Tay's sweet friends fell ill so they left a bit early and didn't get to attend the signing party. She didn't let that stop her fun, though, as she found a very capable and lively bat girl at the house.

She eventually perked up for one photo but I'm not so sure the guarding of the bat is Prissy's calling....

In other news, it appears I've passed on some of my Type A behavior to my child because, shortly after these photos were taken, she procured a Pledge wipe and spent an hour polishing this little beauty. We've since retired it for viewing only as I'm afraid it would straight slip out of someone's hand if they tried to swing it. :-)

Field Day ~ The Final Chapter

Yesterday afternoon the man and I headed over to Rice Field for Tay's last Field Day in elementary school. While I have no idea if this is a tradition for intermediate school as well, I do know that it was hot. Like, sweat dripping down your back hot. 

Side note: When you lose some weight and have fewer layers of fat on said back, the dripping is much more pronounced. Bless those poor skinny folks' hearts, y'all!

Anyway, lots of fun was had at ye olde field day. There was some waiting in line for your turn....

Time spent with friends...

Running and showing your parents your mad volleyball skills. Had no idea the child could serve that well!

Some photos that Davey was very proud of while the child, not so much...

Lots of squatting because they won a lot so they had to sit while everyone else finished the relays...

More running...

A fierce tug o' war battle...

Friends who are in other classes...that's Aija in the yellow shirt.

...and lots of pouring water on your head and shirt to try and beat the heat. There was also a Kona Ice truck (snow cones) on standby for refreshment after all of these hot weather activities.

Let's just say we had one exhausted little girl on our hands when we picked her up. After a yummy Bush's Chicken dinner, she took a shower and then rested on the couch for the rest of the evening. We pretty much did the same because, now that I'm an adult, just watching all of that activity wears me out.

May you all have a blessed Memorial Day weekend!

Get in the Game

Last Thursday evening was a milestone for my precious child. It was the last school production of her elementary school career. Nana and Boppy came to join in this momentous occasion (Davey was working). There may or may not have been tears. Or at least thoughts of them because, y'all, my baby is growing up.

I'll grant that I am thoroughly enjoying this age (with the exception of the 'tween hormone swings) because she's so grown up, can hold deep and/or intricate conversations and always - ALWAYS - makes me laugh. But I do miss the days of baby Taylor, toddler Taylor, preschool Taylor and even the Taylor of last year.

Nevertheless, she is growing up. So I've just got to get in the game....

...which was also the title of the 4th grade school musical...

First we got a taste of the super recorder playing skills the kiddos have honed over the past two years.

And then it was time for some singing and dancing - two things I am always ready to witness.

Each class was dressed in different sporting attire. Tay's class donned bowling shirts (ironic given our recent adventures in bowling) for the festivities and performed a rousing rendition of a song I'd never heard before. I can assure you it was awesome, though.

Below you'll find Tay's friend, Kevin. He's from Ireland and was in the States for this year only as his dad's been working in the area. She really liked Kevin (and the candy he brought back from Ireland after the holidays) a lot. He played the part of the "snobby golfer" and Tay thought it was hilarious that he didn't even have to act because his accent "did all the work for him."

It was a lot of fun to watch Miss Serious cut loose and dance with her friends....

Soon she'll be walking out of Woodway Elementary School for the last time...

But we decided not to dwell on those thoughts....

...and had dinner at Chuy's instead. I know my days of having an elementary school aged child are severely numbers but she is amazing and I am so blessed to be her mom. So we'll deal with intermediate school in August. For now, I'm just enjoying my girl. :-)

The man, the girl and the bowling alley

If you previously read about my adventures in bowling or have heard my repeated whining on either Facebook or Twitter, you will be happy to know that the league season has ended. Actually it ended two week ago but, honestly, I needed some time to recover from the experience before discussing it publicly.

That may sound a wee bit dramatic to you. To that I say, clearly you weren't there to witness the carnage on a weekly basis. A great deal can happen in 15 weeks. For example, when we began hitting the lanes, Tay was still working hard to straighten her arm after breaking her elbow and Dave hadn't even seen the ortho surgeon yet.

The problem was more that the league was on Thursday evenings. As in the night before Friday. You know, the night of the week you just want to veg. Lucky for us, there was one consistently bright spot...

You know, when the 'tween hormones weren't kicking...

What can I say? The girl has a love for hats. All hats. Particularly off the wall hats. And matching them to her outfit is not a priority.

Behold the one who got me into this mess to begin with. Note that he is sitting - not bowling - and spent more of the time on crutches while Tay took up his slack. Perhaps you now understand why our team was called Three Strikes & a Gimp.

The guy in the black shirt is Dave's co-worker, Bob. Side note: Isn't it funny that both of these big tough guys work with neonatal patients? That thought always makes me giggle. Anyway, our teammates were Bob and his sweet wife, Cheryl. For some reason I didn't get a picture of her but just know that she's a doll.

Miss Thang doing her thing... Additional side note: Bowling is great rehab for a broken elbow as the weight of the ball helps the arm to straighten out whether the one holding the ball wants it to or not.

All snickering at my scores aside, we really did have fun and since it was the Total Package League, we got a ball, shoes and a bag at the conclusion. Just what I needed - elimination of all future excuses to bowl again.

We opted to upgrade our balls and forgo the shoes and bag. Apparently we'll be hitting Academy to stock up on those staples. I can hardly wait. 

Perhaps you sense some bitterness about the ball. You would be correct; however, I contend that anyone who had their heart set on a pink ball only to find that it was discontinued during the time the league was going on would be a tad bitter as well.

Last Saturday morning our balls were in so we took them over to the Pro Shop where they were custom drilled. Who knew such a thing existed? Not I, said the fly.

Anyway, we had a practice game that confirmed what I mistakenly learned on the last night of the league...my problem all along had been that I was not using a ball that was heavy enough. My score improved drastically once I jumped up to the bigger ball.

Look what happened...

Yep, I broke 100.

Two games in a row. It was like I didn't even know who I was anymore.

Note: This was a handicapped league so my actual score is in the 10th frame...the larger number is with the handicap. I'm not embarrassed (well, not much anyway) to tell you that my handicap was higher than Tay's when she was playing for Dave.

In order to continue providing friends and family with the perils of my bowling journey, I have agreed to play in another league. You're welcome.

Not until the fall, though. Sometimes a girl just needs some time to lounge by the pool between sporting events, y'all.

This is our dog. This is our dog on Rx drugs.

Y'all, I'm exhausted. Between Dave going back to work (that means the first alarm of the day goes off at 5am), end of school festivities that are constant for the little one (ie too many field trips to count, a school play, etc) and temporarily losing my mind on Monday evening (which found me at a turbo kickboxing class in which I only cried twice), I just feel a LOT like Bo did immediately after surgery.

Except that Bo actually looks about three times more perky than I'm feeling today even after a very large cup of coffee laced with French Vanilla creamer and Sweet 'n Low. 

Our poor little fella was soooo out of it after his surgery a couple of weeks ago but, then again, I don't know anyone who could tolerate general anesthesia, a morphine injection and a Benadryl IV without becoming a subject for those old commercials that said, "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs." I mean his were prescription drugs but still...it was pitiful...and Dave may or may not have stayed by his side and looked just as pathetic for many hours.

As you can see, Prissy was feeling sympathy pains as well so she did her best impression of being knocked out. In all honesty, she was worn out because she'd been looking for her brother all day while he was at the vet. I wasn't kidding when I said she was lost without the other two members of the 

Puppy Posse.

Haven't we all felt this way at one time or another? I certainly felt a bit like that the third time I heard the instructor yell, "Turbo!" on Monday evening. It was like pure torture that became mildly addictive and I might even venture to say relatively enjoyable. At least until the next day.

This just cracked me up to no end because his tongue is hanging so far out of his mouth. The boy had no boundaries or depth perception that night, which found him walking into a wall at one point, and I would venture to say that he has no recollection of the evening either. A few days later - when we got the all clear from the vet - and he was able to stop taking 32 pills per day that required a written schedule so Dave remembered to administer all of them appropriately, he actually had withdrawals.

It was sad to watch him act so spastic for three days while the meds got out of his system. At times it was a wee bit amusing but we are incredibly glad he's back to acting like his normal stubborn self. 

I will say this, though - only OUR DOG would end up with a secondary condition resulting from the colitis that required us to purchase and administer Preparation H. On a consistent basis. Lord help us all.

The Youngest

Continuing through the members of the Puppy Posse, we've come to the youngest member. Her name is Perkie. She's a rescue pup who was obviously not treated well in her younger years. (Side note: I have no tolerance for people who are mean to animals. NONE.) We've worked with her for almost 3 years now and she's still a scaredy cat (pun intended) much of the time.

Another interesting naming story: my mom had a dog when she was younger whose name was Perkie. No one had ever told Tay about that dog but when we picked this little one up and I asked Tay what we should name her, the first thing that came out of her mouth was, "For some reason I've been thinking Perkie." 

Isn't that awesome?

Tay's Perk and my mom's Perk also share the birthday month of December.

If you've been reading here long, you've seen most of these pics. Why? Because this little one is deathly afraid of the camera. Seriously. Like, she runs into the other room kind of fear. So she's usually caught by surprise or someone is holding her when we get snapshots of her...and sometimes - as is evidenced above - that leads to less than flattering shots of our gal.

Perk turned 3 in December and she definitely the quintessential "youngest child." She gets into all kinds of stuff and creates more mischief than should be legal. And every time we get on to her, she runs away and leaves the older two to take the lecture. She's a dachshund/terrier mix, which is why her ears stick our like airplane wings, and she climbs any and everything. Including the backyard fence. 

She detests being confined, which has caused issues with the local dog catcher. Let's just say he's not exactly our biggest fan. It's hard to contain an animal that once bent the metal bars of her cage just to escape. Or who, upon thinking she was locked inside a room, decided it might be possible to dig her way out by first shredding the carpet. Nope, not kidding. She climbs the chain link fence like a ladder and has now figured out how to wrap her lead around the basketball goal until she can slip out of her collar.

It's just not right, y'all.

All that being said, though, we love her dearly. And it cracks me up to no end that she consistently steals the big dogs' bones and hides them under our bed because she knows they can't get under there to retrieve said bonds. Our sneaky little Perkie is afraid of her shadow and bad weather but dearly loves her Taylor.

I promise...despite what the above picture would indicate. They were playing and having a ball. Until the camera came out...

The Middle Child

Because I've spent a great deal of time detailing the struggles and joys of the oldest member of the Puppy Posse recently, I thought it might be time to give the girls ample blog time. We'll start with Prissy - the middle child...

When I was growing up, I had a dog named Prissy. Granted, my Prissy didn't look anything like this one as she was a Border Collie but still....

Priss will turn a ripe 5 years old in just a few days. Her mom belongs to some friends of ours, Tim and Tina, who we hung out with every single weekend for many months when we lived in Morgan's Point. They had a sweet female named Prissy (yes, we tried to talk the girl into picking a different name but to no avail) who had a litter of pups and Tay fell absolutely and madly in love with one. She held and cuddled it for HOURS on end. We had been in the market for a smaller dog for Tay but after one look at this puppy, she could not be swayed.

Believe it or not, you're looking at the tiny puppy my baby girl once cuddled for hours on end. She definitely got larger than we expected but she is honestly the most loving member of the Puppy Posse and is truly one of the sweetest dogs you will ever meet. She is a giant and can be a bit clumsy. She is not the brightest member of the posse but she is full of love and is the "mom" of the group. She takes care of Bo and Perkie like no other and is lost without them.

As sometimes happens with middle children, she can get lost in the shuffle because Bo is the oldest and has the health problems while Perkie is into everything and likes to cause trouble. Prissy is steady, though, and minds her own business with the exception of going on a chewing rampage at random times. Because she's the largest, she can do the most damage in the shortest amount of time; however, Tay is convinced that Bo and Perk talk her into trouble. Needless to say, she is Tay's girl. And she sleeps on the floor by Tay's bed every night until we call her into our room for the night.

Prissy is a sweet, precious girl. She's a lover, not a fighter. But she will protect her family to the bitter end. We love her dearly and have no idea what we'd do without her - or any member of the posse, for that matter - even if you do hear me saying otherwise upon return to the house after one of her destructive sessions. :-)

Pooches on Parade

It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog that we are serious animal lovers. Clearly we have no limits when deciding how many to take in, what lengths we'll go to in order to save them and I can promise you my husband has absolutely no greater joy than his Bo.

When we moved back to Waco, I decided to choose one charitable organization and devote all the time I could to that one entity instead of spreading it out over several. After sending emails to all of the rescues in the area, I got a phone call one morning at work and imagine my surprise upon learning it was Betsy Robinson. As in Mrs. Clifton Robinson. And I was sitting in my office that happens to be located in Robinson Tower at Baylor University.

Amusing, eh?

Anyway, Betsy is the founder of Fuzzy Friends Rescue, a no-kill shelter in the area, and it's been a true blessing to work with her on the marketing materials and newsletter FFR puts out each holiday season. They have graciously given us tickets to their capital fundraiser, Barkin' Ball, for two years as a thank you (it's amazing - best New Year's party ever!) and we have had a blast each time.

They also have a Pooches on Parade Style Show every other year that my mom and I attended Friday before last. Surprisingly, Dave didn't think this would really be up his alley. :-) It was held at Claude and Becky Lindsey's home (read estate) just outside of Waco and it was awesome.

See what I mean?

The centerpieces were adorable. There were cats as well but I also photographed the dog.

My mom in her adorable hat...

This is Betsy's daughter-in-law showing off a cute chashund (chihuahua and dachshund mix) that's available for adoption at FFR.

There were several "sets" - one with cute summer attire, one with the pets dressed as babies, and another with a bride/groom theme.

Nothing will make you smile on a humid May morning more than a local businessman dressed in a wedding dress while his bulldog sports a tuxedo. Absolutely nothing!

The final set was a "Thriller" homage to Michael Jackson. This is Bo's vet (who had just saved his life a few days earlier) with her dog.

There were even some high school age girls who busted out all the moves from the video. It really took me back, y'all, and made me ache for a good Zumba class. :-)