More is More

Last week was an adventure in the Sibley household.  It started out to be a challenging week as I was just feeling better after two full weeks of being down with a nasty virus and nowhere near 100% yet,  and the Rocket Scientist woke up Monday morning with a seeminlgy different, but equally wicked nasty virus.  It was Release Week at TE which is always particularly busy for me in combination with my job in the church office.

Then Tuesday morning, as I headed out the door to work while hubby was sick in bed, as I got to my car in the driveway I thought I saw a dog’s tail under our 5th wheel trailer.  I walked around and around the trailer until I finally saw this dirty white dog hiding under there.  Oh my!  If you know me at all, you know I try to resscue every stray dog I ever see.  You know this is how we ended up with both Tessa and then Roger.

This is not the first stray dog I’ve found in my front yard as we live on a fairly major street.  I went in the house to get some food and water, knowing that there would be a good chance he would be gone by the time I got back which is what usually happens.  Only he wasn’t.  He was right there under the trailer looking so pitiful. I put the bowls down, spoke softly and stepped back.  He did come out tentativley and the wolf down the food and gulp down some water.  Now what?

I picked up the dishes and told him to follow me, that I would get him some more.  I spoke sweetly and coaxingly and he did…he followed me into the backyard.  I got him some more food and a towel to lay on.  I went in and told the Rocket Scientist that we had a stray dog in our backyard, so not to let our dogs out and that I would figure something out when I came home for lunch.  I’d have a plan.  And I left for work.

I came home for lunch…still no plan.  The pup was a sweetie pie, but very lethargic and oh so filthy dirty.  I changed my clothes – into some old jeans and t-shirt – and ran him down to the vet on the corner to check for a chip (he had no collar)…but no chip.  Brought him home and decided he really had to have a bath immediately.  Curt helped me.  He’s much bigger than our dogs at 20 pounds and stands so tall!  Here he is after the bath – still quite dirty.

We were guessing he was a cockapoo or something similar.  His curly coat had been very badly/unevenly cut off with scissors/shears and his skin had been nicked in a couple of places.  His ears and tail were matted.  And…well…let’s just say, he was a mess!

We brought him in to stay in our laundry room with a blanket and plenty of food and water.  We introduced him to Tessa and Roger.  Suffice it to say, they were less than thrilled.  We put signs up at Petco and some groomers and some vet offices.  I was planning to do a lot more when I got off work at 1:00 on Thursday.  We also registered him on some on-line lost dog websites. We spent as much time with him as we could.  He was a love sponge!  He wanted to cuddle like crazy!  And by the second day, he started to be very playful as well.  Yep, Tessa and Roger were NOT thrilled.

At some point, we began calling him Wally.  We had to call him something.  Wally is a name that goes back many years among Curt’s buddies and I think that Curt just called him that and it immediately stuck.  He learned his name in a couple of days.

On Wednesday I called around to find a groomer I could take him to and I got him a Thursday afternoon appointment at Your Elegant Pet in Lakewood.  I had not been there before, but they had excellent Yelp reviews and had an open appointment time.  Oh my goodness! Christy, the groomer, did such a wonderful job on him.  He was like a comepletely different dog!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Is he a cutie or what?  By this time we decided that he had NOT been well-cared-for and there wasn’t much point in putting a huge effort forth to find his owners.  Rather, we felt that we should find him a new forever family ASAP.

At this point, I want to say that I felt very strongly that the Lord brought Wally to us for a reason.  I didn’t find him somewhere on the street and coax him into my car.  He was in our front yard, under our RV.  {And in fact, Curt had seen him on Monday afternoon when he came home from work sick in the middle of the day.  He though he saw a dog when he pulled into the driveway, but couldn’t find him when he got out of his truck and looked.  We now realize Wally was hiding behind our old motorhome at that point.}  I knew with all my heart that the Lord had a family waiting for Wally. I prayed that the Lord would guide us to them and that He would please do it quickly.  While Curt and I never once considered keeping Wally, I knew that the longer we had him the harder it would be to let him go.  Also, did I mention that Tessa and Roger were NOT thrilled with this situation?  There was tension in the house.  So, as blessed and privileged as I felt to be caring for Wally, I knew finding his family sooner rather than later would be for the best.

I’m really not sure why the Lord brings stray dogs to us, but it is a blessing. {One of our friends at church yesterday was joking that we must have a secret mark on our house like the old underground railroad houses had, but in this case only the dogs know about it!} It was so wonderful to see this guy transform.  It breaks my heart to think of what he might have gone through, but just look at him now!  He’s going to bring so much joy to someone!

On Friday morning, I sent an e-mail blast to practically everyone I know and I posted on Facebook as well.  I included photos and gave all the details I could.  I asked people to forward Wally’s info to everyone they could think of.  I knew, without doubt, that there was a family waiting for him.  I said a prayer as I hit the send key.  Less than 10 minutes later, I got a response from my Mom that said “you have a taker”.  She followed that up by forwarding me the response she had gotten from a co-worker that said “YES! When can we go get him?”  Happy Dance!  Praise God for answered prayer!  Amazing answered prayer!

I called Debi, Wally’s new Mom. immediately and set up a time for her to come on Saturday to get Wally.  Just a few minutes after we hung up, my Mom e-mailed again to say that they had already set up a vet appointment for shots on Sunday.  Yep – this was Wally’s family for sure!

I asked my Mom – is this the same lady that wanted Roger?  Yes, it is.  Oh my!  You may recall that we found Roger on a Saturday.  I think on Monday or Tuesday we began trying to find a home for him.  Debi wanted him, but couldn’t come until the following Saturday.  We had a time set up.  On Friday night, we decided we couldn’t part with Roger, that he must stay with us, and I called Debi and canceled the appointment.  We felt so bad, but she was very understanding.  And now, a year and a half later, she was coming to get her pup from us.  WOW!

I made a grooming appointment for Roger and Tessa, so they wouldn’t be here when Wally met his new family.  Debi came and brought her daughter Arianna.  As soon as they came in the front door, Wally went right to them.  They stayed for a little while and Wally was happy as could be.

They are dog-people.  They thought Wally was the perfect size!  They were so happy!  My heart swelled with joy!

I got a text from Debi yesterday that the vet agreed that Wally is probably a cockapoo and that she estimated his age to be between 1 and 1-1/2 which is kind of what I had been guessing.  They are enjoying him so much!

So, yes our week was an adventure.  It was a challenge in many ways.  It was a joy.  It was stressful, but  I had the constant sense that the Lord had a purpose in it (as He always does) even if I wasn’t sure what the purpose was.  Saturday afternoon our little family was exhausted and all crashed out…but oh so content and happy.

I know this was a long post.  If you got through the whole thing, thanks for sticking with it and going on the adventure with me.  And now it’s Monday and a there’s a whole new week ahead!

What a weekend! (photos below)  I had planned to spend a good deal of Saturday creating samples for my stamp class this week.  We realized we were out of bird food so a trip to Fran’s was in order.  Curt could see that I was in the zone (stamping zone) and offered to go to the store by himself, and although I really didn’t want to stop what I was doing, I truly just wanted to spend the time with him so I said I would take a break.  We went to the bird store and stopped for an early dinner.  It looked like rain.  On the way home I suggested we take a different route so we could drive by the condo complex I lived in when we met.  I have no idea why I did this, you can’t see much from the street (it’s gated) and I wasn’t all that interested as we drove by.  It would be dark soon…dark and raining.

This route took us by the park where we like to take Tessa to walk.  As we drove by, I looked at the park and saw a small dog sitting on the steps…all by himself…with no one around…and it was starting to rain.  Curt whipped the car around and parked.  I tried to get the scruffy little guy to come to me, but he was frightened.  At one point he jumped into a cardboard box and we saw there was a fleece blanket inside.  We tried to call Animal Control, but they were closed.  We couldn’t just leave him there.  Curt stayed at the park in the rain while I drove the 5 minutes home to get a leash and some food.  Driving back I pictured us chasing this pup all over the sizeable park.  I prayed that we would be able to catch him.

When I arrived at the park Curt had the pup in his arms, holding him inside his jacket.  We stopped at the 24 hour vet to check for a chip – nope.  Had him weighed (just over 11 pounds) And we brought him home.

He looks a lot like Tessa, huh?  This whole thing has an eerie similarity to how we got Tessa.  Roger was quite dirty (oh yeah, within the first hour home we had named him Roger after a good friend who Curt had to cancel plans with that night) and we decided a bath was in order.  After his bath he cuddled up next to Curt on the couch.

We have found him to be very playful – he loves all of Tessa’s toys and I’ve given him a couple of his own.  He loves to go for a walk.  He’s well-mannered (except today he decided he needed to protect his territory when anyone would come to our backdoor) – he doesn’t beg or jump up while we’re eating.  He’s housebroken with no incident over night, although he did piddle in the house today.  We think he’s just having a little trouble with the new environment.  He’s loving.  Overall, he’s a great dog.

So, I know what you’re thinking and what you’re going to say.  Everyone for the past two days has been telling us we should keep him.  And believe me, we’ve thought about it.  But we just can’t.  Why?  Well the main reason is that Tessa is not at all happy to have him here and it breaks our hearts to see her unhappy.  We have been blessed with the most wonderful and joyous relationship with Tessa and we just can’t stand the thought of jeopardizing that.  Roger wants to play with Tessa, but he is twice her size and rather bouncy and she is intimidated by him.  When she tries to meet/greet Curt at the door, Roger bounds over her and blocks her.  He’s not doing it on purpose, he’s just excited.  But she is crestfallen not to get to her daddy.  Could that change and could they become friends?  Maybe, maybe not. 

I had to trap all 3 of us in the laundry room to get this photo of the two of them together.  Roger is a good boy and I know he’s going to bring a great deal of happiness to someone.  So we are looking for a wonderful person/family for him.  If you are in SoCal and interested, please contact me ASAP.  Also I’d love it if you would forward this information to anyone you think might be interested or even post a link to this post on your Facebook wall.

We did put “found dog” posters up tonight, although we really think he was most likely abandoned.  You never know though.  I find it hard to believe in our current world of technology that is it so difficult to get lost pets back to their owners!  I mean seriously – we’re taping posters to light poles?!?  We did register him on one website.  We checked out another one, but it had a $25 fee.  Really?

Roger has been neutered, but of course he’ll need shots.  We have no idea how old he is, but I’m sure a vet could give you a good guess.  We just put a dose of Frontline on him so that’s taken care of 30 days.  He could really benefit from a professional grooming.  He’s adorable and he’s a sweetheart.  Would you like Roger to live with you and be your companion and friend? Look at that face!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for reading about Roger!

Tessa on alert in our backyard this morning…

What is it Toodles?  What do you see in the avocado tree?

Ummm sweetie, little dogs can’t climb trees, no matter how high you jump!

What on earth is bothering you?  A cat?  No.  A squirrel!

A SQUIRREL????  We don’t have squirrels in Lakewood!  Oh my!  I guess we do NOW!  Tessa leave the squirrel alone! 

Yeah, like that worked…she refused to come in the house, just kept circling the tree and staring up.  I was quite surprised that she was not having a bark-fest.  After many tries I finally got her to come inside so Mr. Squirrel could scamper on his merry way. 

A squirrel sighting is big deal here…I realize many of my friends in other parts of the country are laughing at this city girl right now.  Laugh away!  I’m just taking joy in the little things!  😉

 Happy Monday to you!  🙂

Happy Thursday!  How on earth did it get to be Thursday already?  Wow!  Yesterday I spent the whole day out shopping (Chico’s, Kohls, Macy’s, Old Navy) plus had a wonderful lunch with a friend.  I bought a bunch of stuff – so FUN!  I can’t remember the last time I spent a day shopping like that.

Today I wanted to share some photos of the hummingbird nest we have right outside our bathroom window.  Awhile back I opened the window and saw a tiny nest with a mama hummingbird sitting on it.   We kept checking and she kept sitting…for what seemed like forever.  We tried not to open the window too often as it disturbed mama.  Finally one day when Curt was in the backyard and he could see mama was not in the nest, he got close and looked in and saw 2 teensy-tiny fuzzballs just barely wiggling in the nest. Again we were careful not to open the window too often and to mostly keep our distance when were outside…but we have managed to snap a couple of photos as the babies have gotten a little bigger.

This first photo was taken on June 5th. Curt took it with our little point and shoot camera.  Of course it’s hard to get the sense of just how small this nest is in a photo.  See the 2 little beaks popping up?

Then on June 9th I was able to get this photo with our Canon Rebel.  It’s amazing how much bigger the babies have grown in just a few days!  Where in the first photo there was still some space in the nest, they are now very much jammed in there.  So cozy!

I wonder how much longer it will be until they fly away.  We so want to watch them, but the nest is less than a foot from that window and we don’t want to startle them – especially at this crucial stage when they are so close to flying.  What a privilege, though, to witness this at such a short distance!

One more thing before I go.  I want to remind you to get signed up for the Taylored Expressions Blast From the Past Blog Hop.  If you have any TE stamp set released prior to March 2010 and if you have a blog, then you are eligible to play in the hop and be entered in a drawing to win the stamp set of your choice!  All you have to do is make a card and blog it according to the hop rules.  Here’s all the details:

Create a card featuring any Taylored Expressions stamps released through March 2010. We will provide a challenge to get you started, but
the challenge is optional. Then just post the card on your blog on June 22nd at 8am PST and include links to all participants in your blog post. Oh… and don’t worry! We’ll give you an easy stretch of code to
copy and paste into your blog post so you don’t have to spend hours linking to everyone! This will be a great reason to pull out your much loved TE stamp sets and get to know fellow TE lovers on the hop!

— Sign up to play by sending an e-mail to [email protected]  with the subject line “June 22 Hop”.
In your e-mail simply list the following info: your first and last
name, the name of your blog, your blog address.  By sending this e-mail
you are committing to posting a creation on your blog at 8am PST
on June 22nd according to the Hop Rules.

— You will receive an e-mail confirming your spot in the hop.  That e-mail will also include the optional challenge, a list of excluded
stamp sets (released after March 2010) and a recap of the Rules.

— You will receive another e-mail 2 days prior to the Hop with a list of all participants and links to include in your post along with the Hop
badge.

— One random participant will be selected to win the stamp set of your choice from Taylored Expressions!  And someone will be chosen to have
their card featured in an upcoming Newsletter.

The deadline to sign up for the hop is June 17th

If you’ve already signed up that’s awesome!  But if you are a procrastinator like me (I just signed up a couple of days ago!) then do it RIGHT NOW while you are thinking about it.  It’s easy.  It’s FUN. You get to stamp!  You might win a free stamp set!  Why in the world wouldn’t you play?????

Above is a Mother’s Day card I created using Berries & Cherries and Fresh Flowers along with a Key Ingredients kit from last Summer.  This card appeared in a TE Newsletter last month, but I forgot to post it here.  This is an example of a card that would fit the Blog Hop rules.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  I’ll be back tomorrow with my sample for the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge.  Have a great day!

In the SCS SU Demonstrator Forum there is a section for special Demo Challenges and one of those is called WICKED.  What does that mean?  According to the challenge description – in slang it means:
wonderful; great; masterful; deeply satisfying: He blows a wicked trumpet.
adverb Slang. very; really; totally: That shirt is wicked cool.

But here in the Stampin’ UP! Demonstrator world it means:
Wonderfully Inspiring Challenges Keep Educating Demos!

Each month the coordinators invite someone to be the WICKED Hostess and present some challenges and for June they invited ME!!!  How cool, huh?  I’m pretty excited!  If you are a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator please click here to view the challenges and PLEASE play along!  You have all month, but why wait?  I can’t share those challenges here, but I can share samples I made for them.  Here’s my first sample.

I love the way this card turned out!  I used Trendy Trees with Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Basic Black and white.  There’s dp from both Candy Lane and Sweet Slumber.  I used the swirly tree top to stamp tone on tone to create a background pattern on the pink panel.  For the trees I used my stamp-a-majig to first stamp the swirly top in pink and then slide it over just slightly and stamp again in RHR.  The one different tree is covered with little drops of crystal effects and then Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Did you see my post a week ago about the little dog we found?  Wow – what a difference a week makes!  No one came forward to claim this little gem (yes we checked to be sure she’s not chipped, we put signs up, registered her on the web, etc.) and in the process we fell hard for her.  Yep, Curt and I are both head over heals in love with our little Tessa (short for The Contessa).  Friday night we went to Petco and bought her a bed (which she loves!), harness, leash, bowl and toy. I’m sure there will be a lot more purchases in the near future.  😉  I know I said she was a chihuahua in that other post, but the longer we have her, the more we doubt that.  I will be curious to see what the vet thinks when we take her in for a check up this week.  Do you have any guesses?

Although we have considered and looked at puppies over the past few years, there have been several reasons we had decided not to get a dog – the biggest of those being our two macaws and their fear of furry animals in the house.  Amazingly, they’ve done quite well with Tessa so that made it possible for us to consider keeping her.  She’s incredibly well-behaved – doesn’t get up on the couch when we are eating and is leaning quickly that she can’t be on the couch when we are holding one of the birds.  She’s playful, but can also sit in my lap for hours while I read a book or work on the computer!

I see God’s providential hand so much in the many circumstances that worked together to bring her to us…I could list on and on the many little details that had to have worked out just so for us to have been able to keep her.  I am so thankful and happy for this sweet unexpected blessing!

 Don’t forget that the Stampin’ Up! Last Chance Lists were released this morning – both stamp sets and accessories.  Some of the accessories are available at a discount and all accessories are only available while supplies last.  Stamp sets are available through the end of June.  Click here to check out the lists.

There is so much going on this week – my head is spinning.  Besides everything listed above Taylored Expressions is gearing up for a huge release on Friday and I have lots to do to make sure you get all the info you need.  Sneak Peeks begin on Wednesday, so be sure to stay tuned in to Taylor’s blog and also be sure you are subscribed to the TE newsletter (see the home page of the TE Store)!

Thanks for stopping by.  I plan to share another SUO sample tomorrow.  I hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

It’s been another incredibly busy week.  I even missed the TECC yesterday.  Curt is one of the people in charge of a Car Show at our church tomorrow afternoon.  If you’re in SoCal please stop by Bethel Grace Baptist Church – 10:30 for service and 12:00 for the Car Show which will include free hot dog, a bounce house for the kids, a live band and over 20 custom. exotic and vintage cars.

So tonight while working on a bunch of last minute details for tomorrow, our doorbell rang.  It was a soccer mom – we live just two doors down from a school where the field is used for soccer on the weekends.  Another lady at the field had found a little dog, but they were all here from out of town and couldn’t take the dog with them.  Plus we figured the dog was from the neighborhood somewhere….so I volunteered to take her to try to find her owner.  Like we didn’t have enough going on already.  *sigh*

She’s adorable and sweet as can be to me, but she growls as men – including Curt.  She’s fairly clean and has a pink collar, but no tags.  One of the soccer moms had already taken her down to the vet hospital (just half a block away) to check for a chip, but no.

We managed to get some signs up around the neighborhood and we stopped and bought some dog food.  I don’t know what I’m going to do with her while we’re at the Car Show tomorrow.  I sure hope her owners see one of our signs and call soon.  No way can we manage a dog right now and it would break my heart to take her to a shelter.  Please pray that we are able to locate her owners who must be missing this sweet little thing!

If you want to stop by the Car Show Sunday afternoon, we’d love to have you…info here.

Hope you’re having a wonderful long weekend.  I hope to do some stamping on Monday.  Wondering if I can stamp with a little dog in my lap????

Today is a crazy day with a million things to do and I don’t have a stamped creation to share, but I just had to stop in and post to say that I weighed in last night and I’ve now lost 18.4 pounds!!!  WooHoo!!!!  I am really excited!!!  I’m also super excited for and proud of my husband who has lost 26 pounds.  His birthday is Sunday and he really wanted to hit the 25 mark before then.  He’s been doing some serious bike riding along with the food program.  Way to go Honey!!!!

We have a local park with a really nice 1 mile walking path and he went with me for a walk last night.  The park is situated with a horse stable at one end and the San Gabriel River (that’s city talk for huge drainage ditch – LOL!) on one side.  There are about a million bunnies living at the park and the stable and they come out in droves at dusk.  Curt snapped a couple of pictures with his phone.  They came right up to me thinking I had food.  I felt bad that I didn’t have any, but I plan to take something next week.  Any suggestions on bunnies’ favorite snacks?

There were way more than you can see in the photos.  By the time Curt decided to try to take pictures they had figured out we didn’t have food for them and started scattering.  You know how this city girl loves wildlife!  *snort*

Thanks for dropping by for my good news.  I’ll be back tomorrow with a card for Taylor’s sketch.