Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The Wonderful Mornings

Heading off to school...

"Momma I can't roll my window all the way down because the sun isn't awake yet."

"Ok Bells, the sun is waking up though you can see it where the sky is pink."

"OOoooooh mommy, the sun is so pretty today. *waves* good morning sun!"

Arrive at LaPetite and try to help my peanut out of her car seat.

"Mommy I'm a big girl now, I get down myself, and I want to walk by myself."

Sigh, ok big girl, but I did still get hand holding :) Also still got my kisses blown to me through the door when I was leaving.

So thankful for these wonderful, special mornings and want to remember them always.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

My Little Sweetie

Bella came home last night and we were so happy to see her :) Being away from her for two days seemed like forever, especially since we were home and she just wasn't here. She of course had a BLAST with Grandma and Papa, she found a new love, BARBIES!!! Kyle is a tad bit scared I think ;) If she is super good today and takes a nap we get to go shopping for some new Barbie stuff.-

The first thing she wanted to do last night was look at her animal books. They are really cool, it's a set of catalogs I collected when I was younger. Anyway we were looking at them and Bella hugged me and said, "Mommy, you are my sweetie."-

My little peanut just makes me melt, and it gets even better. She was talking to me about my wedding ring and I told her it was the ring daddy gave me when he wanted to marry me. So then she wanted to look at our wedding album.-

She LOVED looking at it, at age 3 Bella said she wants to wear my wedding dress when she gets married. I'm sure her taste will change by the time she gets married if she chooses too, but it was so cute :) We got to a photo of myself with my parents, she pointed at my dad and said, "That's my papa, he is a handsome boy!" Again, SO CUTE!!!-

Our morning has consisted of coffeecake making, she enjoyed mixing the topping with her hands :) And tattooing, she is sporting a little fairy tattoo on her arm today. Also loads and loads of sweet little compliments, hugs and kisses. She's just so grown up, you can understand her completely now, no more wondering what word she is trying to get out, it's just amazing how quickly she truly became a little girl, not a toddler anymore.-

I am the most blessed woman to have the most caring, affectionate, charming little girl. She has her moments of course, but they are erased by the more often moments of adoration and special love she shares. Bella is one of a kind and has grown into one amazing little girl.

Friday, March 26, 2010

SICK...

Seriously I got so sick with a stupid virus, that's all I ever get, damn viruses that they can't give me any meds for.

It's quite sad when my mom has to make me a doctor appointment and drive me there. I really couldn't even get out of bed and Kyle was texting me all morning trying to make me go in. I had two fainting spells as well and that means NO driving for me.

So thank god for my mom, I felt so weird though having her take me to the doctor, like I was a little kid again ;) After finding out it was a damn virus and that I needed sleep and rest mom decided to pick up Bella from school and keep her for me.

I've missed my little peanut these past two days but have been so greatful to be able to just sleep and kind of not feel guilty about it.

I ventured out today to work, now I'm exhausted and am looking forward to going home shortly :)

No fun things to blog about, maybe after the quiet weekend I'll have something!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Puppy Anguish...

I've been looking at adopting a female dog for myself. It's been a long search and kind of a rough one. I thought I had found perfection as two Great Dane puppies were listed by the Animal Welfare Foundation of Iowa.

I don't have a Great Dane puppy, the experience was AWFUL. Here is a letter I sent to them along with a response I received from one of their Board Members, just beyond ridiculous I am just baffled by this. It makes me angrier that such a response brought me to tears, now it's just anger.


March 22, 2010

Animal Welfare Foundation of Iowa


To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Stephanie Griffin and I had placed an application for either of the Great Dane puppies you recently had listed on your site.

I have been searching for my forever female canine for over a year now. I am a dog LOVER, have had dogs in my life since I can remember. Most of those dogs have been wonderful animals found as strays or adopted from shelters.

I currently have a boxer named Tybalt. He is four years old and one of the happiest boxers you could ever meet. He is surrounded by people who love him by myself, my husband and especially our three year old daughter. Tybalt is a 95 pound boxer, a BIG boy. Our daughter can tell him to sit, lay down, go to “bed” and he listens to her like he would any adult. Tybalt is crate trained, we chose this training for our boxer because we personally feel it is best for a dog to have his/her own “personal” space. I have to mention the way we choose to raise our dog because this was something viewed as negative by Gretchen who was fostering the Great Danes.
I took it very personal that she viewed me as someone who would let their dog or dogs “live in a crate their entire life”. First off, Tybalt does not “live” in his crate, quite the contrary. As The Humane Society states Crate Training is,

“Private room with a view. Ideal for traveling dogs or for those who just want a secure, quiet place to hang out at home."

That's how your dog might describe his crate. It's his own personal den where he can find comfort and solitude while you know he's safe and secure—and not shredding your house while you're out running errands.

For a shelter trying to find good homes for their dogs I was completely disgusted to know one of the negative things about me could be the fact that my happy boy is “crate trained”. Tybalt is not left in his crate for ungodly amounts of time, my husband and I both work and one of us goes home to let him out and run around on our lunch hour. I view Tybalt’s crate as his own private space, and that’s a great thing for him to have as a happy, healthy boxer.

Gretchen also questioned if I realized how much is costs to raise a puppy. First of all your organization requires each applicant to sign your application which states right at the top the projected cost of raising a puppy. Great Danes are very large dogs and have an increased chance of health issues, I know this, I would never try to adopt a breed I didn’t thoroughly look into to make sure they would be a good fit for my family. I’ve been looking for a Great Dane for a very long time and was just so happily surprised to see two puppies in Iowa up for adoption. Believe me, it is RARE to see these wonderful dogs in our area available for adoption through a shelter/rescue. To be questioned on such an issue was extremely insulting, again I put on the application that I have a four year old boxer, obviously I know the cost to raise a puppy. My boxer is no small boy, feeding him is costly but that’s beside the point. I don’t care how much it costs to feed my boy, and it doesn’t matter how much it would cost to feed TWO large dogs. My family can more than afford the cost, I feel that just needs to be stated.

I feel I shouldn’t have to explain myself to your organization, but then again I think you should also learn a lesson from this experience. To judge so harshly before first meeting an applicant and their family is asinine. In all actuality these precious animals are losing out on great opportunities for forever homes. I’m not saying I am the best applicant out there for these dogs, but I certainly didn’t deserve to be perceived as I was.

My biggest issue and disgust over this entire experience was seeing your organization increase the cost to adopt the beautiful Danes. I sent an email to Gretchen asking her why the price was increased, and never received a response, it was just odd to me that you would do such a thing only after receiving a large amount of applications.

I feel it is a great injustice to try to make money off of dogs you have “rescued”. I see it this way only because like I said before I NEVER got a response to my question. So obviously the Danes health hadn’t changed and they didn’t require any extra care, or Gretchen is just the type of “foster parent” that judges way before she should and just chose to ignore my question and seemingly just myself in general, which is simply unprofessional.

I will never again try to adopt an animal from your organization, the adoption process was shady, judgmental and got even worse with increased cost which seemed simply a way to make some money.

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."

Respectfully,
Stephanie Griffin

MY RESPONSE FROM A BOARD MEMBER:

I have been around long enough to know that when someone sputters and spats and makes a BFD over stuff like this that they are EXACTLY the kind of adopter we are trying to avoid. Good riddance, I say.

My two cents.
Dona

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Spring 2010 School Photos

She's just so grown up, and so darn cute!! :)

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

St. Patty's Day Pub Crawl

My brother John and his friend Jason have become the masters of pub crawls :) They have like 5 a year in Des Moines. It all began with a Santa Pub Crawl a few years ago and has grown into so much more. People pay a registration fee and then are shuttled on buses to different bars. So much fun meeting the random people that happen to be on your bus and just having a great time!
They had Guitar Hero at one of the bars, Mindy and I were in heaven, we did pretty darn good for being drunk too :)

Monday, March 8, 2010

Mommy's Girl

Bella stayed with Grandma and Papa the weekend we did the Murder Mystery party. While there my mom showed her vidoes from my track days :) I guess Bella loved watching them and cheering for me. I'm so glad my parent's have those, they are so much fun to watch (for me anyway)!

Saturday morning we were coloring and Bella stopped, looked at me and said:

"Mommy, when I be big, I want to be a runner like you!"

So CUTE, and a nice "mommy" moment :)

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Apollo

So Missy and Ed got a puppy, one of the CUTEST puppies ever too :) We all believe he is a boston terrier/black lab mix. He's pretty little and did I mention he's adorable?? ;)

Missy brought him over last night for a little bit and he met Tybalt. Now I was slightly nervous because Tybalt is obviously HUGE and used to playing with big dogs. It was so cute to see them together, Apollo was brave as can be and just ready to play. Tybalt wanted to play so badly but we wouldn't let them, one playful swipe from my big boy would have sent Apollo across the room. But they did sniff each other, give kisses and Tybalt let Apollo jump all over him. Next time we see Apollo he will be bigger and maybe not so much of a "toy" for Tybalt!

This moment did give me the realization though that I'm not going to be able to get a puppy with Tybalt, it's just not going to happen. It would be so hard for the first 6 months or so, that means only a dog above a year old for our family. Which is fine, I just can't imagine having to control the beast with his training collar on for a long period of time in his own home.

Anyway here are a couple photos of lovely Apollo, enjoy, by the way he is obsessed with beer too :)

Four Deuces - Murdery and Mystery

Missy and Mindy decided to have a small murder mystery party, I hosted it for them and it was a BLAST! I highly recommend these parties, they truly are a LOT of work but well worth it :)

Everyone really got into their characters and wore great costumes! Here are a few photos from our fun evening.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Donut Trouble

So Bella has taught us that she is 100% her mommy when it comes to emotion. Bella is extremely sensitive and very emotional, it doesn't take much for her to feel badly and cry. I wish she wasn't so sensitive, but that's my baby girl and she's just going to be a mini me in that sense.

Last night she had a sucker that she had gotten for being good during her ear tube check up. We told her she could have her sucker but if she wanted anything else she needed to ask and wait until she was done with her sucker. Kyle and I were in the kitchen and she came wandering in with a chocolate donut in one hand, the sucker in the other.

Mommy: "Bella why do you have a donut?"

Bella: "Because."

Mommy: "Bella what did mommy and daddy tell you if you wanted another snack?"

The lip starts to quiver and off she goes down the hallway. I hear a wimper and crying begins. I go back to chat with her.

Mommy: "Bella why did you run off and cry, you aren't in trouble?"

Bella: "Because."

Mommy: "But Bella WHY are you crying?"

Bella: "The donut."

Mommy: "The donut? Why is the donut making you cry?"

Bella: "Because the donut got me in trouble!"

It was so hard for me not to giggle, but I couldn't believe it, she was honestly upset with the donut because in her eyes that little chocolate donut got her in trouble.

How cute is that?

p.s. She did get to eat the donut after the sucker :)