after a couple of shots, bruno and chaco finally loosen up...

well...here we are again! another year has rolled around and i kept telling myself that when my birthday rolled around, i was going to play HAPPY BIRTHDAY by the innocence mission(if you haven't heard it, click that there link and get that into your ears....good stuff. so sweet)..needless to say i forgot all about it until just about 5 minutes ago as i was thinking about posting it on everyone's wall on their birthdays, because i cannot think of a person i know who is not beautiful!

well, i think i forgot to play it this morning because as i was coming down the stairs this morning, i was so disgusted and frustrated with one of my unknown, yet to be revealed neighbors...they left this on the stairs:

and the only thing i was thinking about was that if i were walking the boys down the stairs, they'd get injured..so a few choice words slipped past the filter..i was not happy and i got into the car thinking, "i should've written a note." too late, i was off to school-forgot to play my song.

i have thoughtful coworkers- a little breakfast celebration with a couple of sweet cards, and gifts. and of course reminders throughout the day that it was my birthday.

when i got home, i had my hands full, but the mess was still there, so i turned around, put my stuff on my car, wrote up a little note and taped it to the rail, then went back to get my stuff to go upstairs and once again, i could not contain my negative comments-so mad. i thought about putting my apt number on the note to really give someone a piece of my mind...thought better of it-i'd hate to have to make someone cry over spilled beer...

jerks.

and of course, when i got home, bruno was like, "i made dinner!" i walked into the kitchen...a box of spilled milkbones does not a birthday dinner make. (if you're confused by the turning around and manipulation of the sentence structure, sorry...). then they begged me to make party hats and signs. (of course they dictated what they wanted their signs to say)..and after they had them on, chaco looked up and said, "are you surprised? you know, our hats and signs???" umm... "did you not just see me make those hats and signs?" "yeah...so...are you surprised???" i do not think that word means what he thinks it means.

no animals were hurt in the making of this picture. chaco was slightly embarrassed and bruno was mildly bored, but other than that...no incident. it took a couple of shots to get a pic we could use..(not shot shots...although chaco looks as if he'd had a few too many!)

i truly am excited about this year-more for the little things than the big things!

julie

four furry friends and fried things on a stick that i wanted to eat

and so....we got out with no casualties (did you see how i started the sentence with two conjunctions? a technical no-no, but where i'm from, it's an ancient european-ninja tactic to confuse people...and it's simply unfiltered talk). parent teacher conferences make for a long day the way our district does them.

i really wanted to do something on my way to get the boys from the vet today-but i decided that it was probably bad form to stop in the middle of a busy 3-lane street to take a picture of a pedestrian just because he reminded me a bit of teen wolf...

i was looking up some homonyms for one of our teachers  and i came across this...let your eyes wander to the 3rd set and go ahead...imagine how i read that in my mind...everyone in sync..

no it ain't no lie...

 when i woke up the other night, i felt like i was wearing a fur coat...i don't go to bed with a fur coat on...and fur coats don't wiggle. the boys have been super cuddly-must be the winter weather, but they got as close as humanly caninely possible. i decided right then and there that i am pretty certain i could never marry an overly-hairy man...rugged and loves the mountains, yes..furry...no.

sorry chewy...i like you, you are a super polite protector, but not marriage material.

and why is it that even when they are huddled up like that and i am uncomfortable, i feel the need to NOT wake them? it's my bed, right? we might need to have a little talk about this and come to an understanding.

we were really excited about getting a long weekend! we piled into the car to go up to oklahoma to visit the sibs. on the way we had to stop at cane's because i needed some nourishment...and they gave me this! i have never gotten doggie treats! how exciting! and so i tried to take the treats, but he told me i got to keep the scoop too!! awesome!! now i have a scoop that i will never use.

but, it's the thought!

there is nothing quite as great, as relaxing, as comfortable as friends that you can just sit around and do nothing with!! sometimes it's just nice to fully enjoy the downtime!! i have a few friends that i especially enjoy hanging out with because we don't always have to do crazy things...so thanks bmayes! chaco was very happy to see reagan and thatcher! i seriously don't think his tail stopped wagging from the moment we arrived until the moment we left! bruno was excited in his own subtle way...he just thinks he's too cool to let anyone see it. reagan did try to play with him a couple of times...gracious hostess.

the other great thing about visiting someone else with yorkies is that there is an understanding. one would start barking and then all of them were up and barking. they'd calm down and then a bit later another would start the process again..and we just kinda got to the point where we would look at each other and shrug-not much you can do about a barking yorkie...besides just letting them know that they're amazing guard dogs and thanking them for their protection. it really becomes unnoticeable except when you miss a punchline.

i wasn't really thinking about going to see osage county, but  i was glad for the suggestion. it was dysfunctional, yet funny. and then, who knew, but one of the best t.v. shows we came across this weekend was a fried food show-like fair food-that was amazing! different things on a stick, etc. i wanted a little bite of every one of those things! (with a cardiac surgeon standing in the wings to perform a quick quadruple bi-pass after the last round!) i shouldn't love this kind of food-humanity. how far we have fallen!

i think i've mentioned before that chaco and thatcher are about the same size and reagan and bruno are the same size-slightly larger. and we got some pics, but we couldn't get all of them to pose together and look at one camera.

chaco and thatcher

L to R thatcher, reagan and chaco (i think bruno came around to the side looking for treats)

we were able to get them all onto the ottoman, but they wouldn't all look at one camera.

now we are home and ready to get back to business-refreshed and relaxed! AND for the first time (i've just kinda passed it over at the store) i drank vanilla biscotti coffee this weekend, and that was so pleasant that i dropped the boys off and went to target to get some!

it was pretty important.

everyone was driving so slow today! i was like, "c'mon, people! if my little car can do 95, i'm sure yours can too..." i'm just going to go ahead and let you think that's an exaggeration. lead foot? what's that? i had to make up for the additional stops i made at the travel centers...

free literature!! interesting reading for students!

chaco looked at some of the oklahoma brochures and said, "indians!" and bruno said, "native americans." and chaco replied, "they're no more native than i am."  bruno cocked his head and said, "well, as a matter of fact..they are." apparently they saw a trailer from osage county...hmm.

eat the fish.

jrob

chaco pulled one over on the doc!

i was pretty worried the other night when i found chaco acting weird-limping and whimpering in pain when i came back from the kitchen. so we went in to the vet the next morning and while i was waiting for them to bring him back, i could hear them talking (i wasn't eavesdropping if that's what you're thinking...it's just that they were talking loudly and the walls seem to be thinner than my apt). anyhoo, the assistant brought him back in and said the doctor would be in momentarily and left. so i put him down and he started limping around, so i picked him up until she came in.

when the doc came in, she said, "well, we didn't see any signs of the problem that you mentioned." i held my hand up to stop her and put him down again and he again limped around and held his paw up. her face took on a look of complete and utter surprise. she proceeded to tell me that he walked up and down the hall and didn't wince or anything when she was checking him.

i have no idea what the deal was, either he was showing off, nervous or just wanted to get out of there...brat. (not like the glorified hotdog, more like a bratty child). that said, she prescribed some anti-inflammatory medicine, and pain killers. on the way home he kinda' chuckled and said, "woah, did you see her face when she came back into the room and saw me limp? i had her right where i wanted her! i'm tricky mctrickerson, right?"(sometimes dogs just say the darndest things...)

 i gave him the pain killers and anti-inflammatory meds as soon as we got home and i caged him-per the doc's orders. i fully expected that when we got home he would be asleep...but no, he was yelping from excitement to get out and shot out like a jack rabbit into the living room. keep him calm, she said. don't let him jump around she said...apparently she's never had a chaco. he kinda reminds me of amy poehler as Kaitlyn if you watch the link, the part that applies most is from 1:55-2:22 (first he tries to convince me that he shouldn't be left in the cage, and then he runs around in circles when he should be sitting still..ok, not the best analogy; perhaps i was just looking for a reason to include kaitlyn).

he was in his cage again tuesday, and today i left him out and he seems to be fine-we're continuing with the anti-inflammatory meds, but no pain killers. good little buddy.

in other news...we have an 'adult' bathroom near the teacher's lounge, and it has the kind of lock that lets others know it's occupied (like airplane lavs), yet either people can't read or don't know what OCCUPIED means, because they still try to open the door (without even a knock..jerks) that's scary. so i always feel like i have to double and triple check to make sure the lock is horizontal.

so i decided to make sure that it did read correctly when locked...

 one day, not too long ago while i was in this particular restroom, i noticed this little door by the toilet, under the paper towel dispenser...i wondered what it was a door to. i didn't bother to look, because i would rather stick with the story i conjured up in my mind. there is a little bathroom fairy that comes out once in awhile to clean up because the custodians struck up a deal with him. i realize that most fairies are female, but the males are the ones that live in bathrooms...anyhoo. i might try to strike up my own deal to get him to stand guard in front of the door for me...

and drum roll please.....i got a free sample of royal canin. i LOVE getting free stuff-no shame. i figure they jack prices up so high that i deserve it. the boys were really excited about it because this is what they used to eat all of the time until we changed to bil-jac.

please notice how chaco has his ears back and low as if he might be a little guilty for getting called out. well, that's because he got caught doing this:

bad little buddy.

bruno throughout all of this has been great. he's my no drama boy. i am thankful for that because he helps chaco find his balance!

thankful for healthy dogs and hoping to strike up a deal with the bathroom fairy,
julie