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  • 01.16.2009 In Case You Were Jealous…He’s NOT Perfect
    6 Comments

    Well that first 24 hours with Locks was pretty glorious. However, over the subsequent days, we have observed a few flaws 🙂 Jeremiah’s mom came in town on Tues. night and wanted to take us to dinner. Since it was going to be a late one at a nice restaurant, I got a babysitter. It was very last minute and all of my normal sitters were busy, so I called up a new one and trapped her into coming. She shows up and tells me that she is allergic to dogs…ughh…what do you do? I try to put Locks in our bedroom, and we learn that he has some separation anxiety. He starts screaming–not barking mind you–SCREAMING. It was a very bizarre sound, somewhat akin to a howl, but more high-pitched. The babysitter feels bad and says that she’ll be fine as long as she doesn’t touch him. Ok, we let him out.

    Then, I am trying to turn on a movie for the girls in the den, while Babysitter sits on the couch and holds them. Suddenly I hear, “That is a gag, isn’t it?” I turn around to see not one but two big fat poopie logs on TOP of the coffee table. What in the world?!!!! I am so embarrassed and trying to figure out the best method of cleaning when Pace says, “That’s not REAL,” and proceeds to stick her finger into the poop. Then, sweet Pace, who likes to keep things clean and orderly, has a melt-down because there is dog poop on her fingers.

    Dad (who is a vet for those who don’t know) assures me it is normal (the pooping, not the fact that he did it on the coffee table :))…that Locks is trying to figure out where our doors are, his new schedule, etc. I can understand this and am not mad that he has yet to take a single poop OUTSIDE, but I am hoping the little guy is going to get the hang of it soon 🙂 On the bright side, he has at least learned to stay off the coffee table when he relieves himself.

    These things are laughable. I can deal with poo, but we did have one completely unacceptable incident on day 2. The girls are all over him. I am trying to teach them how to be gentle and give him his space, but it’s going to take some time. Locks is pretty patient–much more patient than I would be considering–but he apparently reached his patience limit and decided to give the Instigator (Dapples) a little warning. I was sitting on the floor with them and Jeremiah was beside us, talking to me, at the desk. Suddenly we hear–grrrrowl, SNAP– I saw it, he didn’t bite her hand, but it was a definite statement of, “Back away, I’ve had enough of you!” Oooohhh did he get in trouble. Jeremiah gave him quite a spanking and I got on to him too. Now, he tends to run in the other direction at the site of Dapples (Look at that mischievious grin…Can you blame him?). He is very eager to please and learn, so I am hoping we won’t have any more issues with THAT. (But don’t worry, I never leave them alone and am keeping close tabs)

    To end on a positive, he still follows me around the house like a joyful shadow and seems very happy in his new home. Together, the girls and I brush him every day and he is a great cuddle bug. I invested in a good, cordless vacuum, and have been zipping over the floors every day with it. So far, the dog hair hasn’t been an issue. He is so beautiful and sweet…We still love you Locks, even though you’re not perfect 🙂

    (Mrs. Linda got the adorable outfits in these pictures from Bellamia. Are they looking sassy or what?! There are also some dresses that coordinate, that she got us for the Spring. Thank you Thank you Moogie! We love our new clothes.)



  • 01.14.2009 Mom in the News
    21 Comments

    I wanted to post an article that was in the Tuscaloosa newspaper on January 2nd. Some of you blog friends are Mom’s friends too, and some of you probably feel like her friend because you’ve read so much about her on here. Either way, this story touched me deep…I think she’s so special, but to hear somebody else–a sort of unbiased opinion–feel as beguiled by her as we all were, means a whole heck of a lot. There is something too about hearing new stories about her–something that I couldn’t have known unless she (or the other party involved) shared it, that makes her feel alive, just for a second. I don’t know this writer–Mark Hughes Cobb–but I would like to send him a huge hug for writing this and touching me so:

    Some friends gathered around at a pub the other night. I started the ball rolling: Tell one good thing that happened to you in 2008, the implication being give us your best thing.

    One claimed her marriage. One loved the 12-0 season and 36-0 victory over Auburn. One guy landed a new job. Another was proud the show she’d directed was a huge hit.

    I said nothing. Even though it was my idea. One of the good bits that flashed through my mind would have embarrassed somebody else at the table, and the rest seemed like reruns of previous years: The Rude Mechanicals had another good season, the Holiday Singalong likewise.

    My job took me to interesting places, such as the inside of Leonardo da Vinci’s codex.Aside from that, thoughts turned, not altogether surprisingly for these dark days of the year, to death. Each year at this time we run packages, as ads bulk us up and staffers go on vacation, of year-end wrapups about music, movies, politics, sports … and death. I know the Grim Reaper is sharpening his scythe for us all, but it always surprises me to reflect on how much we’ve lost in a mere 12 months.

    This past year was particularly tough, partly because long-time idols of mine such as Paul Newman, George Carlin, Will Elder (one of the founding genius-idiots behind Mad magazine), Bo Diddley, Danny Federici (keyboardist for the E Street Band), Isaac Hayes, Levi Stubbs, Arthur C. Clarke and yes, even old Charlton Heston (I did, after all, name a band the Damn Dirty Apes, after one of Chuck’s most-quoted movie lines), shuffled off this mortal coil.I also felt twinges for Bettie Page, Odetta, Forrest J. Ackerman (his Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine racked up equal hidden-from-Mom-time with Mad), Heath Ledger, Jerry Wexler, Eddy Arnold (my dad’s favorite country crooner), Sydney Pollack, Harvey Korman, Cyd Charisse, Larry Harmon (Bozo the clown), Bernie Mac, Jerry Reed, Bill Melendez (producer and animator of the Charlie Brown TV specials), David Foster Wallace, Clive Barnes and raunchy Rudy Ray Moore.

    But what was really in my head that night was a silly little love story.

    Flashback time: First day of first grade, Heard Elementary School, Dothan. We had experimental mixed classrooms — first-graders side by side with second-graders, for example. Not sure why, but it’s a good thing we did. See, I took one look at Becky Sollie, with her wide blue eyes and devilish dimples, and painstakingly scribbled my first ‘I love you, do you love me? Circle yes or no’ note. She looked at me, smiled beatifically, then handed it to her second-grade friend to translate. (My big brother had given me a couple of years’ head start on reading and writing, and it didn’t occur to me she hadn’t had the same benefit; I was educated, but not very smart).We wound up being boyfriend and girlfriend for three years, through hand-holding and fights in line (with covetous boys), through playground games (I taught her kickball, or tried to, and she taught me basic gymnastics on the monkey bars, or tried to) and bad haircuts.

    We endured everything but a change of schools (mine), and every time I ran into her over the years — the last time, I was 16 and back in town for a wedding; she had beguiling waist-length hair and even more dazzle — my heart practiced some of those gym flips she’d taught me. I last talked to her when I was a few years into this job, passing through the old hometown, catching up with folks on the phone. I told her I was a writer, and she laughed, sweetly. ‘Of course you are,’ she said. ‘All those notes!’

    Yeah, even after I won her heart, first day of first grade, I kept up the correspondence. Wish I’d been as good at staying in touch in the years after third grade. Never even kissed her.Just a few weeks back, I heard that Becky Sollie Clark, mother of four girls, wife of Dothan veterinarian Ken Clark, had lost a long battle with cancer in 2007.So the best thing that happened to me in 2008 was the memory of a smile, with its adjoined reminder that it’s never too soon to say what you mean, to stay in touch, to write ‘I love you.’Happy New Year, y’all.


  • 01.13.2009 New Addition!
    17 Comments
    Meet Locks (short for Sherlock and a play on his beautimus locks of hair)!! I know you were all scared I was pregnant again weren’t you 🙂 Locks is our new adopted baby, and we are EXCITED to say the least. Mrs. Linda (Jeremiah’s mom) has become something of a dog superhero–her heart bursting at the seams for any dog that is hurt or neglected. So much so that she has become a caretaker/temporary home/mother for around twenty dogs. This puppy is one of her recent rescues.
    Our dog Buckley disappeared a little over a year ago. Jeremiah has been itching for a new pup ever since, but I was not so sure. I felt like I had all I could handle with the two girls, and there’s something about dog hair in the house that makes my skin crawl. So I’ve been refusing. THEN, the fact that both of my girls’ first words were “dog” and the fact that they could barely contain their excitement every time they saw a little guy, started to scratch at my heart. THEN, Mrs. Linda rescued Locks from being killed, and she started slowly but surely “selling” him to us. It’s not a hard sell considering he is so cute that you can’t help but laugh every time you look at him. He has this crazy long, beautiful hair and little freckled nose. Dr. Maddox says he looks like a Disney cartoon character–just hard to believe he’s even real. He’s only 1 and a half, but he lets the girls waller all over him without making a peep of protest, and all around I couldn’t help but love him (even though, if I’m honest, I tried not to). We’ve had Springer Spaniels in the past (Locks is a Cocker), but I was always feeling guilty about our tiny backyard and all the energy I felt like they needed to run off. We’re hoping that with this slightly smaller version, running with us will be exercise enough.

    So, there was Jeremiah and the girls and Mrs. Linda and the cuteness of this puppy putting the pressure on, but none of that put me over the edge. None of that made me willing to re-devote my life to cleaning up dog hair. I don’t know if any of you have experienced this, but about the time my babies start walking, and life gets somewhat manageable, something inside me starts ticking for another helpless creature to “mother.” Last time, I ended up with Mapple Dapple. This time (I wised up 🙂 ) I decided to scratch the itch with a puppy instead. I have felt like a little kid about bringing this dog home. I could hardly fall asleep for two nights in a row with all the anticipation. It’s been less than 24 hours, but so far he’s the most eager to please, follow me around the house and plop down at my feet, makes my girls and my husband bubble with joy dog I could have imagined. Locks, we LOVE you!