Four Generations

Normally I do a Wordless Wednesday

Erm... at least when I'm posting regularly which I don't seem to be doing anyway...

but this is one of those photos that I just can't not talk about.

This is four generations of my family, taken when I was around 3.

My Great Grams (Grams' Mom), Grams (Okaasan's Mom), Okaasan and then of course me sitting on Grams' lap.  Mom thinks this was when my Great Gramps died which is probably why everyone looks a bit distracted and like they're struggling to be happy but I love this photo anyway because the best part of it?

I knew my Great Grams.

She was a wonderful woman.  I remember staying there in the basement and waking up to the ceiling creaking like crazy (the house was pretty old and wonderful and had so much character, I miss it) and when you came upstairs she'd have all sorts of stuff laid out for breakfast.  When I was little it seemed like a buffet, haha.  She also had the coolest old stool to sit on too.  It was vinyl and had the steps to use as a step stool.  I actually said something about wanting it and found out my Great Uncle had it and was like if she wants it she can have it so it now graces our kitchen, in serious need of refurnishing.  It's very well loved, haha.  She always had toys (though some were quite old) for me when I came to stay.  We had to break into her house once.  She had forgotten her purse and I being the smallest (probably 7 or so at the time) got the job of crawling through the window, lmao.

When her sons gave her crap she gave it right back.  She was sweet but passionate.  I consider myself lucky to know her.  I didn't see her much in the months before she died, which oddly enough was when my other cousins saw her most.  She had Alzheimers really bad and I didn't want to remember her that way.  It was really the first major opinion in my life but I wanted to remember her spunky and sweet, not forgetting who her own family was.  I feel sorry for my cousins... for not taking the time to get to know her when she was alive but then that seems to be the way most of them are, not taking the time until the end is near. *smh*

I also know my Grams quite well as I've said before on here.  ^w^  We write letters to each other a lot and I wouldn't trade it for anything.  She and Okaasan are in my list of besties.  They're amazing women whom I love very much.  My family means so so SO much to me.  Cody gives me crap about "cutting the umbilical cord" cause I get super bummed out when we can't get back to see them often, lol.  Like right now I can't wait for my baby shower and it's not really because of the shower, it's that I get to see them.  ^w^

Meet Chibi-Usa

And now, the last of the furkiddles and the youngest.  :D

Chibi-Usa

Our little red-headed bun-bun.

So some background on this here story:  I'm obsessed with Sailor Moon.  I'll save going into that at another time but pretty much you need to know that Usagi (Sailor Moon) is the character I identify with most.  So there's this whole thing with her and I call Cody my Tuxedo Kamen (in fact there may be plans for NDK cosplay next years *wink*) and so when we went to the fair I was like BUNNIES!! Lol.  If you follow me on Twitter you may remember this Twitpic:

So all my lovely Twitter friends were like "seriously Cody she needs a Chibi-Usa" and we bugged the hell out of him about #OperationCuteCuddlyMinion and it was awesome and we totally broke him.  Lol.  And little miss bun-bun came home with us.

Sakura was not going to be the only one not in my lap of course.

Takara is still scared of her for the most part when she's out running around the house trying to get away with chewing on papers she can find and trying to run underneath the dog.

Yes she runs UNDER Sakura.  Unfortunately I haven't caught it on camera because it doesn't take long before Sakura gets mad and lays down somewhere.  Apparently she's not cool with having someone run underneath her and since she's used to being too low to the ground for anything to do that I can understand why (that and it may have to do with the reasoning of why dachshunds run under other animals from their badger hunting days.  It's not nice and I think the threat of having someone do that to you would be upsetting).

Then when Takara does get brave enough to check Chibi out...

Sakura guards her or chases the cat away.

(and now you know why I'm really not all that concerned about Takara bothering the baby)

And no that's not Chibi's cage, it's what we brought her home in.

 

And ya know, even though she runs under Sakura...

They're still pretty good buddies.

Meet Sakura

So normally today would be Wordless Wednesday but this week is all about the furkids!

So today I bring you:

Wiener Wednesday

aka 

Sakura

Sakura happens to be the middle furkid so didn't that work out?  Haha.  We got Sakura about a year after we got Takara when we had moved to a place that allowed 2 pets.  I had been telling Cody I either wanted a heeler or a mini dachshund and he wasn't going for either. XD  Well my aunt and uncle had gotten one and he started considering it then we got to looking online and discovered there were long haired ones as well (and wire hairs) and they were adorable so Cody trekked off to south of Castle Rock to get the little girl.  On the way home it was raining like crazy though and she was totally freaked and crawled up behind his neck. XDDD

Sakura is a registered long hair dachshund and she is too cute for her own good, which you already know if you follow me on Twitter, because you get to see a lot of her because she's always doing something goofy or cute.  Her full name is Lady Sakura of the Sea
Lady came from how her ears look like Lady's from Lady & the Tramp- the first Disney movie I ever owned
Still has the plastic case VHS version
Sakura was picked out by Cody because he liked the meaning
Sakura is Japanese for Cherry Blossom for you non-otakus out there.
of the Sea comes from her momma's name because for registered dogs they often keep names similar to parents, it's cute cause in her line there are a bunch of dogs named after candy, hahaha.

OMG I had totally forgotten how tiny she was when we got her.

*goes nuts over photo*

Awwwww

 This one was taken for a certain sweet little girl. :D
(Part of a flat Stanley project, I have a photo of Tigger somewhere with one from my niece)

Okaasan and little miss Sakura this Christmas, lol.  She was fast asleep.  
And as you all know Sakura has quite the collection of clothes, now including this adorable little Christmas dress that she got from Cody's parents this year.


Close up of the new dress as she hid on my lap at the in-laws while little kids tore open presents left and right, haha.  It's glittery so of course I love it.

Then of course there is the adorable french fry fiend.
Seriously this dog LOVES french fries and is ecstatic if she accompanies us to the drive thru or hears crinkly bags of fast food when we come home. 


Honestly I could post photos for days.  It's kind of sad how many photos I have of her and Takara really, plus there is this cute little video of her and her crazy boxing skills.  She has some darn fancy footwork, ne?

 

You should see the effect she has on huge burly men, too.  Now that's skills.  I've watched muscular men with tattoos and piercings who like like they could rip your arm off effortlessly go out of their way to stop and pet her and... BABYTALK her.  It's freaking hilarious.

She's super sweet though and really good with out niece and nephews (ages 6 to 3) and doesn't have a mean bone in her body, which is a characteristic of most long haired dachshunds.  This likely from the Spaniels that they seem to have bred the dachshund with in order to get the long hair.

See that?  Made you learn something today too, hahaha.  I know lots of facts about dachshunds actually.  Like- did you know dachshund means "badger dog" and that they were bred to track badgers in their burrows and either kill them or drag them out of their burrows?

Can you imagine this going after a badger?

Stealing a seat or maybe licking someone to death, but definitely not going after a super nasty badger.

Wordless Wednesday: Makes Me Smile

So I don't think I've shared this one before but if I have I'm sorry, but it made me smile today when I came across it.  ^w^

I really love that man...

(This was taken like 9 years ago)

Let's Pretend

Let's pretend for just a moment that I don't suck at blogging.

Let's pretend we've gone back in time to November 8, 2010 and I'm writing this blog that day.

(This one requires less imagination)

November 8th, ten years ago.  Cody and I started dating for the first time.

November 8th this year, ten whole years later...
(pauses for a moment feeling old)

Cody and I heard our baby's heartbeat for the first time.


Yeah this post would have been a whole lot better had I posted it the day I should have, which was an entire month ago. *headdesk*

Today, no actually today... is my 16 week appointment.
Just a belly check, nothing exciting, well unless I'm bigger than I should be and we discover it's twins, but I'm doubting that.  Though it is fun to tease Cody with the idea...

^w^

Wordless Wednesday: Sisters

Kim, Me & Bobbie

Thankful Thursday: The Love of My Life

I have a lot to be thankful for in my life and I tend to forget it/take it all for granted.  Then as I was searching for topics for blogs BAM!  It hit me.  No really, I dropped something on my head... lol.  Kidding. 

My next problem was where to start.  So to my family & friends, know that this is not an order in which I love you or are ranking you.  Prolly just the mood that hit me and how closely to Thursday you did something completely awesome I feel I must shout about from the rooftops my desk.  (Which is a hard contest to win cause all my friends & fam are super awesome.  In fact two of them are my fellow horseladies of #theApocalypseOfAwesome) but I digress.

Today I want to thank the universe for my husband.  Even if he did let me blow my 3 beer country cruisin' limit to smitherins last night.  But then he made me honey toast when we got home so all was well.  Oh then he even plugged my Zune in for me when he left for work.  See?  Awesome.

So I realized I never really talk about him or post pics of us.  Which is way lame but I was like maybe he doesn't want to be plastered all over the interwebz.  Hell I'm surprised he wants to be seen in public with me.  :P

He even still loves me when I get in the way of him eating his snickers ice cream.

Though not without some name-calling.

See name calling is a totally normal thing between us.  No really you can ask our friends

We also like to show out love through some art...

Hell we greet each other by flipping each other off.  It's how we say I love you really.

So baby I love you.  Thank you for putting up with me, 'cause sometimes ya gotta do that with love.  And sometimes love is name-calling (remember Dustin never said anything about name calling in his sermon at our wedding, he merely laughed when I tried to set myself on fire, cussed out loud in his church and yelled at you for having a chew in when I wanted to stick my tongue down your throat) and sometimes love is telling the other their breath smells like an antelope's ass.  Okay totally kidding with that last one, neither of us have ever said that to one another but you can bet I'm saving it for a later date.

Most of all though.  Love is holding on to each other through one of the hardest events in both of your lives and not letting go.

I love you Cody!

He's the Mamoru to my Usagi, the Tuxedo Mask to my Sailor Moon, the prince of Earth to my Princess of the Moon.  (Pretty much I lurve him)

Books I Can/Want to Sink My Teeth Into (aka My To Read List)

I decided to write a To Read list, mostly to remind myself. ;) It's huge... and growing. (That's what she said!) *shakes head at that's what she said joke* I will update it when I find new books to read and finish books. ^w^

House of Night by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast I discovered these one day at Barnes & Noble and had all that was out (first 4) within a week & that was only because I had to wait til I got paid to get 2-4. They are amazing and I share Zoey's love for Count Chocula. (But I'm not afraid to admit I love Star Trek)
Marked
Betrayed
Chosen
Untamed
Hunted
Tempted
Burned - Currently Reading

Morganville Vampire Series by Rachel Caine Margarita is to blame for this one!
Glass Houses
The Dead Girls' Dance
Midnight Alley
Feast of Fools
Lord of Misrule
Carpe Corpus
Fade Out
Kiss of Death (coming early 2010)

Anything by Ursula K. LeGuin I was forced to read the Earthsea series by LeGuin in middle school and I ended up LOVING them. I want to re-read them soon and check out some of these others she's written. (This is NOT a full list of her novels)
Earthsea novels
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Tombs of Atuan
The Farthest Shore
Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea
The Other Wind, 2001
Earthsea short stories
"The Word of Unbinding"
"The Rule of Names"
Tales from Earthsea, short story collection
Hainish Cycle novels
Rocannon's World
Planet of Exile
City of Illusions
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
The Word for World is Forest
Four Ways to Forgiveness
The Telling

Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward Kat is to blame for this one!
Dark Lover
Lover Eternal
Lover Awakened
Lover Revealed
Lover Unbound
Lover Enshrined
Lover Avenged
Lover Mine

Divine by P.C. Cast
Divine by Mistake
Divine by Choice
Divine by Blood
Divine Beginnings

Mysteria Anthologies by Mary Janice Davidson, Susan Grant, Gena Showalter, & P.C. Cast
Mysteria
Mysteria Lane

Blue Bloods by Melisa de La Cruz Also blaming Margarita for these.
Blue Bloods
Masquerade
Revelations
The Van Alen Legacy

Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare Margarita's fault... again.
City of Bones
City of Ashes
City of Glass
City of Fallen Angels (coming out March 2011)