Maddie Girl

A few years ago, I started "hinting" to Jamie that I would like to get another dog. A friend for Moxie. A new baby. He said no every time. I would constantly comment on how much Moxie would like a friend; especially if it was a Boston Terrier because they are so cute and energetic. He said no every time.

Then, a few months ago, Jamie had this great idea to get another dog! A friend for Moxie. A new baby. What a great idea right? But he decided that we should get another Boxer, and never get a tiny Boston Terrier. (They aren't THAT small.)

Fine then, I'll have requirements too. We'd have to have a female, she'd have to be rescued and she'd have to be a brindle color. A couple of visits to PetFinder.com later, I found Madison. She was a 8 month old, brindle Boxer looking for a forever home. The first 6 months of her life were not good. She wasn't allowed to run and play. She wasn't trained. She wasn't loved.

We arranged for a visit so that we could see how well she and Moxie got along. Moxie liking a new puppy and a new puppy liking her were our biggest concern obviously. The second she got out of the car, Moxie ran to her shaking her little tail/butt in excitement. I would have been shaking my little butt too, but I was sitting down hoping she'd come to me. She was very scared and it took her quite a while to warm up to me.

Our week trial, turned in to two and then I finally convinced Jamie to sign the adoption papers. You see, Maddie was abused by a man for the first 6 months of her life and is VERY scared of them. Women, she's scared of but eventually warms up to. Kids, they still freak her out a bit, but she loves them too. So, a month later, she is still scared of Jamie. She just doesn't know that she can trust him yet.

So, Maddie is my dog. And she's Moxie & Makena's little sister. And she's Jamie's...well, that's still a work in progress... She's hard not to love though.


She lays under my desk all day. (Well...she lays there when I'm there, then she follows me everywhere I go. And I mean everywhere. If she can't see me, she gets very anxious and paces. That's a work in progress too.)

She like it under the hammock at the lake too. (She LOVES the lake as much as Moxie does!)



She loves to play with Moxie and Moxie loves to play with her. She's quite the cheater though. If Moxie doesn't give her the toy, she will bite Moxie's legs to get it from her. Moxie usually gets the toy back. That is until Maddie hides it. (We found out she's a 'toy hider' and a 'chewer'. Two things Moxie is not.)



Yah, she lays like this sometimes too.



And sometimes like this. It's apparently better to share a bed than have your own.

She had her second visit to the vet last week and did okay. They try to butter her up with treats. Moxie shows her how it's done and eats all of the treats as fast as she can. Maddie is 51 lbs now - quite an improvement from the 20+ she was at 6 months old. And, the best part, the vet thinks she'll stay small. (Happy me!!)



Maddie Girl will be 9 months old on Thursday. I'm glad she rescued us, because she's a sweetheart.

Dear Blogger...

You often piss me off.

Burst my bubble.

Ruin my day.

It took me almost two days to get the last post finished. I thought that maybe my computer was still having issues, but then I tried my laptop and was having the same luck.

Okay, so my day wasn't ruined, but you get the point.

Stop being a pain in my ass and just work with me damn it!

-Me

Our last GS outing

In First grade, Makena asked if she could join Girl Scouts. I thought it would be fun for her, so we signed her up.

The first meeting came and I mentioned that I could help out, 'when needed'. The meetings were being held out in Beaverton, so I wasn't going to have enough time to drive home. I had brought a book, but 20+ 6 & 7 years old made it difficult to read.

The second meeting came and the large group broke out in to two smaller groups. Ten girls was much easier for the Leader to handle. Books were purchased, cute little uniforms were picked out, they were now a Troop.


The third meeting came and the Leader decided that she could no longer lead the Troop; she just wasn't going to have time. She thought it would be great if I became the leader since I was already going to be at all the meetings. (Yah, great...) I looked around at 10 little girls waiting to see if I'd say yes so that they could continue in Girl Scouts.


Fast forward 8 years later. My Troop, Cadette Troop 41054, would be enjoying their last outing together. In the previous years, girls had left the Troop and others had joined. We'd spent hundreds of hours selling cookies; often in the cold rain and snow. We'd been to Girl Scout camp, twice. We'd been to Girl Fest, Caroling, Build-a-Bear and had backyard camp-outs . We'd stayed overnight at the zoo, twice. We'd volunteered in our community and completed our Silver Star Award. We'd spent a lot of time together. We'd grown.


As I look back, I'm glad that I said "Ok!" to becoming the Troop Leader. I've made some wonderful memories. I was secretly happy that the girls didn't want to quit when they entered Middle School. Our Troop was complete: McKenzie, Jessica, Makena, Hayley & Hailee. (In alphabetical order by last name, of course.)


I planned our last trip for 3 fun-filled days in Ocean Shores, WA. Unfortunately, Jessica was in Hawaii with her family, so she had to miss the trip.

After a 3.5 hour drive, plus another .5 hours for driving breaks, we arrived in Ocean Shores. We unpacked and headed to the beach.

Makena drew in the sand 'I {heart} MH' which stands for Makena, McKenzie, Hayley & Hailee. (Not in alphabetical order obviously.)

The next day, we walked down to the Family Fun Center for some mini golf, arcade games and bumper boats.

Then we did a little shopping at Sharkys.

After a quick stop for buckets & shovels, we headed back down to the beach.

Then we went back to the room so the girls could play some board games and then we hit the pool for a bit.

Then a movie - Soul Surfer - which may not have been the best choice considering we were playing in the ocean.

The next day was horseback riding on the beach.

Makena asked for a horse that didn't run. (Actually, I think that was unanimous.) My horse, 31, liked to bite Makena's horse; making her's run. She tried to stay as far away from me as she could.

I didn't realize how difficult it was to take pictures on a horse. Especially one that is trying hard to stay in front of the pack and I'm wanting him to fall behind.

Then someone got the fabulous idea to rent a multi-person bike. It.was.a.lot.of.work.

So we stopped off at the park to play for bit.

Even Lori had some fun!

Then back on the road.

We turned in our bike early, did a little shopping and then went bowling.

Where we rocked lane 2. Much more fun!

We tried to catch the sun setting on the beach, but the clouds weren't coperating with us. But we still had fun!

We did a little more shopping before heading home the next day. We were lucky to have three gorgeous days in Ocean Shores.

I'm going to miss those girls.

Good Things

Here are a couple of "Good Things" I've been participating in. Some new, some not.


TerraCycle - Even though I'm not participating in their Capri Sun Brigade any longer, they still have some great information on upcycling and eliminating waste (two Great Things!). They have some great products, fun contests and program ideas for schools and groups. (No, I did not buy the recycled toilet seat.)

eScrip - Supporting schools or programs with every day purchases on your credit/debit card. You signs up, and then any time you use your card at a participating place, your charity receives the credit. Because I do a lot of online shopping, this is also a benefit. I have a couple of other sites that I check first for donation status (iGive.com or MyPoints.com) but this is a good site too. Safeway is a big merchant for eScrip. Unfortunately I don't shop there very often. Black Bear Diner is on the list tho!

World Community Grid - They are the world's largest public computing grid that benefit humanity. When idle, your computer will request data on a specific project from World Community Grid's server. It will then perform computations on this data, send the results back to the server, and ask the server for a new piece of work. Each computation that your computer performs provides scientists with critical information that accelerates the pace of research! Loving this. I've been checking my stats daily.

Back in the swing of things

Today is Makena's 15th Birthday. That makes me happy and sad all at the same time. Although I love the time that I get to spend with her now, I miss all the "little" girl things too. She will always be my baby and I will have always loved her first. Happy 15th Birthday Pook!!

Today is also the last Friday before school starts back up. High School. Again, happy and sad all at the same time. Makena was accepted to Terra Nova High School and we are all very excited about this opportunity for her. Not only is the school based on independent learning, but the kids also spend two days a week outside of school with a mentor. It's like a real job, but they don't get paid, they learn. There are 16 kids in the Freshman class, and crazy enough, there is a McKena in it.

Pretty soon there won't be anymore sleeping in late. I'll be getting Makena up at 6am to get ready for school as we need to be out the door by 7:20ish. Pretty soon there won't be anymore staying up late. Besides getting up earlier, the sun will be setting earlier. Everyone will be coming inside earlier, dinner needs to be made at a normal time, schedules return and we will begin to welcome Fall. {Big. Sigh.}

I am not a Fall person. I am not a Winter person. I am not really a Spring person either, other than the fact that it brings us in to Summer. I'm never really ready for Summer to end, but it's time to get back in the swing of things.

P.S. Hi Kathy!