Soldier's Still Salute

 You might ask why this title???  Well let me explain.  

Years ago we adopted the neighbors Spanish speaking, 180 pound, German Bred Golden Retriever!  He was absolutely beautiful, his name was ILKO.  He spoke Catalan.  He was from Spain.  His owners could not take him back home with them, so we started to watch him then ended up adopting him.  

All of his general commands were in Catalan!  Which was hilarious since most of the neighbors around my house had no idea what we were telling him, and looked at us like we were crazy! We'd yell COTXE (he thought he could stop cars) Vine Aqui' (come here) and so on!!!  He was quite the sophisticated fellow. LOL!!!

Ilko loved to hump a large stuffed duck, he ate crayons, Tonka trucks, and most of all his favorite snack was tiny toy Soldiers.  We always knew what he ate because it showed up outside on the lawn!  I know it sounds terrible but we just could not control him sometimes, remember he was 180 pounds and when something went in his mouth you needed the jaws of life to remove it!  

Well being outside was mostly interesting because of his giant mounds of butt nuggets with interesting colors (crayons) or buried trucks!  He always ate the small ones, don't worry!  But the most interesting of all was how he managed to get those toy soldiers out.  My kids would run around the lawn saluting, at first I didn't understand, but then I saw the first one!  Every single soldier he ate came out standing straight up and still saluting the world!  We've had some very sweet interesting furry family members, but ILKO is one that we will never forget!!!

Here's the meaning of ILKO:  

What Does Name "Ilko" Mean

Your tendency is to finish whatever you start. (his soldier snacks). LOL. You are loving, compassionate, intuitive and humanitarian. Runs of luck, either good or bad, follow you. You are sympathetic, but at times might be touchy and oversensitive. You may have a gift for writing/eating.You are intuitive and might be interested in the arts, drama or science.

You are basically a peacemaker. You understand the law of harmony and desire to balance your life with those around you. You may feel incomplete without someone to share your love, ideals, or work. You can be very sensitive and could appear a bit shy and perceptive. You have developed intuition, patience and the ability to nurture others. You can achieve the state of happiness if you is willing to accept your needs in a complimentary relationship and go to create them. (this was my ILKO in a nutshell). He was all of this and more!!!!

But the Ninja Turtles Need Pizza

 When my boys were little, they were obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!  We had every turtle created with all of the unbelievable accessories.  Belts, knives, helmets, and whatever else a turtle needed to take over the world.  But there was one thing that I did not have and that was the sewer for them to live in.  So these poor guys had to live in a toy box, which I'm sure they were not accustomed too.

There was one thing I knew about these turtles, they loved their pizza, and so did my kids.  If dinner was not ready or it looked like mom may order out, PIZZA!!!!  was the tribal call.  Sometimes they got it, sometimes not.  (I love to cook so mostly they got what is better known as a HOME COOKED MEAL)!

One evening when pizza was a possibility, they were supremely excited, about the pizza not the style, LOL....so Cheese and Pepperoni it was.  Little did MOM know, they were saving some of the pizza for their turtles....their plan was to feed their Teenage Mutant Ninja's what they had left, but then head to the bathroom and send some down for the local TMN's that lived in the sewer!!!  I heard them laughing and talking so I left them alone, no one was fighting, no one was crying.  Time for mom the clean the kitchen.  THEN I heard it!!!  WATER pouring...where was it from?  To my not so great surprise, the TOILET!  They had overflowed the toilet with pizza leftovers they were sending to the turtles in the great abyss.  Now came the crying, the fighting, it was me!  Fussing at them and crying because I had to clean the bathroom too!

I asked my little Turtle lovers what the heck they thought they were doing?  They told me that the Ninja Turtles were hungry and they had promised to feed them the leftovers.  I asked them when did they talk to these Ninja's?  With cute little smiles, and sheepish grins, they told me they have conversations with them every day at 3, when they came on the TV.  Of course they did!!  Sheesh!!  

Well I cleaned up the pizza and toilet mess, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the kids, cleaned my self after that fiasco....sent them to bed and NO MORE PIZZA for a very long time!!  Do I miss those days?  ABSOLUTELY I do.  I don't want to do them again anytime soon, but my fear is now that my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle lovers have grown up, they plan to supply me with a new chain of turtle lovers!  And they have started.  So I may be cleaning up Grand baby turtle loving pizza messes for a long time to come!

What Did You Just DO!!!!!!!

 What did I just do you ask?  I just pulled a tape worm out of the kittens backend!  Yes I did!  I pulled a tapeworm out, not barehanded mind you, all gloved up, but still GROSS!!!

This is how it all started.  We got a new kitty from a garden center, they had found the kittens under some trees that they were about to use for landscaping.  They caught the kitties and the mom and placed them for adoption.  So, of course, I just can't help myself, I had to run over and get one!  I mean a FREE kitty, come on!!

We brought this beauty home, he had a very dark chocolate coat, beautiful and shiny, so we named him COCO.  Right?  Great name!  He was beautiful, but kind of turned out to be a butt!  

I took a good look at him, then took him to the Vet to be checked out and given all of his proper shots.  Well to my dismay, he had ringworm, tapeworms, and a host of other issues going on.  At the time I was pregnant with number 7 child, so I needed a kitten with a host of problems too!  We started him on all of his meds and had to isolate him so none of the kids (or myself) would get ringworm.  He was pretty feisty and would yell at me to come feed him or clean his litter or whatever else he wanted.  Catnip, a toy!  He was pretty bossy.  

He finally was showing signs of healing, the ringworm had healed up so he could now come out and play, this did take several days, so he was totally excited to come play in this houseful of craziness.  He ran and played, ate and drank, hid and jumped out at us just to see our reactions.  He was so cute and so much fun.  Then one day, he was eating right next to me as I was doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen.  Low and behold, I look down at him and see something hanging from his backside (i.e. BUTT) so I picked him up to see what it was.  GAH!!!!!! IT WAS THE TAPEWORM!!!!!  So of course I yelled out and the kids and my hubby ran in to see what the excitement was all about.  They all screamed and laughed and sort of got sick.  As did I!  But who gets to do the BUTT DUTY????  Me of course!  I had my hubby hold him with his booty facing me, and I proceeded to pull a 3 FOOT LONG tapeworm out of his A$$.....It was all I could do to keep dinner in, but I was laughing so hard I could barely see I had tears in my eyes.  The kids were screaming and making vomiting noises, and my husband, well just thank God for him, he kept ahold of that little Coco and let me pull, it came out completely, everyone survived, no one threw up! Thank goodness, I didn't need anything else to clean up, and Coco went on to live an amazing life with us and new dogs and new fish (which he dumped over a few times)....THE ONLY THING THAT DIDN'T SURVIVE WERE THE GLOVES....they had to go BLAH!!!  LOL

I'm sure there will be more pet stories, but this one just came to mind....HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Doohickies and Wigglebops: Family Photos

Doohickies and Wigglebops: Family Photos: Have you ever raised a puppy?  Most of us moms have, along with small children, we've probably run more times for pee pee and poo p...

Family Photos

Have you ever raised a puppy?  Most of us moms have, along with small children, we've probably run more times for pee pee and poo poo for puppies as we did toddlers.  I've raised a handful of pups that have graced our lives over the years and a ton of kids, taught them to sit, don't beg, don't "make" in the house, lie down!  I've taught the dogs this as well.....LOL

I think the worst part of raising a puppy is finding gifts all over the house.  Having to follow the smell, find the gift then pick it up and throw it out.  Many times I've reached for the nearest disposable item that I could scoop poop with....one day I smelled out a doozy!!!~~~this was the mother load of gifts!...I saw this piece of "mail" sitting on the counter so I picked it up and scooped the hound mound and tossed it out...OMG, to my dismay, the scooper was an old Christmas Card with my entire family on it...it was the cutest picture (now covered in doggy dung)!  There was no courage left in me to even try to save that card!

Over the years I've mopped up pee....scooped up poop...chased a toddler with a dog bone in his/her mouth....chased a puppy with the babies pacifier in his mouth...ran after a pup with a turd stuck to its butt....ran after a toddler with a turd sticking out of their diaper!  I feel like I've done it all, but I know there's more to come....BRING IT ONE WORLD!!  I'm ready!!!!!

The Worst Day of Miss Lucy's Life!

There are many what I like to call Miss Lucyisms in my life.  She keeps me on my toes at every moment.  But a while back Lucy seemed to have had the "absolute worst day of her entire life" and she was only four at the time!  I asked her what on earth could have happened to have made it so bad.  She told me that I needed to understand that she has so many brothers that they could make her days bad sometimes.  Once again I asked, why is it such a bad day?  She went on with....Well, MOM!, Hunter broke one of my Disney princesses, and she was the only one that fit in the princess bed in my princess house.  I asked if the doll could be fixed and she told me that he had broken it really good it was impossible to fix.  So we took a look at it and she was right, it was BROKEN REALLY GOOD!  LOL!  She went upstairs and seemed to have forgotten the worst day of her life for a while at least.

Later that day I went to the drugstore to pick up some "stuff" and saw an electric Disney princess toothbrush, so I picked it up for her thinking maybe this would make her day and possibly get her teeth cleaner.  When I got home I told her I had something to show her, she ran downstairs to see what it was, and I handed her the toothbrush.  Her eyes brightened up and she took it and ran up the stairs again.  After putting everything away, I went up to see if it was still the "worst day of her life"......she said, "well it's still kind of bad, I keep remembering my princess, but at least it's the first worst day I've ever had with squeaky clean teeth!"

~~~~~~~this little chick!!!!!!

MOM!!! I Have a Hole in my Head!!!!!!

I was working in my home/office one day when Hunter came running in, crying and holding his hands so tight over his head that I could not pry them apart!  I asked him what was the matter?  He cried even harder and yelled out that he had a hole in his head and his hair had fallen out into the garbage can!!!  OMG!! was all I could think!  Not wanting to REALLY see what was there, I figured that as a mom I had to try as hard as I could to pry his hands apart so I could see what was really going on.  By the time I had had his hands open and I was able to get a good look at what had happened, I realized that he had multiple bald spots on his head....apparently he had taken a hair razor to his head and shaved off sections of his hair!  Sadly I could not stop laughing....I felt so bad that I was laughing because obviously he was devastated by the outcome of his self inflicted hair cut!

Being the mom that I am, I tried the ever popular combover with some mousse supporting the leftover hairs, but you can only guess what that looked like.  At first I thought, well this will work for a time, then when the hair starts to grow out I can continue to "design" a hairdo!  But thanks to my oldest son and his grasp of reality, he asked me if I was crazy?  WELL?????  Yes I guess I am...I completely thought this would work!  He said, "MOM really???"  "Yes REALLY?!!!"  So he took Hunts and held him over the garbage can and proceeded to shave off ALL of his hair.  He looked sort of like a....well....for lack of better description....a "Cue Ball"!!!!!

I walked upstairs to see if I could find the razor used and where I might locate the hair.  Since I'm sort of a PI mom, I was able to find the evidence immediately in the bathroom.  There was a trash can full of hair, and a small electric razor sitting right next to it....HA!!!!  All I could think was..."Thank God there was NO hole in his head, as I had originally thought!"

As days passed, the hair started to grow back in, but from that point forward, Hunter ran when he was a barbers razor or scissors for that matter!!!!