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!

Did I Remember Everyone at Christmas????

As each and every Christmas Season rolls on in, I'm always in the daunting task of making sure Santa does not forget anyone!  I'm not an organized mom!  I don't even think disorganized could be a description.  It's much worse than that....I'm not even sure there's a definition of it!

I'm about to head to one of my sons rooms to sit through the clutter and start counting out how many presents I have, and how to distribute them properly.  I try to make sure that all of my kids get the same amount of presents.  Not sure why I do this, but it's a part of how my brain operates.  I start to make piles, then I start to dismember the piles, then I remember that this one asked for this and his this is in that one's pile....OH NO  have to start all over again!

Somehow on Christmas Eve, Santa manages to get it all right.  But it's always by the skin of Santa's teeth.  My mom used that expression all of the time as I was growing up!  Never understood it, but at Christmas time it seems to take on a meaning all it's own.

I have no idea what I'm going to do when grandchildren start to enter my already crazy life.  I may have to actually start writing stuff down, as my husband tells me to do all of the time.  But my biggest problem is....when I write something down, I put it somewhere safe, then I forget where the safe spot was, then the rest of my time is spent trying to remember where the safe spot is, and I lose all of my shopping time for the kids.  It's NEVER worth writing down for me.  Even if I put it in my phone, I forget to label it correctly, then I end up going through endless tasks and messages in my phone looking for the same thing that is written down in the other safe place.  NO NO not worth it!

In the end, we still have the most joyous of Christmas' with tons of chaos, lots of wrapping, lots of lost parts, making sure we don't throw the cat away, (he likes the boxes and usually is in one), and making sure the dog does not run away with one of the little ones toys thinking it's for him.  

Have a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!!!  From my family to yours!