Snow Day, Part Two

From The Next Day

Well, my work called another snow day! Yippee!

After breakfast we walked up to the neighbors to help them clear their driveway- after all, they help do ours yesterday. Then we started finally having fun in the snow. Our neighbors, Rich, Christie and Brandon, and Jimmy and I, sledded down our hill, made snow angels and had a snow ball fight (I wanted to make a snowman but after all the other stuff I was pooped!). Even all our dogs got in on the fun - Missy, Gypsy, Rusty, and the neighbor's dog Buddy! The sledding was the most fun - we didn't have anything to sled down the hill with so we started getting creative. First we used a boogyboard - that didn't work so well. Then we used one of those plastic kiddie pools - nope, that didn't work either! Ah ha! I remembered that the lid to our neighbor's trash can had broken off and it hadn't been thrown away yet - it couldn't have worked better! (Just a little ghetto-fab!)

It was a great day and we never had to leave the house!!


Tomorrow, it's back to reality and back to work!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We woke up this morning and what did we see? Snow! and it hasn't stopped since. I don't know what the official count is but just taking a ruler out to the middle of the yard it looks like we have 10-inches of snow. Luckily my work called a snow day today so I didn't have to go in - except to go and put a closed message on the answering system.

Jimmy and I are stranded in the house. We tried to pull both of our cars out of the driveway but neither could make it up the slope of the driveway. By the time we finished shovelling our driveway this afternoon we already had half an inch fall again.

I called my boss and she thinks we'll have another snow day tomorrow but we'll see what happens.

This is a video of our neighborhood when we woke up the next morning.

Party at the North Pole!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Seriously?!?

So we have these neighbors behind us. They bought their house about the same time we did. Two weeks after they moved in they started building a shed in their backyard. Well, it's been almost three years now and the shed is still not completed. I once saw them start a random fire in their backyard in the dirt at night. Neither of these have much to do with my point except to give an example of how trashy they are. Well yesterday it was raining all day here and has been getting as low as 30 degrees. Their poor dog was chained up ALL DAY in the backyard without shelter from the rain. They don't have a fence around their yard so they chain her up. We called the humane society on them twice yesterday and they never showed up!! It's illegal in California to have a dog chained for more than 3 hours. During the year I've ignored them doing this because they don't have a fence and I already get irritated by their two chihuahuas they have running around unleashed.
We have another neighbor who is a very sweet older lady that walks her four dogs everyday around the neighborhood. She came up to Jimmy late yesterday afternoon and said she was out walking her dogs when the son of my neighbor ran up to her to tell her that they are moving out tonight and aren't talking the dog. She asked Jimmy if we could take the dog for a couple of days until she finds a home for it or a no-put-down shelter. It happened so quick that Jimmy said yes and now we have a year and a half old pit bull mix in our backyard!!
As the trashy neighbor walked the dog over to our house Jimmy looked at it closer and asked our neighbor: "Is she pregnant?!?!" Our neighbor speaks hardly any English but told Jimmy that she's due any day now!! WTF! After the drop off the trashy neighbors were gone within the hour.
I'm so upset at these people!! To have a dog that they never payed attention to, chained up all day for most of it's life, don't spay it and then plan on just leaving it at the house you're abandoning while it's supposed to have puppies "any day now"!! I'm mad now because we're nice people and we've taken a dog that I wish the humane society had picked up yesterday like they're supposed to.
We can't keep this dog. Gypsy, one of our Labradors, is the alpha female and keeps trying to bite the pit bull. Besides, I never want a pit bull. I just don't trust them and especially this one who, I know, will probably have some behavior problems from these people. So now we have to shift the dog from one area to another when it's time for our own dogs to use the backyard. We called around today to every shelter and rescue in the area to get rid of this dog by tomorrow.
UPDATE: On Thursday we finally got a call back from one of the rescues, The Sound of Silent Spirits (Jimmy asked: "if they're silent then how can they make a sound?" Smart ass! ☺), they found a foster home to keep her at until she has her puppies and can be adopted!

Tis the Season....

From Rancho Cucamonga Christmas Lights

Last night we went to Rancho to go look at Christmas Lights. If you've never been it's a definite must see. The lengths these house go to for Christmas decorating is just amazing. My favorite house was the Disney Fairytale house and the Gingerbread House that we took a picture in front of.

Right when we got there it started raining. We tough it out and the rain stopped after about 20 minutes. Jimmy, Rusty and I got a little soggy but we had a good time! This was the first time we've really taken him out on an outing and he was on sensory overload. He was so excited to see all the people and smell everything. He did very good on his leash and never barked once. While it was raining he got to cuddle in my jacket and watch the lights from my arms because he's still a little under weight

From Rancho Cucamonga Christmas Lights

Puppy Love....Hate the bills

It's coming up on Christmas and every year we have the hardest time trying to find good gifts for Jimmy's mom. We decided this year that we are going to give her a dog. So Thanksgiving weekend we went on a search for the perfect little companion. After 2 trips to PetsMart, 1 trip to Petco and two shelters we finally found our little guy! He is a terrier mix, about 4 years old. We've decided to call him Rusty which even on the first night he started responding to. He is the sweetest dog and I swear he is half cat because I've never seen a dog that likes to cuddle or be pet as much as Rusty. The Apple Valley Animal Shelter was a really nice place to go. They let us take out a couple of dogs for a walk to see if there was a bond. Rusty was our first walk and he won our heart. We found him on Saturday and the vet was not in so we weren't able to take him home until Tuesday. Right after Jimmy picked him up we went to PetsMart to get him groomed. I wanted the shelter smell off him before bringing him home. It was like taking him to a carwash . The made him smell like a sugar cookie.!!

The shelter also sent a certificate for a free vet exam which we used the next Saturday because we were having a hard time getting him to eat anything. The vet noticed that his incision from the neutering was infected (The vet said this is why he wasn't eating) and gave us some medication and an e-collar. But it wasn't but three days later he was cuddling on the couch with us when he started acting weird. His stitches had broken and he started bleeding on the couch and the carpet. We quickly scooped him up and put him the doggy kennel. It was Tuesday at 10 at night and knew he wouldn't make it till morning bleeding the way he was, so we took him the emergency vet clinic. Well 2 hours later, 8 new stitches, 2 medications and a $260.00 vet bill we have a beautiful happy little dog.


Little Rusty is doing great now, eating well (the vet says he's 3 lbs under weight so I feed him junk food like pizza), happy, barking and playing.

Rusty's Bill.........

• Adoption Fee? $75.00
• Leash, Collar and Toys that he doesn't like playing with? $30.00
• Visit to the Groomer? $45.00
• 1st Vet Visit? $60.00
• Kennel to Help with Potty Training? $28.00
• 2nd Vet Visit? $260.00
• Saving the Cutest Dog in the World from an Animal Shelter?

Well, just look at that face!

Priceless!!

Happy Halloween!

Since we haven't had a single trick-or-treater in the last two years we went down to our friends, Robin and Mike's house down in Foothill Ranch. Their streets were covered with kids. It look like three elementary schools just let out. I was utterly amazed at how many people were out in their community. I had never seen anything like it. Robin and Mike's little girls went out - Alyssa was Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Brenna was a fairy princess. Unfortunately, the minute they came back from trick-or-treating they immediately stripped their costumes off so I never got a picture. But trust me, they were adorable. The great thing about little kids and Halloween is that they are really too young to eat all that candy so after the kids went to bed we all poured our drinks of choice (rum & coke zero for me!) and raided the candy bags. I just can't believe how much the girls are growing up and how smart both of them are. Alyssa is reading at four

and Brenna is only 22 months and she knows her phonetic alphabet.

Addicted to Ancestry.com

Really the title says it all. I'm getting addicted to Ancestry.com. I'm up right now after midnight because I couldn't stop finding family "hints". I've gone all the way back to the 1600's on my Grandfather's side. So far I have ancestors with immigration records from Belgium and England. A co-worker got me started on this and it's really hard to stop. Especially when you find other people with family trees that match branches on yours. This started as a project for a Christmas present for the family, but it's getting crazy how much public record there is out there that I never knew about. I love seeing the census records from the 1800 and 1900's they tell so much. I found out that on my sister's dad's history that they owned "Negro" servants because the census has their names, ages, race and occupations/relationship in the home. Cool, huh? I found an image of my Great-Great-Grandfather's World War I Draft Card. I seriously recommend for everyone to do this for their family trees but watch out...It's addicting!!!! See below for people I could be related to....

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Corn Maize

We woke up Sunday with a strange amount of energy so we decided to find a corn maze near us. The biggest one close to us was all the way in Mission Hills about an hour and a half away. So we called up Jimmy's cousin Jeaninne and her husband Caleb for some corn fun! Check out our pictures in the photo album. There were signs at the maze that said don't throw the corn, but they never did tell us not to eat it! I don't think we even made it through half the maze. We never did find the end of the maze but we re-found the beginning after an hour! Oh, well! Maybe next time.
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A little update..

There been enough going on that I haven't had the time to write in the blog, but there's not enough going on to really write in depth about. (This is where I admire my friends with babies because they always have neat things to write about.)

-Work is stressful, but that's why they call it work. If you had fun at your job then that's called a career.
-We are working with a non-profit called NACA to help with getting our home loan restructured with Countrywide.
-Fusion Metalworks is still going good, even with the economy being what it is. Some weeks are better than others. Right now they are doing a railing for the City of Hesperia.
-I'm really excited about the holidays coming up! I love Thanksgiving and Christmas because that's when I get to decorate the house super festive!!
-I'm following the presidential election coverage. I'm actually fairly political for those who may not know. AND I STRONGLY URGE EVERY ONE OF YOU TO REGISTER TO VOTE! This year is different though because Jimmy is really getting involved too! (I'm finally rubbing off on him.) I've had an abentee ballot for years sent to the house for him and I would vote for him, but this year he says he wants to vote himself. (He's getting so grown-up! LOL)
-We went to the fair this last week. We both love the fair. It's like being a kid again: watching the pig races and funnel cake! yea! Photos of our day are in the album.
-Two weekends ago we went to the Route 66 Burn-Out competition to cheer on our friend Gary who was the reigning champion. This year he lost to a kid driving a Carrier duely, but we still think the competition is rigged! :o)
-We bought a new digital camera which we LOVE. (Thanks Jenny for the recommendation) Our old Sony was just crappy, the new Canon is glorious; just check out the new banner across the page. That was taken out of the window of my car on the way home from work yesterday.
-Gypsy is doing better since we took her to the vet. She has allergies and had begun rubbing her nose raw leaving little pink patches on my carpet from the rubbing.

Well, that's it for now.