Not Enjoyable

OK, so I must say, this was NOT the most enjoyable weekend I've ever had. My close friend for over 10 years, Cindy, had to have major surgery to amputate her leg below the knee. In itself, this would suck!! But, I'm also her health care person, and so needed to be there (and to hold her hand of course!). So the whole family slogs on out the hour and a half drive (with 4 kids age 2-8 mind you) to St. Joe's hospital in Syracuse in the misty, crappy, rain. Then we find out......it was postponed!!!!!! So here is my poor friend, who not only has to come to terms with what's about to happen, but now has all this extra time to just sit there and DWELL on it!!!!!!! Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!

Day two......no one to watch all 4 kiddos, so we have to pull them out of school, and drag them all along AGAIN on a wonderful rainy, crappy Monday back up to the hospital!!!!!!! Yep, guess what..........DELAYED!!!!!!! And we HAD to leave at 5pm, as it was a school nite, and we had things that had to go to, so it totally SUCKED!!!!!!!! We had to leave her sitting there all alone, in tears while she got to wait around AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

They finally got her in at 7pm, the surgery got done at 9:30, and she got back to her room around midnite. She sounded way better than I expected, and everything has gone fine so far, but sheesh!!!!!! I was soooooooooo mad!!!!!!!! how can they do that to someone????I mean, geez, the waiting and stressing out over what's going to happen is the worst part!!!!!

So at least it's over, and she's doing well. I just am mad, cause she is my friend, and I wanted to be there thru the procedure for her, be there to hold her hand when she woke up....that kind of stuff, you know?? And I couldn't and it really bothers me!!! She's such a good friend, and my kids "Meme", and we were really worried about her. Anywho........didn't make for good sleep or a good weekend!

Then stupid stuff too, on top.......we forgot to bring the kids homework into the hospital, so they didn't get it done....we had nine dogs at home, with no one to take them out all day........so just use your imagination what was there to greet us when we finally got home at 8pm!!!!!!!! Both Sunday and Monday nites!!!!!! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww.......let me just say...and did I mention EWWW!!!!! And Buster was sooooooooo hyper from no human contact! ugh!!!!! Then the kids didn't sleep well either, worried about our friend, so they were all crabby etc. Sigh!!!!!

Not fun, didn't enjoy it, don't wanna repeat it!!!!!!

Happy day!!

Well today was a very happy day!! We got our sweet girl back home!! Bridgett is home safe and sound and doing wonderful! She was so happy to be home, her little stubby tail was wagging so much I thought she'd fly right up in the air! Even our little desk troll, Chester Chihuahua, came out to greet her with tail wagging! Seems like even the newcomers, knew she belonged here and it was a shrieking, wagging, petting butt-sniffing happy reunion! ha ha ha! We humans, were doing the shrieking and petting, but not the other stuff, that was the dogs of course! ha ha ha!

We also found out about a cool contest going on, that we can possibly win financial support for our dog rescue!! So I'm of course including a link to go and vote for Hubbard's Hounds dog rescue!!!! We sure could use the help after all the medical bills we've had lately and the new dogs coming in! So come on now! Go and support the best dog rescue ever!! ha ha!

More good things......had a 504 meeting with my son's school today, and it went really well! I was pleasantly surprised to get not only a lot of good feedback, but actual interest and support from the administration!!! It was so nice to see his teacher and the counselor getting excited about ideas and suggestions to help my son succeed at school!! They actually listened to me and liked the ideas I brought to the discussion and the special B.E.A.R. binder I made him to help with his organization!! Actually looked at it and everything! It sure was a nice change from the awful school district we pulled them from two years ago! I was left with a very positive feeling and actual hope for the future of my kids!! Now all we need is his diagnosis of Asperger's to come thru and we can get more services and accomodations in place for him!!!! yay!!!

All in all, it was a very positive day and I'm so glad!!! it's been such a rotten week!!! My best friend Cindy has to have her leg amputated, so its been really stressful, and I'm her health care proxy so that's kind of scary to even think about. But she needs me, and she's my pal, so I need to suck it up and be there for her!!! So Sunday think of her, keep her in your prayers please!! We'll be at St. Joe's hospital in Syracuse.

Prayers and good thoughts please!!!!!!1

I am begging everyone to please please keep my beautiful cocker spaniel, Bridgett, in your thoughts and prayers. She is a wonderful puppy mill rescue baby girl, about 8 yrs old. She is my baby. She just underwent her spay/dental surgery, and is now having some issues with blood in her urine.

I have only had my girl 6 months, but she is so precious to me, and my best little buddy. She's totally MY dog, and follows me everywhere, and sleeps with us at night. she's just an amazing dog and I adore her. I'm so worried and scared for her!!!!

Please pray that she will be ok!!!! Puppy mills breed dogs so much, and interbreed, continuing on lines of genetic problems and health issues dog after dog. Bridgett spent 8 years popping out puppies for those monsters, and now she's paying a very hard price for her one small year of freedom so far. Cocker Spaniels are genetically predisposed to certain conditions, and I just hope and pray that this is NOT the case with my girl. Please pray that she will recover fully and will be well!!!! She is my two year old's cuddle buddy, and my sweet baby girl and I can't bear the thought of anything happening to her now that she's finally started to have a good life after all her suffering. She deserves better than that!!!

She deserves to have many more years of snuggles, treats, belly rubs, walks around the town and more!

She has gone from a scared dog hiding under a desk for weeks, to a dog that now can play, walk on a leash, go thru doorways and up and down stairs without fear! She jumps up to sleep on the bed, will bark and wag her tail when she plays with Buster, who is now her buddy! She loves to snuggle on the sofa while we watch tv, and keeps me company in the car. She's just the most wonderful dog, and I love her with all my heart! She has only had a year to see that life can be wonderful, people can be kind and that she can be truly loved and cared for........and it's just not long enough.

New foster dogs settle in!

New foster doggies, make themselves at home!!!!!

Well, we picked up our new foster dogs on Saturday, and they are all settling in nicely! Boy they are sure sweethearts!

We have an adorable 3 month old chihuahua mix girl, named Kayla. She is even already spayed! She is playful, sweet, cute and basically a great little pup! Here she is , all zonked out on the sofa using John's leg for a pillow!!!! She loves to cuddle on the sofa with you after she's tired herself all out playing with our Jack Russell, Buster!!!!! They get along great! She is good with kids, cats and other dogs. So if you're looking to adopt a puppy.......run to hubbard's hounds and fill out the adoption application today!! She sure won't be around long as sweet as she is!

Next we have a beautiful pure-bred Cocker
Spaniel boy, named Rocko. Rocko is neutered, good with cats, great with kids, and fine with other dogs too! he is still young, around 2 or so, and is playful, yet very mellow too. He is a great snuggler and loves to sleep with you or lay on the sofa and snooze while you watch TV. (course it could just be MASH is boring! ha ha ha!)

ok, ok, just kidding - dont' all you MASH fans start a protest! We watch it every night after dinner, and my hubby has like all the seasons on DVD.

Last, but certainly not least, we have a gorgeous Beagle lady, named Mandy. She is very cuddly and is even a tad pushy about making sure you know it! She wants to be with you all the time, and in her perfect world, she'd be the only queen bee, and petted all day long! She is just beautiful and very sweet! She ignores cats so far, and is fine with all my kids too! The young pups annoy her, so she may be best as an only dog. But she still is just a wonderful girl! She loves my hubby and is perfectly happy to keep his head toasty in bed too! Very funny!!!!!

My sweet Bridgett has surgery!

Please keep my sweet baby Bridgett in your thoughts and prayers on Monday! She is going to have her spay surgery and dental. She is a 8 yr old puppy mill survivor, so due to the horrid conditions, neglect and lack of nutrition, she may need extensive tooth work and extractions. It's not uncommon for mill dogs as young as 5 or 6 to loose all their teeth!! I'm hoping hers won't be that severe though! She has been free a year or so now, and we've had her for 6 months or so and so she's had lots of good food, exercise and care with us, and we just adore her to pieces!! She is totally MY dog and Julianna's too. We will worry about her until we hear she is safe and sound! The surgery won't be over until afternoon, so I won't hear til around 5pm, so I'll be a mess until then! Please keep us in your thoughts!!!! Mill dogs are at much more risk for normal procedures like this due to the horrid neglect they suffer at the mills, so please pray for it all to go well and my Bridgee to be fine.

Thanks so much!!!!! I love my baby so much! She is just the most wonderful dog ever!!!!!!
Julia

Serenity Horses

ok, so here I am! I told you I would be back with great pics of our visit to the horse farm!!!! here they are!!!!!!!! This one is Gayla, the wonderful lady who owns the horses and invited us to come and see them!! She is sooooo nice and her daughter Jocelyn too!

They have the most beautiful view, and the horses are just so amazing!!!!! The two young stallions were the ones who really were so friendly and great with the kids too!!!!

The one named Indy, was just so sweet with Johnny, and to our surprise, Johnny really bonded with him too! he was snuffling his hair, and blowing on his head, and nibbling his shoelaces, and Johnny was petting him, stroking his nose, and talking to him!!! It was really neat!!!!!!!!

Julianna, all whopping 24lbs of her, I thought would be really scared and intimidated when I saw how huge these horses were, I mean, their head alone was bigger than her whole body!!!!! But to our suprise, after a few minutes, she warmed up and was babbling at them, feeding them flowers, and shoo-ing flies off their faces for them!!!! She actually said "Hello Neigh-Neigh!" and she's never ever said "hello" before!!!!! It was really good therapy for her and for Johnny too! And even I got a nice back massage from one of the horses!!!! Right before she nibbled the back of my neck with her velvety lips and gave me major goosebumps!! ha ha ha! It was so amazing, and Jenna and Jasmine were just thrilled, cause you know, they're little girls + horses = happy little girls!!! Jasmine kept getting her hair nibbled, her shoe strings nibbled and her face kissed!!!!!!!

I have tons more pics too! And I know Gayla took a bunch too! The two young stally's even let the kids sit on them! And Juli and Jazzy and Jenna were hugging their giant heads......I couldn't believe how tolerant these horses were!! They have awesome personalitites too! I was so suprised to see how they were all so different, just like dogs or people!! Indy and Johnny really made my whole day though with how they spent like the whole two hours together practically!!!!! I loved how into it the girls were, and how Julianna really opened up with the horses! We are definitely going to have to make a trip back there again soon!!!!!!!

Amazing Day!

This day was so amazing!! We were lucky enough to be able to visit Serenity Equestrian Center in Cortland NY, and it was just the most amazing experience!! I will be posting tons of pictures soon! The kids loved it, and Juli was talking to the horses and everything!! Johnny and this one young male stallion, Indy, really hit it off, and it was so funny, cause Indy was whuffing in his hair, nibbling his shoelaces and even nibbled his hair! Jazzy and Jenna were in horse heaven! And honestly, even John and I had a great time!! I didn't die either! ha ha ha! Thank you Benadryl beforehand! It was so beautiful!

We got loaded in her truck and Gayla drove us up to the pasture, and the 1st thing we top this hill, with an amazing view, and what do we see soaring above us.....a BALD EAGLE!!!!!!!! NO LIE!!!!!!! It was WOW!!!!! And the view was just spectacular! Then we saw the horses..........they were HUGE!!!!!! I'd never been up close with a big horse before, except like at the state fair, and I thought I'd be scared at first, but they were just so cool!!! The two young stallions were actually the most attentive to the kids the whole time!!! We got to meet the herd and pet them and everything!!! It was so neat, one even got like jealous and shoved another one like "HEY! I got here 1st, they're MY people!" it was so cool!

The horses heads were bigger than all of Julianna!!! I thought she'd be scared, but in a few minutes she was shooing flies off them and petting them and talking to them!!!!! They even tickled her neck!!!! They'd come over and like breath on you and wiggle their lips on you!!!! it was the coolest thing EVER!!!!!!

It was really an amazing experience.......we spent like two hours there with the horses!!!!!! Gayla and her daughter Jocelyn were so nice, and just really made us feel comfortable, and we all got really awesome pictures too!!! I can't wait til we can visit them all again! Anyone going that way, I highly recommend Serenity Equestrian Center!!!! You can read more about them, and their amazing herd of feathered drum horses, at Serenity horse farm.

Then we got to head on out to Homer, to pick up our new foster doggies and drop off my precious girl Bridgett to get her spay/dental. Well, guess what!! I got to feed one of Sylvia's teeny little 2 week old chihuahua puppies!!! They are bottle fed supplemented cause she had EIGHT of the little babies!!! She has seven of them, and they normally only have like 3 or 4, so poor Sylvia needs a little help! So far they are thriving under Kim's watchful eye!

We picked up a beautiful male cocker spaniel named Rocko, and a sweet beagle named Mandy, and a cutie-pie chi mix puppy named Kayla! They are just great so far, and everyone is getting along just fine so far too! I felt really terrible leaving Bridgee behind.........I almost cried!!! She was like "MAMA!!! WHERE U GOIN??" and pacing like crazy whining when I left.....sniffle!!! But I get to pick her up in two days, so I'm sure she'll be really happy to see me!!!! She's my baby though and I miss her already!!! One funny good thing is.....Tilly, our little foster chihuahua, is a puppy mill rescue, and really shy, and starting to come around a teeny bit, well now with Kayla being all snuggly puppy.......Tilly is jealous!!!! So she has actually been wanting me to pet her on purpose!!!!!!! Wow! Like huge thing for her!!!!!!!

ok, so i'm exhausted! Still have a million pics to download too!!!!!! TTL!!!!!

Crazy Critter Weekend!

Well, I'm so telling you! This weekend will be so insane and fun at the same time!! We are getting to visit Serenity horse farm Saturday!! They have feathered Drum horses, and they just sound so amazing!! You can check out their site to see what I mean at http://serenityec.webs.com

I'm most excited for Julianna and Johnny to see the horses and see if it helps them in some way. Him with his possible Asperger's diagnosis, and Julianna with her elective mutism and speech delay. Either way, it just sounds amazing, and my two girls ages 5 & 7 are totally horse crazy, and Juli is addicted to any kind of livestock especially cows and horses anyway, so it just is really cool we get this opportunity! Now I just pray I don't have an athsmatic reaction to them and die!!!!!


Afterwards, we get to swoop on over to the dog rescue I work with in Homer, and pick up new foster doggies!!!!!!! yay!!!! We're also dropping my girl Bridgett off for her spay/dental too. So exciting!!!! I think we're getting another cocker spaniel, a nice male named Rocko, and then a puppy named Layla (hopefully to tire out Buster! ha ha!) and then a cuddly beagle named Mandy for Johnny to love on! Then we're totally at max limit for us!!!!! We'll have our 3, plus the 3 chi's then the 3 new ones! ACk!!!!!!! Nine dogs!!!!!!!

hope to have pics to add soon!!!!! Here's a recent real good one of my girl Bridgett!!!!

I'm feelin crafty!

I'm feelin crafty...........

I'm venturing into the interesting and fun world of ACEO's (Art Cards, Editions & Originals)! They are selling on Ebay under my username of "jojenmom".

It's weird cause I used to draw and paint all the time, then life kinda got in the way. Just recently found out about these, and it's a nice thing for me! The only rule is the size - 3.5 x 2.5 inches. And with that size, the ideas and possibilities are endless! And I can actually get some done too, as they don't take a million years to get done either. With all I have going on, that's a big plus!

So basically I have now made 3 divisions of my business...Creative Cutting By Julia - Sewing Room, Bark Boutique, and Creative Crafts. I'm really liking it! I just hope someone else will too!

With the ACEO's, I want to specialize into firefighter theme, dalmations, and of course, my rescue dogs. This pencil sketch is actually my foster dog, Tallulah the Chihuahua! She's adoptable by the way! head over to www.hubbardshounds.com and fill out an adoption application if you're looking for a little pal! I currently have 6 listed on Ebay right now, more cartoony ones than real life. They are all watercolor/ink works. They all come with a mini certificate of authenticity and are signed and titled and dated on the back and initialed on the front. They come in a plastic protective bag. I think I like the pencil sketches or maybe even do some in charcoals .....not sure. But it's nice to be feeling artistic again!

Julia

The infamous 1st post

Welcome!!!!!!

Well, here we are.......another day in my interesting and exciting life!!!!! Ok, so maybe not, but why keep the excitement all to myself? I always say, my life is so interesting and I just feel the need to share!!!!

To start off, and I frequently start off this way, I hit the snooze one too many times, so got up going late again! had to get the kiddo's off to school! I have four kiddos......a son age 8, and 3 daughters ages 2 1/2, 5 and 7. The three oldest ones are in full day school this year! It is taking some getting used to just having one kid home! It's almost like it's too quiet and I just could way to easily slip into taking a 2 hour nap each afternoon with the toddler!!! Course, nuthin gets done if mama ain't doin it, so that's really not such a good plan, as my kitchen can tell you right now! Anywho.....once the kiddo's are rousted out of bed, with hearty good mornings of "Too bad! If you'd gone to bed when I told you to, you wouldn't be so tired!" said in the most loving way possible of course, cough cough!

Now we head on downstairs with two cocker spaniels......one blind......so like a recording you hear "marnie, marnie marnie" in a happy voice, so she can follow the sound down the hall and down the stairs. Now mind you, they have slept in my warm bed all nite, and now have to go wee wee like crazy, so we cannot afford to stop for anything!!!! Straight to the door to let them out into the doggie yard!!!!! Then as the frenzied barking from the other dogs reaches sonic boom level, we let out our crazy 8 month old JackRussell, affectionately known as "psycho dog". He has to be crated at nite so we can sleep and have a house left in the morning. ok, so he's out the door like a shot.........phew!!!!!!!

Now we have foster dogs.........3-4 at any given time. And right now, it's 3 puppy mill survivor chihuahua's......Chester, Tallulah and Tilly! They use doggie wee wee pads in the bathroom, so as the other's are outside, I clean up, mop the floor and turn on the tortoise heat lamp (yep, we have a tortoise too). Now on to the living room to dole out children's clothing and make sure they all have it on the appropriate body parts!!!! Yes, you actually have to make sure, cause they are related to me, hence they are WISE and this morning Jenna was wearing her socks on her hands.....Then do the girls hair, make sure they all have backpacks, etc. Then we get to let the dogs back in, where they run amok like we've been gone on a year long vacation and left them behind. This generally brings us up to just about time to pile into the car and drive the kiddies off to school!!!!! I get home around 9:30am.........and this is why I have a bad habit of eating a quiet breakfast with Julianna, checking my email,making any vet reference calls for the dog rescue and then after Sesame Street, I'm ready for a nap!!!!!

So enjoy my little introduction to my exciting life!!!!!! It gets better!!!!!!!!!
Julia