Monday, January 19, 2015

A tribute to Jack

April 2005-January 2015
Jack chocolate lab

We got Jack when he was 4 yrs old. We have a home video of when we first got him. Josiah was 3 1/2 and Titus was 18mths old. It was love at first sight with Josiah, but Titus was terrified of him in the beginning. 


Here's another video of Josiah playing with Jack just a few days after we got him. Josiah was playing with him and I noticed that Jack had chalk all over him. If you listen close enough to the video you can hear Josiah say, "That dog is bad. He needs to straighten up."
I asked him if he colored on his dog with chalk and he said, "Yep, because he's a Chalkolate dog."

The bond between them just continued to grow. 


When Titus was a baby and would walk around in the yard, Jack would follow him to protect him. Once Titus fell down and Jack tried to pick him up by nudging him with his nose. 

Also, the boys were never allowed to go back behind the house when they were smaller. They had to stay in the front yard where I could see them. If they did go to the back, Jack would come to the front door and start barking. He was such a tattle tale, but he was just protecting them. 

He was so gentle with the kids and put up with a lot of tough love. He was a horse to the kids more than he was a dog. 

Amelia was born almost a year later and Jack was responsible for another baby to watch and love. 


She became pretty bossy, but he learned to deal with it. 

He was just part of their outside play. I know they are gonna miss him awful this spring. 


Jack was all doctored up by Titus in this picture with toilet paper and duct tape. Nothing was wrong with Jack, but he was happy to be Titus' first aide patient. 


He loved going on walks with me. He recognized my tennis shoes. If he seen me wearing these shoes then he would head to the road and wag his tail happily. He actually made me feel safe when he walked with me. Sometimes dogs would come at us and he would run them off. 

There's only 2 things I can think of that he was afraid of. 
1) Fed Ex or Ups trucks terrified him. I have no idea why. He literally would growl and bark so loud that the drivers were terrified themselves to even get out of the truck. Maynard drove his Fed Ex truck home one evening and Jack did not appreciate that one bit!!!
2) Fireworks!!!!  Jack was terrified of fireworks. I guess you could say the 4th of July was not his favorite holiday. 
Mom was over one day and I guess the neighbors were letting of fireworks and Jack jumped in her lap. Even though he is a huge dog and definetly not a lap dog. It was hilarious. By the time I got their picture he had moved behind her. I guess he knew she was a Mamaw and Mamaw's are made to protect. 

He also hated taking baths. 
Here he is right after he got a bath. As soon as we turned him loose he ran straight to the weeds and tall grass and rolled and rolled. He finally came back and laid in the yard, but was all pouted up. You can tell by looking at him in this picture he was sulking. 

He loved it when it snowed. He couldn't wait for the kids to come out and play when it snowed. We also have videos of us sledding down the hill and he would run down after us. 
Here he is coming to tell on the kids for being in the neighbors tree house. 

Jack was also a hunter. We always found lots of dead critters in our yard. 
I'm guessing this leg used to belong to a deer. Jack must have thoroughly enjoyed his snack because he was licking his lips. 

Probably one of my most favorite memories of Jack was that he was the neighborhood theif. He brought home the bacon so to speak. 
He would bring home bags of dog food all the time. Sometimes half opened bags, sometimes brand new bags, little bags, or huge bags. That's not all though!  He even brought home bowls for us to pour the food in. It was hilarious. Well to us anyways. I'm sure the other dog owners didn't appreciate the disappearing dog food and bowls. 

He knew what time we ate supper. It never failed that when I opened the back door he would be sitting patiently waiting for leftovers. I caught myself today throwing out chicken bones. There was no Jack to eat chicken bones tonight. Josiah offered to throw scraps out Sunday and realized Jack was not there to eat scraps anymore and he started bawling. It was so sad. 

His favorite thing in the world to eat was BBQ rib bones from Sonny's. Of course he didn't get them often, but oh how he loved them. We brought leftovers home once. They were laying in the floor behind the driver's seat. When the kids opened the door to get out Jack grabbed the whole box and took off with them. We had a dinner catered by Sonny's last year and we brought tons of rib bones home for him to eat. He ate so many that he was miserable. For weeks I would fine rib bones laying in the yard and he wouldn't go near them. He was so full and miserable he could barely move. 

I know I'm rambling on, but y'all just don't understand how good a dog he was and how much my family loved him. This post doesn't even come close to telling y'all how good a dog he was. 

He loved us and protected us. He actually was our whole street's neighborhood watch dog. If someone pulled into their house and he didn't recognize them, then he raised cane until he knew the coast was clear. We always felt safe here because Jack would always let us know if someone was out there that wasn't supposed to be. 

Once Titus was riding his bike at the end of our road and driveway. We live on a deadend road. Anyway, a UPS truck was backing up out of a driveway and was coming awful close to Titus riding his bike. Jack went crazy. He ran from Titus to the front of the truck barking and then would run back to Titus to make sure he was ok then run back to the front. Me and Maynard both watched in awe at how Jack was trying to protect Titus. 

We will also never forget the time Jack protected Amelia from the stray dog in our yard. I will put the link here:

He fought and fought that dog to get it away from the kids. Amelia ended up with 3 bites, but she was ok. I am thankful it wasn't any worse. 

I've racked my brain and that's really all I can think of to write about him for now. 

Maynard and the kids think Jack will be back any day. He has been known to wander around and had many neighborhood girlfriends. He's never stayed gone this long though. I noticed he was acting funny and he refused his food for 3 days. He only wanted water. We left to go out of town overnight and when we got back he was no where to be found. We have searched the woods and the neighborhood. No one has seen him. I read online that dogs know when they are dying and sometimes go off to hide in order not to hurt their loved ones. I don't know if that's true or not, but it makes me even sadder to know we didn't get to say our goodbyes or give him a last hug. Maybe it was easier on the kids this way though. I can't even imagine how traumatic it would be for them to have found him dead in our yard. So I guess it's better this way. 
If he does decide to come home y'all will be the first to know and then I'll save this post in my draft file for when he really does die. Lol. A bit of humor there, but my instincts tell me he's gone now. So I guess this is my closure I need to accept it. The kids want another dog.  But I believe we will wait until spring time so they can enjoy one better. 

Hope y'all enjoyed reading my tribute to Jack. Everyone deserves a good pet in their lifetime and he was definitely ours!!

Friday, January 16, 2015

A Birthday and girls night out.

When we left my parent's house on Christmas night, I told everyone bye and that I would see them again on Easter.  Usually we never drive down again before then, but we found ourselves headed that way again last weekend. 

My youngest sister Melissa was turning 30 and wanted all her sisters accounted for that day. 

We drove up Saturday afternoon and met  my family at a Mexican restaraunt for lunch. Amelia was all too excited to see Melissa get whip cream all over her face. 

Maynard may have encouraged the singers to go all crazy on her. That's ok, he has a birthday coming up soon!!!

My sister Angela suprised her with a Betty and Veronica cake. Ever since she seen Josiah's Archie and Jughead cake she declared she wanted a Betty andVeronica  cake.  
I thought it looked great!!!

We did a quick exchange of pick ups and drop offs and then it was just all us sisters and Mom headed to the Derby Dinner Playhouse in Indiana. 

We had a lot of interesting conversations in the vehicle that evening. Trust me. Don't ask.......

We arrived an hour early because we were warned that there was gonna be a lot of road construction on the way. It ended up not being bad at all. 

When they opened the doors they escorted us to our seats and Melissa was suprised to see balloons on her chair. She said, "I feel like they know it's Birthday, but I don't know how."  What she didn't  realize was that Angela had called and added the birthday package to our tickets.  



Our dinner was a buffet style so we got in line to get our food. I liked everything pretty good, but the food wasn't amazing though. 
Angela thought to take a picture of her food. Well, she actually sent the picture to her husband to taunt him a little bit. He in return sent a picture of frozen pizzas he and Maynard and all our kids were having. Ha ha

After we ate the show began. 
It was a cute play about a young woman who was overweight and her beautiful sister kept setting her up with dates much to her dismay. 

During intermission our waitress brought out another suprise for Melissa. It was a birthday cake with a sparkler on top. 
We had the hardest time keeping the dessert menu away from her. She kept insisting it was her birthday and she should be allowed to order dessert. We knew the cake was coming and she didn't. When Melissa was away from the table we asked our waitress to not ask us to order dessert so we could suprise her with her cake. 

We enjoyed the rest of the show. Well kinda!  I couldn't quit staring at the lady behind me who was ridiculously enjoying herself. I mean seriously. It was a bit extreme. However, entertaining to say the least. 

We had some hilarious conversations and I believe we made Mom blush more than once. 

It was so good to spend time with my Mom and all my sisters. I was excited to get away and have a girls night out. It was long over due and we all decided that we needed to get together more often like that. 

We stayed all night at Angela's house and then went to church with them Sunday morning. They had an awesome service where a young lady was filled with the Holyghost. 

It was a great weekend and glad I was able to spend Melissa's 30th birthday with her. 

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Amelia's 5th Birthday

Amelia has told me so many different ways she wanted to celebrate her birthday. She was one excited little girl!!  She wanted to have a big party, but I was partied out after the Holidays and figured everyone else probably was too. 
I asked her if she wanted to just have a little party in her Sunday school class instead. She got really excited about that and couldn't wait to share her birthday with her new little friends. Even if they were all almost boys anyway. 

Here she is at Walmart choosing her birthday cake. It was a very serious task and she didn't need help or suggestions from any of us. You can tell by the look on her face she meant business. 
It was no suprise to anyone that she chose a princess cake. It was kind of special though because last year her cake was pretty pitiful because she wasn't allowed to have any artificial dye. This year she was going for every color possible. 
I kept it simple and just decorated one little table for her. 
I walked into her class and she was hanging onto the cake box with dear life while her boy classmates were in the process of rearranging everything else on the table. She was in a state of panic as only Amelia can be!!!

Her cake really was pretty. They had crystal sprinkles on the cake that made it look like glitter. 

She was with all boys until Aubriella came in a little later. All the pink didn't even phase these boys. They were just happy to be part of the party. 


As soon as church was over Josiah and Titus came running to her class making sure there was cake left over. Ha ha. I knew they would be up there. We took cake home and she had to blow out her candle at least 3 more times that night. 
 

Monday was her actual birthday so of course we had to make that day special too. 
Presents before school!!!



What better way to make it even more special than to have her do school work!!!  
She was halfway through when she heard our dog barking. She looked out the window when she seen Mamaw and Aunt Melissa out there!!!  She was so excited that she went and hid in her closet. Ha ha. Yeah, not sure what that was about. 

We had assumed that we would all be eating Mexican for lunch because that's her most favorite place to eat. She absolutely refused because she was afraid they were going to sing to her. Ever since this:
2 years ago they came up from behind her and sang to her and it terrified her. She has never forgotten and will not go near a Mexican restaraunt close to her birthday. I took her last year and promised they wouldn't sing to her, but they did anyway without me asking them too. I had to ask them not to put whip cream on her face though. So this year she didn't trust anyone!!

We ate Chinese instead. 
Amelia mastered the art of using chopsticks. 

We went back home and Amelia opened more presents. She got clothes, sticker book, and another Barbie. 

The Barbie was actually from Aunt Angela, but somehow Amelia was lead to believe it was from Aunt Melissa. Ha ha. (Angela, I will let you handle that.)

Later that evening when Maynard and the boys got home we went to Dino's for supper before Mom and Melissa left. 

I tried to get a picture of Amelia, but she kept getting photobombed by her brothers and Melissa.

 She wasn't too happy!! Lol

When she went to bed that night she said she was sad because her birthday was almost over. 

Tara gave her birthday money so she was determined to go spend it today. I tried to coax her into getting things she actually needed, but she looked at me like I was crazy. 

Last year I asked her a few questions on her birthday so I thought I would ask her the same questions again this year. I'll put last years birthday link down below if you want to read her answers from last year. 

What is your favorite color?  PINK

What is your favorite food?  Rice and Beans 

What is your favorite dessert?  Cake

What is your favorite cookie?  Sugar cookies with icing

What is your favorite pair of shoes? Ruby  Red sparkly heels

Who is your Best Friends?  Hailey, Myia, Rachel, Olivia, and Aubriella

What is your favorite song?  Happy Birthday To You (English only, apparently. Ha ha)

What are you going to be when you grow up? Princess
 
What is your favorite toys? Barbies

Who is your favorite Aunt? Ruth's mom 

Who is your favorite Uncle? Kenny or Todd lol


Here is last year's link. 
http://itsbeginningtolookalotlikechaos.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-princess-turns-4-not-16.html?m=0