{Bitter}Sweet Sound of Silence

For the last eight years our house has been filled with sounds of a big dog.  Barking at the mailman just because it was his right; the thump,thump, thump of his tail as it hit doors and walls and furniture in it's constant happy wag, the heavy breathing after a long walk, the clicking of his nails on hardwood, and later in years - the licking  aches and pains of old age.  A symphony of sounds that sometimes made us nuts but was all just part of our big, lovable, sweet dog, Duke.

With out going into detail, yesterday we said good bye to him.

His health was quickly failing and we had to make the hard decision. We've been preparing Harrison for this day to come and he is fine. Two days ago he said, "I'm prepared for Dukie to die, I'll miss him".

Apparently the Guy-I-Dig and I were not as well prepared...or did we just not realize how deeply Duke-the-Dog had rooted himself in our hearts?

We have both spent a lot of tears on the passing of our sweet Duke in the last 24 hours. He dropped into our life at a very stressful time and provided happiness and lots of laughter. The GID even gave Duke a voice, (that is ironically very similar to Doug, the dog from the recent movie "Up") And he was the perfect dog for our two boys. Big Brother was scared of most big dogs until Duke entered our lives and, needless to say, the day Harrison came home from the hospital Duke was quite nervous he shook for hours; but as time passed he realized there were plenty of perks of having that "mini-human" around - like that fact that he constantly drops food!

As the GID walked Duke to the car and helped him up (he couldn't get into the car by his own strength anylonger) Harrison said, "I'm going to miss Duke but I'll still love him." after that Harrison and I went to the park to play (to get my mind off of it). Kids are so resilient; a month ago the Vet said that Harrison would be fine and may even ask for a new dog the next day. Harrison asked the GID the same day.

Then as he prayed over dinner last night he added "and prayJesus for Dukie, we still love him".

But the sound of silence in our home weighs heavily on our grown-up hearts.

We'll miss you, Duke. You big ol', silly, beautiful, noisy mut!  

Just One of THOSE Days

I spent all day yesterday on the computer - trying to get a monthy newsletter layed out. Then a great deal of time today doing the process again. I'm not even going to fill in those blanks.

At the end of that day I took this image for my 365 Project to represent the bulk of my day.

and the unthinkable happened...

Why yes, that is [what's left of] my 50mm 1.8 lens. THE lens that stays on my camera basically 99% of the time.  It took a nose dive right onto my very hardwood dining table. My bad.

Unfortunately, at this point in life I do not have the funds to replace even the {less expensive} 1.8 lens. Bummer, I'm stuck with my kit lens for awhile. Maybe I'll find me some kit lens love.

Then again. Maybe not.

sigh

Wordless Wednesday

More Wordless Wednesday Here and Here.

Sunday Self #8

 I pulled my wedding dress out of the closet today.

It's trashed from our wedding day, we danced and celebrated to point of pulling out the French bustle in the back. Oh well. I would not have changed a thing - it was one of the best days of my life.

This December will be 10 years later and I never got the silly dress cleaned and smashed into a little white box to sit for 30+ years in the back a closet or something just to give it away to the Goodwill. Recently I actually thought about doing a "trash the dress" photo shot for our 10th anniversary down at the beach. Get the dang, dirty dress all wet and sandy... But alas, the dress doesn't really fit me anymore.

I could be sad over that fact. But seriously why? It's just a dress. It represents one day and we now have a decade of wonderful memories we share.

That photoshoot at the beach...yeah, well I don't like being in front of the camera anyway.

Facebook Phenomenon

Face it, people either love it or hate it; but you can't deny that Facebook has become a phenomenon - or maybe a frenzy - with over 700,000 users joining daily I think it's safe enough to say that. There is good reason to dislike it if it connects people to you that you don't want to reconnect with; there are those scenarios out there. But we have control of our own personal information and who we want to except [as Facebook friends] or not, and a way of being polite about it all. The bottom line is - if you don't want to be found by anyone (or someone in particular) then maybe Facebook is just not for you. With that said let me tell you...

Why I  love Facebook.

Not because of the applications, or the various quizzes, not the games that distract you far into the night. I don't play Mafia Wars, or Farm Town, I hide the quizzes from my feed for the most part. Not the constant chatter of status updating; and quite honestly most of the statuses updates tend to be glorified, narcissistic tweets. {myself included} Does anyone care that I bought 100 watt light bulbs at the hardware store for a quarter or ate an entire bag of peanut M&Ms in front of my 56th viewing of The Princess Bride. {not really...} No. Not Really.


What I do love about Facebook is connection to old friends; people that time and distance allowed to slip away. I have always been thankful for the innumerable people that have crossed my path and left an impression on my heart.

Then as I accepted a 'friend request' the other evening, I remembered a pile of school pictures at the bottom of a box that gets opened regularly. I see those pictures sitting there each time I pull out a nail clipper - pictures of young hopeful, happy faces from 20+ years ago. I see them almost weekly, and with Facebook now allowing the opportunity to reconnect with some of those faces, opening that little box makes me smile.

I love Facebook for the simple fact that it was answered the questions in my heart about some of those I had wondered about, prayed for and hoped were well.

Technology today is truly amazing, isn't it?

Flea Market Style

I have a weakness for Flea Markets, Antique malls and Thrift Shops; and I'm always a little envious of people who get REALLY GREAT DEALS on the things I want to own.

Unfortunately now days I don't have much time for thrifting plus having a 4-year-old in tow on those rare occasions isn't always the ideal situation.

Then there are days where the moon and the stars align. Like this weekend. Harrison went with me to the Rose Bowl Flea Market and a couple thrift shops along the way.

Harrison was incredibly patient and gracious the entire time. I've wanted to get some pillow covers (since I can't seem to sew them) for some extremely ugly throw pillows that came with our sofa and love seat. I LOVE Anthropolgie style pillows that I saw in the store. but at ove a $100 a pop ($50 - $60 on clearance) it's not going to happen; but they act as an inspiration.

Then I found a little pillow up above my head on th top of a pile of old comforters. I pondered it for a while and then figured, what the heck, it's only $2.50. It's a satin silk with embroidery on it. I tossed the inner pillow (that wasn't the original and didn't fit correctly) and popped in an ugly pillow.

I love it! Now only 3 pillows to go. The best part is I found a matching pillow at an antique mall, only in sage green silk with a butterfly embroidered motif. Unfortunately, I didn't get it though because it was $22! I scored with my $2.50 pillow! Woot! And that Antique Mall has a rod iron fenced play area in the front of the store that Harrison played in the entire time we were there. That rocked!

From there we went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market and I spent the day looking around. I had minimal cash and cut it down considerably by buying the first thing we ran into for Harrison. Vintage ABC blocks - almost 100 of them! $8 NOT wasted!

(he wanted me to take a picture of him with his blocks.)

I also got a wire basket ( I LOVE old wire locker baskets and such) It fits perfectly on Harrison's wall and holds a bunch of his little stuffed animals. I found 2 locker baskets and wanted them, but they were out of my price range for the day. Bummer, they're hard to come by.

A day at the Flea Market was a birthday gift to myself, afterwards we went to a beautiful park nearby in Pasadena so that Harrison could play and run. After all, at four years old, you can only be good for so long and then you have to let it all out. Needless to say, he slept in the car on our long drive home.

A perfect day.

Wordless Wednesday - Another Month Gone Already?

365 Project for July- wowzer! Talk about a project that challenges you! I see quite a few uninspired, shot from the hip, out of time for the day shots this past month.

But every freakin' one of them is taken in full manual mode.

Happy Wordless Wednesday!