(It also shows my sweet homebody boxer Hilde’ and my embarrassing yard skills. I DO pay a yard man but he’s obviously quite the slacker…)

Just the girls (and David) at Tricia & Beau’s Holiday party…

More pics to come… Waiting on uploads!!!

stella showing off her age..

serious

natural

Hadleybear...

Love

street smart..

PNS in training!

this is the real stella...!!

pretty mini-heather!

sister love!

this is what they do when you beg them to smile...

momma feeling bad for sweet sickly H!!

3 years young!!

modeling is hard work!

i hope that pretty little head of her doesnt goes off the deepend in 5 years...

i hope that pretty little head of her doesn't goes off the deep end in 5 years...

PNS in training!

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.  ~Rabindranath Tagore

I dropped Hilde and Sunny off at my Dad’s house in Conway around 1 pm on Friday afternoon, in the safety of his 2+ acre backyard where they’ve spent many a weekend romping and roaming without incident… My appointment in Vilonia lasted longer than I’d hoped and I showed back up at the house around 4, prepared to relax by the pool with a cold drink and some good ol’ family catch-up. But when my Dad greets me at the door with “Have you got the dogs?” the feeling of panic and dread begins to set in…

Me: “No, why would i have the dogs?”
Dad: “I don’t know, I haven’t seen them since I got home- around 2. Hannah thought you might have took them with you.”
ME: “AROUND 2?!?!? What do you mean YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THEM??? Why would I have them with me???” (as I rush out the back door) “Why would they not be back here? Hilde! Sunny!”.. “Oh My God, DAD, OH MY GODDDDD….!!!!”

I tried to tell myself to remain calm– or actually my dad and sister told me to “calm the hell down”– but nothing could stop the train from barreling full-force into the depths of my dramatic soul. We searched and searched. We split up (Gabe and Ashely arrived around 5 to the disaster zone that was my dad’s subdivision at this point) and began talking to neighbors, posting signs, screaming at the tops of my lungs “HILDE’!!!! SUNNY!!! COME TO MOOOOMMMMMMAAAAA!!!” I finally end up collapsing in the middle of the circular drive, wailing and crying as if I’d just lost my entire family, or left leg, or killed someone on accident.

“MY LIFE IS OVVVVEEEERRRRRRRR!!!!,” I scream in misery, black mascara streaming down my face, bunches of hair in my fists, forehead on the ground… When all the sudden I hear barking in the distance. I stop, squint out into the dusk, and see my SunnyBear- the love of my life, my CHILD, running towards me as fast as he can (or running away from the 2 other dogs he’d been fraternizing with the past few hours), soaking wet and covered in branches and thorns. I grab him and roll on the ground, sobbing and kissing and shaking and scolding him all in one long and overly sensational movement. “Where is your sister?” I stammer between gasps of breath… “Why did y’all run away? Do you know your momma almost DIED just thinking she’d lost you FOREVER!!!!”

Sadly, Sunny could not respond, but I could see in his eyes he knew he’d done wrong. He’s my shit-starting child, a total escape whore. Hilde, my sweet, loving, rescued Boxer would rather cut out her eyeball than leave her home on her own will. She knows what it’s like to be left all alone, no food or love or plethora of doggie beds and treats and toys… I knew she simply followed her bad brother Sunny out the back gate (Oh, did I fail to mention we realized the far back barn-gate had somehow been left open? Probably from my father hauling a trailer of dead garden veggies out to be burned- but either way- the how of course doesn’t really matter at this point) to make sure he was safe and out of trouble. But here’s the thing… Hilde is also 2 years older than Sunny (which makes her 7) and has really bad hip problems. I can’t even take that poor dog on a mile walk without her having to lay down or limp the last few legs. So I felt even more panicked, after I loved on Sunny and assessed the new situation at hand. One dog down, but where was the other???

ANYWAY, I said I would make this a quick recap but clearly I’m a bit on the wordy side… The short version is that I continued to look all night. When it started getting dark around 8 I began to feel the deep wave that is depression settle over my weary heart. She wasn’t hearing us call- no one had seen her- it was dark and chilly and she must be SO SCARED. Dad slipped me a zanax and convinced me someone must have picked her up. She had a collar on (just no tags) and is one of the friendliest muts you’ve ever seen in your life. Surely someone saw her walking down the road and thought-”that dog belongs to someone! I’ll give her shelter for a night and start looking for signs in the morning!”- or something equally positive as such… So I switched from one type of action mode into the other… I became the online dog-hunter.

I started with Facebook and begged all of my Conway friends to repost. I then went to the local newspaper and place an online and print classified ad- even going so far as to emailing a contact I had that worked there to see if there was any way we could get my ad “noticed more”. Then came the ads on craigslist.org, petfinder.com, helpmefindmypet.com, and findmypetnow.com. I called/emailed every veterinarian clinic in the town of Conway, the Faulkner County Humane Society (left message, email, and posted to their facebook wall) and became best friends with the folks at Arkansas Lost and Found Pet Network. By 1 a.m., I was a total zombie. I just knew she was a goner.

Ah, but here we are on a Monday (3 days later) and I’m up and typing, so obviously this story ends well. Yes, around 4;30 in the morning my dad wakes me and Sunny up with the most welcome surprise I’ve ever received (at 4:30 in the morning). My sweet sister HildeBear comes barreling into the room, shaking her booty faster than she’s ever shaken it, absolutely overcome with joy! She’d found her way home! Sweet Jesus- Homeward Bound was a TRUE story!!! We all (my sister, dad, Sunny, and I) get up for a quick but jubilant celebration. We hug and dance around the room and update facebook… Then everyone, Hilde the most, pass back out, absolutely EXHAUSTED from the past 12 miserable hours. WHO KNOWS where she was all that time… WHO KNOWS how long she’ll be pained by the sore hip and obviously terrifying prospect of being all on her own again… WHO KNOWS if I’d really have to be committed to a mental institution had we never found her (or had she never come home)… All I know is that they are home with me, and I didn’t let them leave my site all weekend. And that animal lovers have this amazingly strong bond with each other and truly feel the pain of a friend when an animal is lost, sick, or God-forbid, dying…

So I end this overly long and intentionally dramatic post with a heartfelt thanks to everyone who reposted on facebook, texted me words of encouragement, helped me find websites and resources to look for her, called me with Boxer sitings, took my number, emailed me, and to Linda Hicks; who actually posted a blog about Hilde being missing that showed up on the homepage of the Log Cabin!!! It’s wonderful to feel such compassion from others in your time of desperate (desperate feeling, at least) need. THANK YOU!!!

And also with Sunny and Hilde’s photo shoot taken on Sunday after the incident…. Bad, bad spoiled and much loved dogs of mine…!!!

Hilde's guilty face...

He only looks sweet...

Happy to be Home!

Almost 3 years old! See post of her from a year ago- Fun With Iphone App

I hate learning all this shit at 30…

Relationship Alchemy Better Than Love at First Site

There’s nothing like old friends and yearly traditions. While we’re all in or nearing our 30′s, many of us married with kids, we all believe in the importance of “girl time”. From Baton Rouge to Destin to good ol’ Hot Springs, I love trips away from Little Rock and, more importantly, our commitment to this friendship. I couldn’t ask for a better group of friends!!

August 2011- Ginger, Jill, Andrea, Megan, Rayne, Misty

August 2007- Rayne, Misty, Megan, Ginger, Little Megan, Shrissy, Jill, Chelsea, Sarah

August 2011- Chrissy, Misty, Rayne, Megan (top) Sarah, Little, Ginger, Andrea

August 2007- Jill, Misty, Chrissy, Sarah, Chelsea, (top) Megan, Ginger

August 2011- Jill, Little, Misty, Megan

August 2007- Megan, Rayne, Misty, Sarah, Jill

August 2011- Sarah, Rayne, Andrea, Megan, Misty (top) Little, Chrissy, Ginger

August 2007- Rayne, Chrissy (top) Little, Megan, Sarah, Ginger

I’m looking forward to many more good times (and photo op’s!) to come!

It’s fascinating to become so thoroughly engrossed in the social issues of those times, with women’s rights, or lack thereof, being front and center. What’s crazy is that affairs, especially of public figures, are still considered newsworthy in our country- albeit so much more laughable than what they were in the early twentieth century. And while I’m certainly no advocate, I found it refreshing that a woman back then- in the face of such public scandal and humiliation and without even the right to vote- could still fight to live her life as she wished. I’ve especially enjoyed the relationship Mamah developed with the feminist poet and author, Ellen Key, who encourages Mamah (at least at first) to believe that “Love is moral even without legal marriage, but marriage is immoral without love. ”

It’s a struggle for women still today; but in the end, the guilt of what we should be often keeps us from becoming what we could… I hope that never happens to me…

Anyway, a great read and 2 thumbs up choice by “Book Club 2o11“. Next book is “A Visit From the Goon Squad,” which I’m actually really excited about! Send me some good book suggestions if you have any. I think my turn to pick is coming up in November and I’d be shamed for life if I pick a bad read…