Happy Birthday, Mom-Mom!!

Today is my grandmother's 89th birthday!  I hate that I can't be in New Jersey with her to celebrate so a blog post about her will have to do.

My grandmother, Mom-Mom as we call her, is the life of the party in our family.  My grandfather, Pop-Pop, died very suddenly and unexpectedly almost 23 years ago.  Before he died my Mom-Mom was a very introverted person who wouldn't go to new stores alone and really only had friends that were couple friends.  After Pop-Pop's passing we all worried about Mom-Mom being alone in their big house.  About 5 years after his death she decided to sell the house and buy a condo.  This was one of the best decisions she ever made and in my mind helped her live so much longer. 

Mom-Mom bought a condo in a retirement community where everyone has to be 55 or older to purchase.  They offer all kinds of activities and events to the residents.  It only took Mom-Mom about a year to turn into a social butterfly.  Every time I called she had plans to go to the movies, play cards, play bingo, go to a fashion, etc.  It was amazing how my introverted grandmother had turned into such an outgoing person.  Having so much fun also keeps her from feeling "old".  A couple years ago Mom-Mom was having some trouble doing tasks around the house because of pain in her legs.  One of her neighbors, who happens to be about 10 years younger, suggested she get a few tools that have helped her deal with daily tasks.  Mom-Mom's response was "I don't want those, they are for old people!"  I love that she doesn't see herself as old. 

The last two years have been hard medically on her with a couple small strokes and a fall that caused her to break her hip but she keeps chugging along.  At 89 she still lives by herself and drives, although not very far and only in the day time.  I can only hope that I am as happy and independent as she is when I'm that young! 

Here are a few pics of my dear sweet Mom-Mom.

This is my brother, Jason, dancing with Mom-Mom at his wedding.  Everyone at the wedding kept telling her she looked like the Queen Mum.  She loved it!

My brother, mom, mom-mom, and niece.  4 generations

Me and Mom-Mom when I was up there at Christmas.  I look horrible!

Mom-Mom reading to my niece.  Her face is very bruised because she tripped and fell on her face the week before.  I love how in to it my niece is. 

Happy Birthday, Mom-Mom!!  I love you and can't wait to see you in June!!!!

Stolen Post - A River Under The Ocean

I'm stealing this from a link that was posted on a blog I follow because I think it is just too freaking cool. 

These pictures were taken by Anatonly Beloshchin in the cave Cenote Angelita, Mexico.  His description of the site: "We are 30 meters deep, fresh water, then 60 meters deep – salty water and under me I see a river, island and fallen leaves… Actually, the river, which you can see, is a layer of hydrogen sulphide.”  

If I wasn't completely terrified of scuba diving, I'd have to put this site on my bucket list. 

Puppy Smiles

Well, maybe they aren't really smiling, but they sure were having a good time together. 

Roxey and her friend, Kai, had so much fun playing together when we puppy sat Kai.  I happen to looooove this picture, most people seem to be a little frightened by it though.  I currently have it as the wallpaper on my work computer.  Earlier this week I had to contact our IT department to fix something.  The poor guy didn't know what he was in for when he remotely took control of my computer and minimized all my windows.  His shock was quiet evident by the nervous laughter coming from the other end of the phone.  I promise, both puppies are sweet as can be and not at all the vicious dogs displayed in this pic!!

Working on Curb Appeal

Gus and I bought our house in July of '08.  The house had been vacant for close to a year because the previous owners relocated to Pittsburgh.  In that year the yard had been very neglected and was way overgrown.  I'd also say the previous owners had horrible taste in landscaping!  We've continued to neglect the yard since we moved in though.  I'm pretty sure this annoys the crap out of our overly anal neighbor across the street.  He's the type that mows his yard several times a week and when he isn't mowing he's grooming it in some other way.  I can only imagine the stress it causes him to look at our mess of a front yard. 

Although you can't really see how bad it was, here is a picture of our house when we bought it:

Do you see the giant crepe myrtle about to overtake our bay windows?!?!  Yeah, we got rid of that almost immediately.  What's the point in having a two story bay window if you're going to hide it with an overgrown tree???  Not to mention, it was causing the bay window surround to rot away.  Sorry tree, you're pretty but you had to go.  We also trimmed back the other tree that was growing into our roof!

Last year, Gus did a little digging up of dead bushes and we cleared out one island that was covered in Lamb's Ear.  Here is a picture of lamb's ear in case you've never seen it:

I'm not sure about you, but I'm not a fan of this stuff.  There was so much of it and it just looks so boring and gloomy.  After we cleared that island we filled it in with black mulch.  Nothing fancy, but it definitely looked better. 

During our recent monsoon season, most of the black mulch was washed away.  We decided we should put pavers around the island to help keep mulch in and to plant some colorful flowers.  Now, I'll admit, I've NEVER planted flowers in my life.  I've watched my mom do it many times but I've never actually participated.  Sad, huh?  I tried to lay them out first but during the actual planting I didn't do a good job of centering them.  Oh well, it's definitely an improvement. 

Before:

(Notice those beautiful bags of mulch sitting on the rock. . . . . they've been in that exact spot since last August. . . .ooooops.  We even hosted Thanksgiving and didn't bother to move them.  Don't try to be cool like us though, the bottom bag was infested with ants, gross.)

After:

It's not much, but it's definitely an improvement and hopefully the petunias will get a little bigger!  Now, we just need to put some plants in where the crepe myrtle used to be and clean out the island that is down by our sidewalk and we won't be that yard in the neighborhood anymore.

Meet Roxey

I'll admit, all my life I've been a cat person. We only had one dog growing up who was way too big and out of control. I always had cats though. Somehow I managed to marry someone who was allergic to cats though! Most of my friends were shocked to find out I wanted a dog but it was the only way I could have a pet.  Last June after begging for over a week, Gus finally gave in and let me adopt this cutie pie

That picture is from her petfinder.com ad and the moment I saw it I was in love.  Something about that sweet little face screamed "you have to be my mommy, please come rescue me!"   Gus wasn't so smitten.  He agreed she was cute but he wasn't quite ready for the lifestyle change a dog requires.  I thought it was perfect timing!  We'd been in our house almost a year, could easily afford a dog, and had a fenced in backyard.   Everyday I'd look up her profile and fall in love all over again.  I just couldn't get her out of mind so I did what any desperate female would do. . . I talked about her non-stop. 

Gus was so sick of hearing about Crickett (her name at the time), he gave me the go ahead to call the shelter to see if she was still available.  After chatting with her foster mom we set up an appointment to meet her.  She was just as sweet and adorable in person.  The shelter came to our house to make sure it was puppy safe and two days later, she was ours!!!!!! 

Here is a picture from the day we got her, she was definitely bigger than in her petfinder pic.  Her left ear was a little funky and always sat on top of her head.  It finally straigtened itself out though.

Life with Roxey has definitely been interesting.  She's very loving while being extremely demanding.  She loves all dogs, people, cats, birds, etc and thinks they all want to be her best friend.  Roxey doesn't quite understand that not all people like dogs and would prefer she not kiss them, jump on them, and shove her toys in their face. 

I have so many Roxey stories to share but those will come in time, this post is long enough.

Jumping In!

Welcome to my first blog! I've always been jealous of my friends with fun, exciting blogs but could never convince myself that I am interesting, whitty, or funny enough to have a blog of my own. I would also get stuck at what kind of blog it would be. I love reading cooking blogs but live in a very picky household with nothing good to share. I love to bake but my creations are far from interesting or unique. I think I've decided on just a random blog with stories about my life as a wife and a mom to one strange pup.

I'll start with an introduction. I'm Susie Q and have been married to Gus for almost two years now. (Obviously, these are not our real names and at some point I will spill where they came from). Last June, we adopted our adorable puppy, Roxey. She is certainly not your average dog but that just means I have many stories to tell. I've lived in Georgia all 30 years of my life, minus a miserable 15 weeks in Birmingham, AL. I love it here and don't see myself ever leaving. Not long after getting married Gus and I purchased our first home, boy has homeownership been more challenging than I imagined.

I'm going to try my best to be diligent and keep this blog up, we'll see how it goes. I'm that girl who takes her camera everywhere she goes but never actually takes any pictures. Here's to hopeing having a blog will remind me to some pictures!