24

  That’s how many years Pearl and I have been married now. Of all our years together , this has been a tough one. With Pearl’s Dad’s health failing and money being tight. Yep things have been tough this year. But we’re still here, still love each other and are stronger than before the pains of the last year.

   This year we need to take more time for ourselves. With our kids almost grown it’s time for us to rediscover each other. We’ve been parents first and lovers second or even third for a long time now. We need to change that. I’m looking forward to the challenge of rediscovering us. Don’t get me wrong we still have fun and laugh together, it’s just becoming our time again. Before we know it, we’ll be empty nesters and we’ll be alone together again.

  This blog isn’t the most romantic thing I’ve ever written, but it is honest. I love my wife, she’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

I must be a better husband. I’m looking forward to a better year 25. I guess wanting to know my wife better is kind of romantic isn’t it?

Heavenfest 09…My Life Lesson

 On August 8 Heavenfest happened without my help. How was that possible? I mean I’m was supposed to be involved but wasn’t. It was almost painful for me to not be. I’m supposed to leave the event exhausted from work not just exhausted.

 OK I had a really good reason for not being involved. God told us we couldn’t. My Father-In -Law was really ill. Pearl and I were happily making plans for the entrance and other stuff. I was collecting foam for the cutouts that would be placed over the scaffolding, it was going to be spectacular. When one night we were in bed about to fall asleep, Pearl sits upright and says,” We can’t do Heavenfest!” I at first thought she was just having doubts on our abilities(something we do pretty regularly).  But then she started talking about her dad and how he was doing. I could tell God had spoken to her because she was right in everything she said. It turned out that Dad died the weekend before Heavenfest. We spent most of the week before Heavenfest running around to the point of exhaustion trying to make a nice memorial service for him. The running didn’t stop until the the Sunday after. We wouldn’t have had time to give our best effort and our hearts would have been heavy the week of set up.

 That having been said, every time  I walked by this it hurt a little. This was our project. We have never not completed something like this before. I can still see the finished gate in my mind. The swirly borders from Heavenfest.com  up the sides with the wings and logo across the top, all the scaffolding covered with black cloth. It was going to be SOOO COOL! But God said no.

 The lesson for us was this, Obedience. Plain and simple, Obedience. We didn’t have the time and God knew it. He wanted us to listen to him and to honor our father. Which we did and wouldn’t change what we chose to do. Pearl got to spend her father’s last days with him and not building the gate. Those days were priceless.

 I need to thank Tara and Dave( love those guys, two better people you could never meet). Tara gave us our passes, even though I didn’t feel like we had earned them. Dave drove by us with someone on his cart and said ” There’s some great people I know” right after we had walked past our unfinished gate( I was feeling a little discouraged). I was lifted   just by that comment. I also need to thank the people who were praying for us, we wouldn’t have made it without your prayers.

 Our hearts were still a little heavy from the week and our bodies were exhausted. Pearl and I had to leave before the end. We just ran out of gas. We were asleep on the couch at about 8:30.We missed out on the Sacred Assembly , so wanted to be there for that.

 I can still see the gate in my mind. NEXT YEAR! I still have foam. Did anyone happen to take measurements of the scaffolding???

  p.s. I must earn my passes next year. I loaned my truck to my friend and it had better access than I did!

That’s just not right!!

Pa-In-Law

Well, Pearl’s  father passed Friday after a long fight with what can only be described as old age. One which everyone loses in the end. Pearl was at the house when it happened and got to say one last” I love you dad” before he died.

Dad and I had a rocky start to our relationship, he didn’t want me to date his daughter, but I was determined to. He tried to intimidate me and I wouldn’t be intimidated. Eventually we sat down and talked and he reluctantly let me date her.( a conversation witnessed by Pearl’s brother and sister and still lives in family lore)  I think all he really wanted was someone to look him back in the eye and tell him they weren’t  going to hurt her.

I owe a lot to him . He didn’t think I was good enough  for his daughter , he was right. I needed to change some things in my life. A couple of years later while Pearl and I were dating I was losing my job. I tried to apply at Sysco, but they wouldn’t even give me an application. He got an application for me and hand carried it to the superintendent that hired me.  He got me the job I now hold twenty four years later. So he helped Pearl and I provide for our family.

In the past twenty seven years Dad became a man that I loved with all my heart , a man that helped me become the father I am. A man that I am proud to have been told ” I love you hito” by. I loved him to. I really feel that I became one of his kids. I miss him.

Ally is One Today!!

Happy birthday Ally!! We are so glad you came into our lives. I had forgotten how much fun it is to have a little person crawling around with you.G’ma and G’pa love you very much!

Origins Of Obnoxiousness

Some of you may be wondering,” How did Bryan turn out like this?”. This is my family history of humor.

It starts, as near as I can tell, with my grandparents. They used to have the family over for barbeque’s. By family I mean their kids, grand kids, cousins, their cousins kids, aunts, uncles, etc. During the event my grandfather would wear an apron my grandmother made for him. From all appearances it was a normal apron, until you lifted it. Under it was…a.. umm.. well let’s just say it made grandpa anatomically correct! Grandma made other things like that, neck pillows that looked like breasts, I got one of those when I was in my twenties, and cozies for ..well..lets just say grandpa’s apron never got cold.

That theme continued all the way through my family . Uncles , aunts, cousins, everyone was a little off. I have an uncle that to me looks like Hoss Cartright from Bonanza. At family reunions he would wear a hat that resembled a ten gallon hat. In the hat he would place the tail of the pig we happened to be roasting. I can remember my Uncle Kenny, when I was 8 or 9 telling me to take the frog I just caught to his wife and show it to her because she ” Liked Frogs”. Needless to say she didn’t and ran away screaming. People have been running from me ever since. My uncle Kenny has an artificial leg, he used to let us put change in the hole in the side of it. He said that was how he made his living. He would also sit on the floor and tell the kids that didn’t know he had a fake leg to pull on it . He would let out a scream when it came off and scare the poor kid half to death.

I recently went to my Uncle Oscar’s funeral. Another funny guy. At the gathering afterwards I was sitting next to my grand- niece Renee. I of course was picking on her like I have been taught. I would tap on her back and when she turned around I would tell her it was the octogenarian behind her doing it. After a while the old man behind her joined in and she didn’t believe me that I wasn’t the one doing the tapping anymore. I told her’”That old man behind you is one of the most obnoxious people here”. It was my Uncle Kenny. Renee didn’t stand a chance.

The obnoxiousness runs strong in my family. My grandparents had it, my parents have it, I have it, my kids have it. The world is in trouble.

A Day In The Life Of Bryan The Dog

This post was inspired by my dog Roddy. I’m trading places with him today.

This morning that thing that makes noise and puts out blue light in the room starts making noise. The blue thing looks like this” 5:00″. Roddy gets up, Mom stays in bed. Roddy goes and gets into that room where Mom washes me, and can you believe it? He washes himself. I sometimes come out of the bedroom and wait for him to come out of that room . When he comes out I nuzzle his hand and go to the back door and scratch it to go out and check out my guard post. Before he lets me out he puts a muzzle on me, it’s uncomfortable but I look kind of tough in it, so it’s cool. All is well outside, I think I’ll help him water and fertilize his grass. Time to go back in. Back to the door to be let back in. I scratch and he lets me back in. While the door is open he gets me some food and takes off the muzzle. I eat and get a drink of water. He’s eating too, his smells better, I’ll go stare at him and maybe he’ll give me some. ” I’m people and I like people food” is what I’m saying  with my eyes. He ignores me so I go back to my food. I’m getting sleepy so he lets me back into the bedroom and I take a nap, he goes to work.

I get up again when mom and Steven get up. I’m still kind of tired so I lay on the floor while they get ready to take Steven to school. Steven comes out of the room where they wash and pets me . I like that. I want more so I kind of lean into him and he pets me some more. AAAAAHHH! That’s good. Mom opens the blinds to let me look out the window and guard the front door. I see someone out the window, should I bark? I’ll wait a minute and see if I recognise him. He’s still coming, but he looks familiar, it…it’s… it’s Kody, Steven’s friend. I start wagging my tail,hard. I like Kody a lot. He pets me. They open the door and let Kody in. I want him to pet me so I jump on him. Mom yells at me for doing that so I just kind of hop around him until he pets me. They’re leaving so mom puts the muzzle on again and puts me outside to guard the house. I pretend I’m Animal Lecter, a mean vicious dog. Hey, my friends are out, I go over to the fence and chat across the yard between us.” Hey hows it going?” I say. They say ” It’s all good, why do you wear that thing on you face?’. I tell them” Well you see, I once had a guy get into my yard and I tore him up so bad they had to identify him with his dental records!”. They shiver with fear. I don’t tell them that I wear it because I have an obsessive compulsive disorder that manifests itself in chewing on everything and I almost died because of it. I see the red car driving up the road that means mom is home. I stand at the fence and whine just to make sure she remembers that I’m outside.

She goes in the front door and after a minute of me scratching the back door she lets me in. I start to sniff her hand and she pets me. AAAAAHHHH! that’s good. I eat and go take a nap on my chair. I let other people use it sometimes, but it’s mine. I sleep for a few hours.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Something wakes me up. I smell something. It’s food! Oh yeah surely she’ll feed me some of her food. I sit and stare at her saying “I’m people and I like people food” with my eyes. She tries to push me away, but I push back hoping  just to get a taste. Hoping she drops a crumb, what was that? she dropped something, it must be food. I start licking the floor in that area and find a little bit of food. OOOHHH Yeah! That was good. I go back to my chair, lick myself and sleep for a few more hours. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I wake up and the thing by the moving picture box says”3:00″. It’s time to go outside again, but this time while I’m outside Steven will come home! While I’m outside I decide to work on that tunnel to China I’ve been digging for a while now. The red car pulls up and I’m standing at the fence wagging my tail in a circular pattern, for some reason they think that is cute, and I see Steven. I get very excited and start to jump and whine for Steven. He goes to the front door I bolt to the back door and scratch for all I’m worth. He opens the door and I’m all over him, I missed him. I go and get as many toys as I can fit into my mouth and start to hint that I want to play. He pets me and plays with me for a few minutes. Then he goes and makes himself some food. I sit and stare at him saying” I like people food, can I have some?” with my eyes. He doesn’t share.

A few minutes later the blue truck pulls up. That means Roddy is home. I get all my toys again and I am waiting at the door when he comes in. He puts down everything he’s carrying and pets me. OOOOOHHH YEAH! I take some pleasure out of it, when you’re neutered you take what you can get. He gets something to eat and I sit and stare at him saying,” I like people food” but he doesn’t share. He does drop a few crumbs though, he’s kind of messy.

Mom makes dinner for them and Roddy gets me my dinner. I take a few bites and then go and stare at all of them while they are eating saying” I like people food and I’m people too”. Mom gets mad and puts some Parmesan cheese on my food. It worked! I finally got some people food. I scarf it down and go to find the crumbs they dropped.

 The evening is winding down now. Steven is playing his box with strings. Mom and Roddy are watching the picture box. I’m laying in between them getting petted by both of them. I roll over and allow them to scratch my belly and it’s good, it’s all good! I drift off to sleep chasing cats and digging holes that go forever. Paradise!

Lucky Dog 2 {The Sequel}

Well on Wednesday our stupid dog started to vomit, repeatedly. He couldn’t even keep down water. We tried to make him fast for the evening, but the next morning he was still sick. I looked up everything I could find on the Internet. Everything pointed to either an infection or a blockage in his intestines. We were hoping for an infection, it could be treated with drugs, the blockage with surgery. We take him to the vet and they do a series of ” radio graphs” or Xrays as they are called when dealing with humans. Of course he had a blockage. All day long that was my fear, the surgery is  expensive and we really don’t have the money for it. Most of the day I felt like the kid in ” Old Yeller” that has to shoot his rabid dog. We decided that he was just too young to put down{ he’s a year old} and we kind of like having him around. We came up with the money for the operation which he has late Thursday night, he’s out at 3:30A.M. We have to pick him up from the emergency clinic that we took him to and take him back to our regular vet at 8:00A.M, to spend the day recovering there. He was still pretty groggy but upright and walking when we took him there. They tell us to call in the evening  to see if he can come home or if we would have to take him back to the clinic for the night. They call us around 4: 30 and tell us he can come home. He’s home and alert and is doing well and we have to babysit him for a few days.

So all it cost was a six inch incision, six inches of intestine, and enough money to buy an older used car to keep our dog. That’s right he lost six inches of intestine. He had a three fourths inch piece of wood stuck in him.

 That’s actually it in the bag. They let us have it like a trophy. I want the intestine too. I paid to have it taken out I should get to see it like when you have you car repaired and they give you back the old parts they took out. Like I said he’s a lucky dog. He’s lucky he has a couple of softies for owners. Most other people I think would probably have  put him down. If it happens again we’ll have to. But he’s family and we love the stupid mutt.

This morning we went out and cleaned up the back yard. While we were out there we let Roddy wander around the yard. The dog starts trying to eat the mulch in the yard. STUPID DOG!!

P.S. You can see his last brush with death here . The look on the Steven and Roddy’s faces when they were reunited kind of makes the cost seem worth it, a little. Steven even asked if he could take Roddy when he moves out.

A Bundle Of Birthdays

This past month has been a busy one for birthdays. Ben’s was at the beginning of the month OOOOPS! We forgot it, But we later in the month took Audrey and him out to Famous Dave’s for a birthday lunch for both of their birthdays. Audrey”s was the 29th. It’s wonderful to see them and the worlds cutest grandbaby for whatever reason. They are being great parents to Al* E.. Love all of them with all my heart.

We took Steven out for his birthday dinner last night. His is Jan 4. We went to Ruby Tuesday. Pearl and I ordered our turkey burgers and Steven ordered his hamburger. Pearl’s and mine showed up and were correct , Steven’s however wasn’t. They brought him a Classic Burger, a meer half pound of beef, and he had ordered the Colossal Burger. This burger needs explaining. It’s two half pound patties stacked up like a Big Mac and comes to the table with a steak knife jabbed in the top to keep it from falling over. It’s about 6 or 7 inches high. I looked the nutrition values up and this thing is 1937 calories and 140 grams of fat so basically it’s a heart attack on a plate.  I wish I could find a picture of it, I think it’s one of the seven wonders of the world.

 Pearl and I started our meals while they were fixing Stevens. His came and he devoured it before Pearl and I finished ours.  We kept our hands and feet back so we weren’t hurt during the feeding frenzy. I just don’t know where he puts it. My turkey burger totally filled me. When we left we stopped and bought him a pie for his birthday{ it’s what he wanted} he had two pieces of it. He also had two lemon aids with dinner. I could never had packed away that much food. Well, not without a vomitorium nearby.

Full House

Audrey, Ben and Alyssa have moved in with us for a week or two while they are waiting for their new apartment to become available. This makes our tiny house very full. But that’s a good thing. I get to hear my daughter’s voice in the house again and it’s been forever since I’ve heard a baby giggle in the house. Ben has already set up a wireless network so he can get on the Internet to. I’m sure we’ll be bumping into each other, and waiting on the bathroom, but that’s what families do. You wait your turn and still love each other when you bump into someone.

Happy Anniversary Pearl

They say behind every good man is a good woman. I say behind every good man is a woman ready to jump on his back and stick a camera in his face.

 Twenty three years ago today we were married. Seems like yesterday. Time flies when you’re having fun I guess. I had you hooked from the very beginning with my first words to you. ” You can sit down I don’t bite” one of the classic pickup lines if I’ve ever heard one. OK maybe not but I grew on you kind of like a fungus. A year later I choked out ” I have a problem, I’ve fallen in love with my best friends girlfriend”. It was probably the hardest thing I’ve had to say, and to my surprise you didn’t run away laughing, you looked back at me with the same love in your eyes I had for you. I’m blessed, I’ve seen that look almost everyday for almost 26 years. You’re my wife ,my love, and my best friend. Happy anniversary.

Our unnofficial song when we were dating.