Happy Reunion -- Get Out the Tissues

This video is out of Chicago, from the ABC affiliate there. It depicts the arrival of a bomb-sniffing dog named Clia in the airport concourse after her retirement. She was surprised by her former handler who has been allowed to adopt her. Her sheer joy at seeing him, and his obvious love for her, are genuinely heartwarming. I get happy tears every time I watch it -- and I've watched it a lot!

Post by ABC 7 Chicago.

Her handler, SGT Jason Bos, says, "It's time for her to retire and live the couch life." I love  the comments left on the original post on Facebook.

Merry December 2014, and Happy 2015!

I love this time of year -- especially when things are going well and our loved ones are healthy and happy. And, praise be, that is the case again this year. No heart surgery for Pepper this year; no gut surgery for me! Plus, we have our Miracle Mysti who is back to her old sassy self:

And we still have one of the Litter -- now known as Bouie Junior by his new family -- among the living.  He has developed a habit of digging in the backyard, and had the misfortune of disturbing a sleepy Copperhead while engaging in that craft. This is what he looked like on December 23rd:

Doesn't that just break your heart?!?!  Fortunately, his new family knew him well enough to know he was in trouble and got him to the Emergency Vet (cha-ching!!) in the middle of the night where he received the lifesaving medical attention he needed. Here he was yesterday:

Much better! His eyesight doesn't appear to be impaired either, so he's the most recent Christmas Canine Miracle. I can't decide whether he favors Mysti more, or Bouie, but he's a handsome lad indeed.

Yes, the tree still stays up until Epiphany -- January 6, so I am still permitted to send out wishes for a Merry Christmas!  January 6th also happens to be the kick-off of the Carnival Season, so Moogie's Manor needn't go without excessive decor for even a moment! This was on Christmas Eve before the grands arrived and pandemonium ensued. Daughters thought that building gingerbread houses might be a good way to entertain the young ones (read "distract" them!) until time to demolish the wrapping paper:

I think they did pretty well! (And the distraction worked! For awhile.)

Although he was one of our best gifts of all times, Bouie was pretty wiped out on Christmas Day:

A week before the Christmas revelry, we celebrated Pepper's birthday at the Manor with a Family Dessert (spelled, "Moogie didn't have to prepare and clean up after an entire meal.") How cool, and yummy, is an Apple-Pie-Baked-Into-A-Chocolate Birthday Cake?!?! (I did bake the cake!  Recipe available on The Food Network.)

Dang that was tasty!

Included in the season's gatherings were the three yellow sisters from the litter. That's our Yap on the left, little Chelsea in the middle, and Persi (short for Persephone) on the right:

Here are a few more dog pics because, these days, I smile every time I look at our pups (as long as one of them isn't shredding something or tracking in muddy prints). And, I still marvel at Mysti's and Bouie's stamina and ability to heal from the most dire of mishaps. (P.S. -- Yap now has veterinary insurance!):

Daddy and Daughter

Mama and Daughter

 Playtime!

Can you believe how she's grown? Nearly 5 months.

These make our family complete.

So, we're still enjoying Christmas decor:

We're enjoying the decor, except for one item. Pepper received a gift that now graces the windowsill of the Water Closet in our bathroom. That's the perfect place to display it because seeing that smug, Imperial face leering down at you just scares the s**t out of you.

Who needs laxatives?!?!

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Happy New Year!!

A Labor Day Weekend to Remember

The joint is jumping at Moogie's Manor!

The puppies are growing!  They're so very smart! At 3 1/2 weeks they figured out to go to the far end of the pen to do their business so they don't soil their sleeping area. We had to abandon the puppy pool because it ceased to be a containment area -- more like a mild obstacle to freedom. Several have been spoken for (including ours!), so I have no doubt they will all find good, loving homes -- many nearby, so we'll be able to follow their progress. They recognize us and want us to play whenever they're awake -- it melts my heart to see a puppy looking at me with affection. And probably hunger! We'll start them on cereal this weekend. Here's a little puppy playtime from this afternoon -- their 4-week birthday (featuring the escape artist I have nicknamed "Dora, the Explorer."):


I was spirited to a friend's cabin on the Little Red River last Friday (Elder Daughter volunteered to spend the night here to watch the puppies) for a delightful evening complete with good food, good conversation, and a long, heavy rainfall which we enjoyed from the screened porch. Pepper got to do a little fly fishing on Saturday morning, and we had a nice lunch at The Red Apple Inn before heading back to Little Rock to watch the Razorbacks "entertain" the Auburn Confused Mascots at The Son's House.

Except, we didn't watch the game at The Son's House. We watched it at Moogie's Manor along with a large number of our friends at my Surprise Sixtieth Birthday party!

To be honest, I had deduced that there was going to be a party, but I had no idea it was going to be here! Daughters cleaned nicely (thank goodness!) and moved (read, "hid") all kinds of tchotchkes so they could do a Moogie-centric decorating scheme, with Razorback flourishes. (I'm still locating stuff!) There was good food, lots of laughs, and semi-decent football (at least until the fourth quarter).

Is that a fabulous cake, or what!

The book is one I gave my mother years ago -- The Southern Lady. I love that my girls think of me that way.

 

Elder Daughter spent a lot of time in contact with the yearbook at the U of A. They sent her several pics of me that appeared in a Volume from a "few" years back. This is my favorite. It proves to me that I didn't really just make this up in my head. Here is Moogie, calling the Hogs, along with a few friens. Do you see me? There was a lot less of me to love back then:

And, as Younger Daughter pointed out, even Buddha was calling the Hogs!

I have a wonderful, sneaky family!

And, at age 60, I have nine puppies who need to be entertained several times during the night. So, I. Am. Tired!

Happy weekend!

We Have Grandpuppies! LOTS of Grandpuppies.

Nine, to be precise! Five boys and 4 girls, healthy, squirmy, and exercising stronger voices by the day! They were born Friday night, after we had gone to Elder Daughter's to watch the Saints game, of course. By the time we got home, at about 9:00, she had already whelped three of them -- on the couch in our bedroom. (I took the couch cushion to the cleaners this morning -- we shall see. We can always turn the cushion over, but I do hope they can get any odor out of it.) The couch, pre-birthing suite (you don't really want to see the post- view):

I gathered up the pups and got them to the pool, where Mysti quickly joined them. Pepper worked on the couch and carpet for awhile. And my purse, which had a little puppy residue in it, too. I know -- gross. Daughters and DiLshowed up after eight had arrived and we thought that was all of them. Pretty cool -- 8 puppies born on 8/8! Daughters headed home, but DiL stayed for a bit. After 30 minutes or so, she said, "Is that another one?" I thought, surely not -- it's been so long since the last. But, sure enough here came another -- the largest one yet! We did have to help break the sac, though.

Younger Daughter was pretty concerned about the runt, who had a little trouble latching onto Mama. She did internet research, gave us an eyedropper from Grand #5's diaper bag to try a Karo Syrup coating on one of the teats, and just fussed in general. Fortunately, the little guy got the hang of it eventually and is growing like Topsy.

I took this shot the first time Mysti voluntarily left the puppy "bed" (that's spelled "pink, plastic wading pool!").

I promise I didn't place the pups in this shot -- they just kinda wound up like this.

Bouie has been feeling a trifle marginalized the last few days -- a tad on the needy side. He has wound up in bed with us for the last several nights. Not a good thing -- he's a bed hog.

Yesterday, Pepper distracted Mysti and Bouie so I could take the pups to the Vet to have their dew claws removed. (The useless little claws are removed so they don't get caught and ripped off in brush and stuff, thus risking infection.) Here they are, going on their first field trip. Can you believe I got them all in a laundry basket? They really seemed to enjoy the car rides!

Several of them like to sing with their supper. Pretty funny.

We have homes for several of them, but we'll keep one. Bouie's and Mysti's bloodlines are just too good not to be preserved, but I doubt we'll be having puppies around here anymore. We're too darned old to have 9 infants in the house! Especially after bedtime! But the cuteness factor is pretty cool, and Mysti is such a good little Mama! I'm really proud of her (and grateful! Can you imagine bottle-feeding nine puppies?!?!)

I need a nap.

A Little Dirt Under the Fingernails Can Be Pretty Therapeutic

A Louisiana friend swears by the notion that on gorgeous days like today, by day's end you should smell like dirt. Pepper and I are doing our best. Spring is bustin' out all over at Moogie's Manor!  Look at these gorgeous trees that greet visitors from their spot next to the front door.

When we moved in late June, the Japanese Maple was identifiable, but I didn't really pay much attention to its companion tree.  We didn't realize that it's a magnificent, mature white dogwood until a week ago.  Wow! What a color contrast! There are Encore azaleas, too, and we put in an orange Hibiscus a few days ago (because I'm pretty sure the big Firecracker plant didn't survive the winter). I can't wait for the peonies to bloom!

There was not a whole lot of dirt at Moogie's Mansion, and that caused me to have to grow my herbs in containers where they didn't always survive the brutally hot summers. So, I'm understandably super excited to have tons of rich soil, brimming with friendly earthworms at the Manor!  You probably can't tell from the pic, but in the two beds I've put in sweet basil, lemon thyme, rosemary, both curly and flat-leaf parsley, lavender, chocolate mint, and chives!  They're already growing!  I'm thinking that I need to add a little cilantro and dill now, too. There's also a new baby gardenia in the curve of the back bed to give us a little gardenia action before I plant JB's in the front side-yard next fall.  I'm letting it grow strong in the controlled indoor environment before subjecting it to the whims of Mother Nature.

We lost our minds yesterday and went to Home Depot (which honors the military discount now, by the way, so they no longer have to bite me) where we invested in three flowering fruit trees and a pink dogwood. Pepper planted them this morning while I was out, so he'll be stove up for a few days.  He put the peach next to the hibiscus and hydrangea we planted earlier in the week. I also added some solar landscaping lights.  I'm looking forward to this evening to see how the configuration looks.  That's a good thing about solars -- you can move them around if you need to. And, you can bring them indoors when you have a power failure and don't want to bust out a bunch of heat-generating candles. (Helpful Tip of the Day!)

We also got some hanging baskets for the deck and colorful plants for the containers. One of them is a fern. I'm a little leery of the fern -- I've never been successful at keeping them alive in baskets, so we shall see. This one will be in a nice shady spot when the trees get through leafing out so it at least stands a fighting chance.

It's good to immerse oneself in happy, life-affirming things after a week like this. Please think of Younger Daughter and SIL#2 tomorrow -- the funeral will be in the afternoon.

Then go play in the dirt.

Sniff the Air and Take a Stroll With Me

I just finished reading the "High Profile" section of the Sunday paper.  It's akin to the "society" pages of days gone by.  On the front page, one person is featured, and part of the feature is asking the honoree to answer seemingly silly, insipid, Barbara Walters-esque questions (Who would you invite to your ideal dinner party? What is your favorite color?). One of today's interview topics was "a smell that makes me nostalgic."  The subject, a Vietnam Vet and long-time Director of the North Little Library system, gave such an elegant and insightful answer that it caused me to go digging around in my head for scents and aromas and smells that make me nostalgic.

There are the obvious ones of course, like french toast and maple syrup, or Jergen's Lotion, or leaves burning in the barrel-shaped wire incinerator, or freshly-scrubbed babies' heads, but the two I finally settled on are two I haven't encountered in a long time. The first is:

Purple irises.

The scent of an old-fashioned iris takes me to both sets of grandparents' homes.  Nonnie and Pop's backyard in Little Rock had the most beautiful iris garden.  They must have planted a hundred bulbs.  When I was a little bitty girl, they would set me in the big middle of the garden on a bright, sunny day in the spring, when my eyes were sure to crinkle, to take my picture with their old Kodak box camera.  I remember closing those eyes, turning my face skyward, and drinking in as much fragrance of iris as my little lungs could hold, then puffing it all out at once while giggling a little girl giggle.  Then we would go inside where I could be the manager of a "store" created by opening the two corner floor cabinet doors so they would intersect.  I would get behind that "counter" and "sell" them dishes.  Then I'd make a big production of closing and locking the store, and we would all go to the den to watch "Wide World of Sports" and share a big bowl of Yarnell's vanilla ice cream.  Pop passed away before my sixth birthday.

Bee Mama and Daddy Gus's house in Nashville (Nashville, Arkansas, not that place in Tennessee that mispronounces itself.  It is pronounced NASH-vul, not Nash-vill.  The emphasis is on the first syllable, both syllables do not have equal emphasis.)  had purple irises in the front yard, right beside the biggest purple hydrangea you've ever seen. Granted, I was a little girl, but that hydrangea seemed like its own forest to me. There were yellow irises out back. They had a slightly less powerful fragrance than the purples, a little softer. I remember "helping" Daddy Gus weed his garden with that yellow iris scent in the background, then passing by the purple iris scent when we rounded the free-standing garage on our way to the kitchen for some home-cranked fresh peach ice cream made with peaches that Bee Mama had "put up" in wax-covered paper   freezer cartons the summer before.

Hmmm.  It seems that ice cream seems to be playing a prominent role in Moogie's journey into memories today.

The next fragrance to stand out is:

Chanel No. 5.

Every year when I was a child, without fail, for their December wedding anniversary, Daddy would carefully wrap and give Mama a small bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume.  Not cologne, mind you, but the real thing -- french eau de parfum.  He might have messed up and given her Arpege one year, but Arpege was more for everyday use, not just for special occasions. I probably could still tell you today what it is if I saw a wrapped Chanel No. 5, so distinctive is that box's shape and size.  Mama made that bottle last almost the entire year -- she often ran a little short in December if they'd had a particularly social year.  She always kept it in the box on her poudre dressing table; it wasn't good for perfume to be exposed to sunlight, she said. When I saw Mama gently and sparingly applying little dabs of Chanel with the glass rod that slipped and clinked inside the bottle, I knew she would soon be dressed to the nines, and that I would have a special babysitter who would bring me little girl treats like bobby pins or Archie comic books.  I would also get to have a rare feast of Austex Spaghetti and Meatballs in a can, or a frozen Chicken Pot Pie, or -- heavenliest of all heavenlies -- a Turkey and Gravy TV Dinner with a little chocolate cake dessert in the corner of the aluminum pan!   You know, instead of those boring ol' homecooked meals with real meat and vegetables. And cornbread.

As a casualty of adult-onset allergies, fragrance is no longer worn by Moogie.  But there was a time, early in our marriage, when Pepper gave me Chanel No. 5.  That's when I came truly to understand that he kinda likes me. I probably have that bottle stashed away somewhere.  I think I'll go look for it.

And, maybe have a little ice cream.

Why don't you join me?

Family -- Wow!

Moogie and Pepper are thrilled to announce the arrival of grandson John Michael  ("Jack") on Thursday, July 26, 2012, at 11:55 a.m.. He weighed in at 8 lbs 3oz, and stretched 21".  (Big, healthy boy!).

ALERT -- childbirth stuff! (recorded mainly as a memory aid for Moogie)

We finally got them out of the hospital and home yesterday.

It seems that Moogie passed along a bizarre genetic defect to Elder Daughter that allows the placenta to grow into the uterus, and usually that means that a part of the placenta gets torn off and remains there after birth, to be sloughed days later.  For Moogie, having a positive Rh factor, this was mostly an inconvenience plus a little extra cramping and excessive blood loss. For Elder Daughter, however, it was a bit more problematic.

It also seems that Pepper passed along a negative Rh factor to Elder Daughter, but she didn't pass it along to Jack.  That meant that the retained placenta fragment was leaking Rh Positive fetal cells into her bloodstream. All that, added together, caused a perfect storm threatening to reject future pregnancies that involve an Rh+ fetus.

So, after consults with specialists and professors and colleagues, the docs kept Elder Daughter hospitalized, and did a DNC on Sunday to remove what they then assumed was the last of not-sloughed retained placenta to stop the flow of Rh positive fetal cells. That turned out to be good all the way around, even if it did send Moogie into weepy spasms because her seriously fatigued and weak 31year old baby girl was going under general anesthesia; the DNC stopped a week-long, in essence, labor trying to get rid of that last bit of placenta. And it gave them more time to wage the Rh war.

To win that war, Elder Daughter would have to endure additional RhoGRAM injections of a bazillion CCs, every 6 hours, for 42 hours.  Fortunately, the injections could be administered by IV push instead of shots (fortunate because tthe shots apparently really hurt!).

It turned out that the Rh numbers after the last planned injection were nearly perfect, but not 100%, so the docs decided to give her one last dose of the R stuff on Tuesday.  But they didn't make her stay in the hospital or go to their office to do another analysis of her blood levels because they were confident that all will be well.

So, Elder Daughter's new family got to go home Tuesday afternoon to introduce the canine children to the human child.  As Moogie remarked, the pups have a new pet!

No one on the maternity floor, or within the doctors' experience, had ever experienced a rising measure of positive numbers postpartum following a few extra doses of RhoGRAM. Daughter's nurses had never experienced administering more than one RhoGRAM shot to an Rh- mom, and Daughter experienced  a total of seventeen. So, it looks like the arrival of Baby Jack will be documented in medical literature.  The docs are already gathering data to help defuse future perfect storms for many Rh- people.  And that's a good thing.

But, in the here-and-now,  Moogie is grateful to a loving God that we have an Elder Daughter, a Jack, and the promise of future Elder Daughter-lets. 


Meanwhile, welcome Baby Jack, and thank you, God, for the countless blessings!


I'm On the iPad, pics to follow.  He's a cute little stinker!

Happy Mardi Gras 2012!!!

I briefly tried to post a small political distraction on the iPad, but the App gods had other ideas, so . . .

Happy gorgeous, joyful Mardi Gras!!!!

I'm sleeping for the next day or so.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Carnival, and the Status of the Unionized Speech

Why, yes, I am still alive, thanks for inquiring!  I'm not sure where last week went, but it was probably consumed with the taking down of Christmas finery, the putting out of Mardi Gras excess, and our first ever Endymion Coronation Ball. Pepper will be riding on a brand new super float, throwing trinkets to the masses, and getting properly lubricated for the Extravaganza that follows the parade on February 18th in the Superdome.

The Coronation Ball was pretty impressive -- it staggers the imagination to think of the logistical nightmares that accompany an intimate dinner service for 5,000+, but it was pulled off with style and flair (even though we left before the Second Line parade -- the Second Line parade that kicked off at 2:00 a.m.!  Pepper and Bouie had a date to go bird hunting early on a foggy Sunday morning.)

So, it's beginning to look a lot like Mardi Gras here at Moogie's Mansion!  We're expecting anywhere from 4 to 9 guests for the big second weekend.  I guess folks are finally accepting that this could be our last Carnival season as New Orleans residents (translation: free bed and breakfast a block off the Uptown parade route).  Here's a little bit of the finery --

The dining room is my favorite spot to decorate for Mardi Gras because we spend a lot of time at the table -- and you have to go through the dining room to get most anywhere downstairs.

The front parlor is fun, too.

Then, there's the upstairs tribute to my Krewe of Muses, the night-parading, all-woman Krewe.  I usually leave this good loot out all year 'round so our houseguests have an adequate opportunity to develop an appropriate appreciation for the Muses.  If Pepper wants to erect a shrine to Endymion he'll have to find another spot.

Yep --  shoes play a large role in Muses treasure.  (The roll of toilet paper is from the Krewe of Tucks.  Their monarch doesn't ride on a throne, he rides on a giant toilet and throws plungers and squirting toilets!).

And, of course, the Sophie Wright marching band is in full practice mode, and they've been practicing outdoors in the unusually-warm weather we've been experiencing.  Yep. I had to turn on the AC in the middle of January!

I'm sure I'll feel like this come Ash Wednesday.

Now, changing gears, what Drinking Game trigger words shall we establish for tonight's Status of the Unionized speech?  "Fair share?"  "Millionaires and billionaires?"  "Educational opportunity?"  Everyone had better get a designated driver set up -- this could be a tipsy evening!