I am extremely grateful for having been raised in a stable home, with stable parents. I'm not saying that my family is the perfect family by any means, and many of my family members have fought and struggled with addiction for many years. I'm proud to say, that I also have many family members who have overcome that addiction and have been clean and sober for many years, including my wonderful father. I'm grateful that I was raised with lots of love and lots of care. I'm grateful that my parents had a stable, healthy relationship (still do). That I never had to witness physical violence between them that led to police being called. I'm grateful that I was never abused by the hands of those that I loved and trusted the most. I'm grateful that I never had to resort to self medication in order manage my relationships. I am grateful for having a loving and supportive family. I couldn't have asked for better Parents, Grand Parents, Aunts and Uncles. Thank you all for everything you have done and continue to do for me! I love you all.
Shabby Christmas 3
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thanksgiving
As you are all well aware of, today is Thanksgiving. I wanted to mention the biggest thing that I am grateful for this year. As you may know, John and I both work at a group home for girls who have become wards of the state either through their own doing, or through the doing of their parents. Many of these girls have been subjected to physical, sexual, emotional abuse along with neglect. Some of them have parents who are (or were) addicted to various drugs that inhibited their abilities to care for their children. Some of them even introduced their daughters to their drug of choice, causing addiction with their daughter. All these, along with other reasons, are what you would typically think would put a child into state custody.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
A little bit of courtesy...
This entry is a vent session for. And since John is still at school, I haven't had the opportunity to say anything.. besides to myself.
Utah is a state full people who follow the LDS religion. One of the major components of this religion is charity and kindness towards others. There are days here that I feel that no one actually lives it. Chances are they are LDS, but they are aren't living this basic ideology. I will give you two examples from today that happened within a half an hour of each other. I had dropped John off at school after helping him go pick up some paper to make prints on for his photography class. I got on the interstate, heading south, and got off at my exit. They are doing massive amounts of construction on the interstate right now so lanes are little mixed up and not clearly marked when getting off at the Provo Center Street exit. I got into the lane which I thought was the right one, only to find out that it was the turning lane to get onto the interstate. I put my blinker on to move over into the straight lane, only to have at least 10 cars zoom right past me. Sure it was my mistake, however, had I been in the straight lane and someone else was signaling to move over I would have stopped and let them in. Is it really that hard to show a little kindness? The second I was backing out of my driveway and a car came around the corner while I was doing so. Instead of stopping and letting me finishing backing out, this other car zooms around me. Mind you, at this point I am pretty much in the middle of the road. Zooming around me meant going into the oncoming traffic side of the road. Would it have killed the person in the other car to wait 10 seconds for me to get my car into gear? No probably not.
I have such a hard time with the impatience and unkindness of the drivers here. I rarely see anyone do something nice for anyone else when driving and an opportunity arises. I'm not saying that Maine drivers are perfect either, but it seems that they are far more charitable and far more willing to do something nice for another driver. Utah needs to take a page out of their book!
Utah is a state full people who follow the LDS religion. One of the major components of this religion is charity and kindness towards others. There are days here that I feel that no one actually lives it. Chances are they are LDS, but they are aren't living this basic ideology. I will give you two examples from today that happened within a half an hour of each other. I had dropped John off at school after helping him go pick up some paper to make prints on for his photography class. I got on the interstate, heading south, and got off at my exit. They are doing massive amounts of construction on the interstate right now so lanes are little mixed up and not clearly marked when getting off at the Provo Center Street exit. I got into the lane which I thought was the right one, only to find out that it was the turning lane to get onto the interstate. I put my blinker on to move over into the straight lane, only to have at least 10 cars zoom right past me. Sure it was my mistake, however, had I been in the straight lane and someone else was signaling to move over I would have stopped and let them in. Is it really that hard to show a little kindness? The second I was backing out of my driveway and a car came around the corner while I was doing so. Instead of stopping and letting me finishing backing out, this other car zooms around me. Mind you, at this point I am pretty much in the middle of the road. Zooming around me meant going into the oncoming traffic side of the road. Would it have killed the person in the other car to wait 10 seconds for me to get my car into gear? No probably not.
I have such a hard time with the impatience and unkindness of the drivers here. I rarely see anyone do something nice for anyone else when driving and an opportunity arises. I'm not saying that Maine drivers are perfect either, but it seems that they are far more charitable and far more willing to do something nice for another driver. Utah needs to take a page out of their book!
Monday, November 15, 2010
It's about time!
A few months ago, John suggested that I should start a blog ( he probably has no recollection of this, but he did, I swear!) and considering everyone and their mother has one, I thought it would be a good idea.
The latest news for us, being a week old, is that we got a dog! We had talked about it briefly a few weeks back, but I am not the type to jump into getting an animal without properly researching what the best would be for us. One of the girls that we work with is HUGE into dogs and has innumerable dog books. When we mentioned that we were thinking about getting one, she pulled them all out and then started talking dogs with us. Since we live in an apartment, it only made sense to get a small dog. However, this went against everything that both John and I stood for. Small dogs bark to much, which is a huge turn off. But after a little digging, we came up with a few breeds that were small and not yappy. This group included Boston Terriers, Corgis, Italian Greyhounds and a few rarer breeds that you don't hear about a lot. The next issue we ran into was that all of these dogs when full blooded are EXPENSIVE! I really took a liking to the Italian Greyhound, but since the lowest asking price that I could find for these guys started at $400, I was put off. After all, we aren't made of money by any means!
Fast forward a few weeks. I was sitting at work and decided to check out pets on KSL. I found a listing posted by one of the local shelters and thought that I would check it out a little further. They had all the dogs that were ready for adoption listed and to my surprise and excitement, they had an Italian Greyhound! I texted John to let him know and we decided that we would go give him a look when I got home from work. It took us a while to actually find the shelter but once we did we found him quite easily. The poor guy had a "cone of shame" around his neck to prevent him from licking a pretty bad wound he had on his side. john was apprehensive at first, but as soon as we took him out of the cage and into the observation room, he changed his mind pretty quickly. I was ready to take him home, but a little worried about the price. Come to find out, he came to the shelter neutered, microchipped and vaccinated already, dropping his cost down to $40! This was an $800 dog and we were getting him for only $40. How could I say no to that? Needless to say, he came home with us.
We've had him for about a week and he is a wonderful pet. He's four years old, but greyhounds live between 10 and 15 years so he still has a lot of life left in him. :) He's barked twice, funny enough both times were at work. I'm guessing he was just getting a bad vibe from one of the boys that I used to work with who said hi. And then at a scarecrow also at work. He spends his days wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, or snuggling with you. We take him out three times a day to do his business and then come back inside ASAP. Since he is a greyhound, he has NO fat on his body and gets cold within five minutes of being outside. He is super picky about where he walks too, he hates anything besides pavement and will purposefully walk around grass to get to sidewalk or pavement again. He isn't a fan of leaves either, it's actually quite funny! He is affectionate beyond reason and will follow John around like a shadow. He isn't a fan of sleeping in his own bed, but that is one rule that we won't bend on!
Both John and I are grateful that we could save a shelter dog and provide him with a better life than what he was experiencing in the shelter. We are even more grateful that he is such a good dog! We both have become huge advocates of adopting shelter animals. So if you are looking for a pet, check out the shelter.
The latest news for us, being a week old, is that we got a dog! We had talked about it briefly a few weeks back, but I am not the type to jump into getting an animal without properly researching what the best would be for us. One of the girls that we work with is HUGE into dogs and has innumerable dog books. When we mentioned that we were thinking about getting one, she pulled them all out and then started talking dogs with us. Since we live in an apartment, it only made sense to get a small dog. However, this went against everything that both John and I stood for. Small dogs bark to much, which is a huge turn off. But after a little digging, we came up with a few breeds that were small and not yappy. This group included Boston Terriers, Corgis, Italian Greyhounds and a few rarer breeds that you don't hear about a lot. The next issue we ran into was that all of these dogs when full blooded are EXPENSIVE! I really took a liking to the Italian Greyhound, but since the lowest asking price that I could find for these guys started at $400, I was put off. After all, we aren't made of money by any means!
Fast forward a few weeks. I was sitting at work and decided to check out pets on KSL. I found a listing posted by one of the local shelters and thought that I would check it out a little further. They had all the dogs that were ready for adoption listed and to my surprise and excitement, they had an Italian Greyhound! I texted John to let him know and we decided that we would go give him a look when I got home from work. It took us a while to actually find the shelter but once we did we found him quite easily. The poor guy had a "cone of shame" around his neck to prevent him from licking a pretty bad wound he had on his side. john was apprehensive at first, but as soon as we took him out of the cage and into the observation room, he changed his mind pretty quickly. I was ready to take him home, but a little worried about the price. Come to find out, he came to the shelter neutered, microchipped and vaccinated already, dropping his cost down to $40! This was an $800 dog and we were getting him for only $40. How could I say no to that? Needless to say, he came home with us.
We've had him for about a week and he is a wonderful pet. He's four years old, but greyhounds live between 10 and 15 years so he still has a lot of life left in him. :) He's barked twice, funny enough both times were at work. I'm guessing he was just getting a bad vibe from one of the boys that I used to work with who said hi. And then at a scarecrow also at work. He spends his days wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, or snuggling with you. We take him out three times a day to do his business and then come back inside ASAP. Since he is a greyhound, he has NO fat on his body and gets cold within five minutes of being outside. He is super picky about where he walks too, he hates anything besides pavement and will purposefully walk around grass to get to sidewalk or pavement again. He isn't a fan of leaves either, it's actually quite funny! He is affectionate beyond reason and will follow John around like a shadow. He isn't a fan of sleeping in his own bed, but that is one rule that we won't bend on!
Both John and I are grateful that we could save a shelter dog and provide him with a better life than what he was experiencing in the shelter. We are even more grateful that he is such a good dog! We both have become huge advocates of adopting shelter animals. So if you are looking for a pet, check out the shelter.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)