A Doubly Nice Day

Mother's Day 2013.  When I awoke I lay in bed and remembered my own mother who passed away almost exactly 6 years ago.   She was my role model for motherhood.  Here I am at a young age learning how to be a mother to my doll.

   Mother's Day 2013 happened to coincide with my 54th birthday, so today was doubly special.  I asked my daughter, Annie, to document this day for me and handed over my camera to her.

I got online during breakfast to check emails and look at Facebook.

 

 The first thing I saw was a note from my sister, Lori along with an old picture of the two of us.

My eyes flooded with tears.

As I got dressed for church, I wore one of my mother's bracelets to remind me of her.

Then I went downstairs to go through old photo albums to find a picture of me and my mom for Facebook.  It made me sad to realize that I don't have very many pictures of the two of us. I made a mental note to take more pictures with my kids.

Off to church.  On Mother's Day in our church, it is tradition for all children to give a flower to their moms, and Annie picked a yellow carnation for me.  During a quiet moment of the service, I heard a familiar sound that again reminded me of my mom - the sound of someone breathing with an oxygen machine.

  When we got home, Vance took pictures of Annie and me on the front step.

 When we went inside, Kerry was awake and she gave me a big hug!  

 I put my flower in water.

Then I was wished a Happy Mother's Day by the dogs...

 and one of the cats. (Momo doesn't get friendly until the evening)

 My good friend and neighbor, Linda stopped by to chat for a few minutes.

 My neighbor, Cindy, gave Kerry a bunch of her old scrubs and Kerry tried them on for us!

Then we went outside to take some pictures on my new red bench that Vance got me for Mother's Day. 

Then we were off in the car to DSW to look for prom shoes for Annie.

Before we left, Kerry posed for this lovely photo with her face pressed against the car window!

At DSW, she had to try on a pair of sandals she would never buy and pretend to model them.

If you want to see the entire show, you can watch this short clip:

As Vance was getting dinner ready, Adam called and asked us to Skype.

His exams begin this week and he couldn't make it home.

I opened my cards and gifts so he could be there with us.

My mother-in-law came over for dinner (lasagna) and we had my favorite cake for dessert - angel food cake with whipped cream and raspberries.

Alice's birthday is two days after mine, so we celebrated it all!

After dinner, my sister, Lori called and I settled on the couch for what I knew would be a long phone call.  (Kerry likes to imitate her mother!)

I put the phone on speaker so everyone could join in the conversation. 

Then Momo got into her nightly position on my lap and wished me a Happy Mother's Day too!

It was a really nice day!

Scrub-a-Dub-Dub

I only do it a few times every year - spring, fall, and once in between.  It's not something I look forward to because it takes to long, but I am very happy when it's done.

It's giving Sami and Halle a bath!

Spanning two days, the process goes like this.

Because their fur is so thick, the first step is to brush them really well to remove any of the loose fur.  If I don't do this, it will come loose during the bath and then it tends to cause mats afterward.

Yesterday I got TONS of fur off Sami and Halle - mostly Sami.  It took me about 3 hours to comb and trim them, with Sami huffing and puffing and whining in protest.  Halle doesn't mind - I think she sees it as getting one-on-one time with me!

Today was bath day.  I managed to get it all done in 2 hours!

Sami was first. If I do Halle first, he stresses too much.  He actually doesn't mind the warm water in the shower and the shampoo/rub down.  This is followed by a conditioner which helps prevent their fur from tangling.  Then I dry him as much as possible with towels.

He looks so pitiful, doesn't he?  We think he looks like Eeyore.

Halle was up next.

She really doesn't mind it at all!

Isn't she adorable?

This is what I couldn't live without - my Metro Doggie Blow Dryer!

Rather than blowing hot air to dry their fur, it blows cool - but really forceful - air.

 You can actually see the water blowing off in the air.

Halle is pretending her head is in the wind riding in the car!

Just to show you how powerful it is, here is a picture of my nice, toned, muscular thigh  :)

 And here is my nice, toned muscular thigh with the air blowing on it!

OK, so bath time is done!

The first thing Sami does is go lay down in the dirt.

Halle doesn't take any chances that I will do anything else to her today.  She hides under the rhododendron!

They are all set for our visitors on Saturday.  A couple from Westchester County in New York is coming up to meet them.  They are thinking about getting a Finnish Lapphund from Shadagrace Finnish Lapphunds in Winnipeg, Canada and that's kind of a long trip for just a visit.  So instead they will meet a Lappy from Shadagrace - Halle.  If you look at the dogs on their website, you can see Halle's mother, Skyla, and her father, Oakley.