Who has the best boyfriend in the entire universe?

You might think you do. And you might think your husband was before you were married. But you are all wrong.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII have the best boyfriend in the universe! At least until the next time he needs to go to the doctor. Then he’ll be on my bad list again.

We did Mother’s Day today over here because there’s a lot going on tomorrow. Rich is coming to Sunday School and Church with me. Then we’re going to walk some dogs at the rescue. After that Rich and the girls are going to visit his mother while I meet with the new president of the rescue’s board of directors. Some people are stepping down from executive positions and there’s a little animosity among the higher ups. I sent a couple of emails within a committee mailing list and somehow the new president recieved them as well. Within a couple of hours she sent me an email asking to meet with me tomorrow so she can let me know what is going on and why. As of now most of the volunteers are in the dark and most of us are worried. So, I’ll find out what the hell is happening and I’ll also find out what her plans are for me. She said she has some and I’m excited about that.

Anyway, back to the best boyfriend…

Remember that Keurig coffee maker I fell in love with at work? I’ve been firing that puppy up a couple times a day. And I’ve also started drinking actual coffee. My favorite is Vermont Country Blend. Today I became the owner of my very own Keurig coffee maker! For Mother’s Day! Squeee!!!

We also went shopping, trying to find something for my mother for Mother’s Day but I struck out. I might have to order somethihg online. She’s out of town this weekend so I’ve still got a few days for something to get here. Then we went to Outback for dinner.

It’s been a pretty darn good day, if you overlook the hyperness of my children. I don’t know what got into them today but they were so loud! Giggling and bouncing around and driving me insane.

I’ve got to head to bed soon so I can get up in the morning. I don’t know how well I’ll sleep because I’ve had two cups of coffee this evening. I had to break the coffee maker in you know.

I hope the rest of you have a fabulous Mother’s Day with your kids…and if you don’t have kids I hope you have a great day with your own mom.

The Pet Fiesta this weekend was fabulous! The weather was perfect, the turnout was awesome, and two of the dogs we had there got applications.

I didn’t get to take Theodore. When I got to the shelter on Saturday I found out he had been at the vet since the previous night. His neuter incision got infected and he was feeling bad. Poor boy. But I got to bring Turbo, who I loved, even after he puked in my car.

Turbo is a really good dog. He was fabulous with other dogs and he let little kids pet him and sucked up all that attention. This was amazing, especially since he was missing a bunch of hair.

He has large, ugly scars. Chemical burn scars. He was picked up as a stray but it was obvious that someone poured something all over him and it ate off his fur and skin in big patches. He’s completely healed but those patches will never grow hair again.

The Pet Fiesta got me motivated to jump back into the volunteer seat. I’ve been working on my Pibble presentation for the adoption committee. I’ve been gathering stories from people on my pit bull mailing list to read to the committee members to emphasize why it’s so important to follow the guidelines I’m going to lay out.

And then a mass email was sent out from the executive director. He sent us all his resignation.

This might not be too disturbing under normal circumstances. Rescue is hard. People burn out. But a couple months ago the president of the board of directors gave her resignation. Her successor has been appointed and, after connecting the dots, I have come to the conclusion that one of the negative volunteers he used to talk about in vague generalities is our new president.

Fabulous.

And then last night one of the members of the board followed right behind the director. His resignation letter cited his reason for leaving being “the changes that have been made so far” and “a small cliche of people who are resistant to change”.

The only change that’s been made so far? The new president. Unless there’s something going on behind the scenes that the rest of us don’t know about it’s the only reason I can see.

I emailed my “mentor”. She thinks these resignations are going to be good for the rescue. So now I’m wondering if she is one of the other volunteers who is resistant to change.

A few of us on the marketing committee exchanged some emails. I started that chain by expressing my concern for the animals. After I sent that initial email my in box was innundated with “reply to all” responses, all of which said pretty much the same thing I did.

So I’ve tabled my presentation for now. I could still work on it and then figure out a way to present my information to the public. Education is desperately needed but today I just can’t get into it. This rescue has been around for 30 years. That’s a HUGE accomplishment. So many rescues open and close within a couple of years…it’s expensive, it’s hard to find volunteers, and the burn out rate is really, really high.

One day I would like to start my own rescue. I know what all is involved. I know the business end of it, the marketing end. Those are not my strong suits. Maybe one day when I’ve been at my job and I’m making more money, one day when I have a house with a yard I can build a small kennel and pull dogs from the shelters and rehome them. But I can’t do that now. Now all I can do is hope my rescue works through this.

I’m not comforted by the knowlege that this type of thing happens about every 10 years or so. Volunteers get so wrapped up in politics it’s disgusting. There are a bunch of new volunteers who would like to figure out who these toxic people are that are jeopardizing our organization. We want to figure out how to get around them so the rescue can achieve more than it’s achieving now. This group does amazing things. The facility is by far the best I’ve seen. It’s got to keep moving forward.

I haven’t been able to integrate myself with the core group of volunteers. I did it once before but this group is a little harder to penetrate. I’m motivated though so it’ll happen. I will be a pest until these folks decide to put me to use. It’s sad that this is the way I’ll have to go about it but I am not going to watch this rescue crumble. There are too many animals counting on us.

This is Theodore. He’s gonna be my buddy all day tomorrow at the Pet Fiesta! Is he not the cutest thing?

Last year I was there as a vendor for the pet care business. This year I’m going as a volunteer, which suits me much better. I wish I could be handling a Pit Bull but the rescue doesn’t have any that wouldn’t be stressed by the hoards of other dogs that will be there. I can’t even bring my own dog because Jezzy would lose her mind. Still, I think Theodore and I will hit it off quite well. I even get to pick him up and take him back to the shelter which means he’ll have an enjoyable car ride, not a miserable ride in a van packed in a crate.

The only down side to the Fiesta is that it starts at 10 and I have to be up and out the door by 9. On a Saturday. Blerg. It’ll be well worth it though.

Did you know it’s possible to roll our eyes so far into the back of your head it actually kind of hurts a little? I am a champion eye roller and I just found this out yesterday.

Rich and I are on speaking terms (we hadn’t been due to our disagreement over when he should have gone back to work) but there was a lot of hashing and bickering before we got there.

He still thinks he’s right. I still think he’s wrong. And the fact that he can’t produce a doctor’s note for his boss stating that it’s OK for him to go back to work, which his boss has requested a couple of times already, allows me to feel a great amount of righteous indignation. But that’s neither here nor there…he did what he did and there’s no taking it back. And the fact that I know he’d do it again the same way if he had the choice makes me want to stab myself in the eye with a spork.

He has a doctor appointment today, which is when he will be officially released to go back to work. His incision is healing well and he can sort of bend over now. I learned this last night as well when Jezzy chewed up one of his only pair of work shoes. We had to get him some new ones and he had to try a few pairs on, which takes a good amount of bending.

Rich and I have learned a couple of things about each other in the last few weeks. I’ve learned that he will not do anything until/unless he’s good and ready. He’s learned that I do not back down. Ever. When I have it in my head that something is right there is no changing my mind and I will hound him until I drive us both insane. Unfortunately for us he waits too long to be ready. Fortunately for us I pick my battles and only worry him tenaciously over important issues. Most of which are health related.

Let’s all hope this is the end of health problems for a good, long while.

Jezebel hurt herself. Again. Somehow.

On Sunday night she was zooming around the living room. Rich said she ran into a chair. I don’t see how that would cause her to hurt her left hind leg but it’s the only “trauma” we can think of.

I called the vet yesterday when she wouldn’t put any weight on it. She was just letting it dangle, which is never good, especially for her because she’s stoic and will never show signs of pain. We tested her for Lyme first, since I pulled a tick off of her at the end of last week but that was negative.

We took two x-rays, which showed nothing out of the ordinary. My poor puppy’s legs look like directions for putting something together with all the screws and plates and stuff in her bones. The hardware is holding up and her hips look really good. When you’ve seen as many effed up sets of hips as I have you tend to appreciate what a healthy set looks like. She’s getting some arthritis in both knees, the left side more than the right, but not enough to be debilitating yet. I’m gonna have to start her back on glucosamine. I stopped giving it to her because she was spitting it out…but I’ll have to get some that tastes good. Or else get the granular kind and mix it with something in her food.

In anticipation of spending extra money on the mortgage I finally brought myself to get cheaper dog food. They’ve been eating Natural Balance, which is $45/bag, three times a month. I switched them to Pro Plan, which is crap in my opinion but I decided that I can’t be more picky about what I feed my dogs than I am about what I eat myself and feed my kids. The good food wasn’t keeping Chuck from getting ear infections and Jezzy really seems to like the taste of the Pro Plan (thanks to the artificial flavor they spray all over it). She was looking pretty thin, she wasn’t scrawny by any means but you could see her ribs when she turned a certain way and you could feel (but not see) her backbone when you petter her. She’s gained five pounds in the last two weeks, which puts her at a healthy 57 instead of a “willowy” 52.

I’m just not meant to have any money. Every cent I intended to save for house stuff has gone to the vet in the past two months. But, hopefully this will be the end of the vet visits for a good long time. If they’re going to need vet care it’s definately better to do it now than after we move and I have to adhere to the budget.

I gave Jezzy some deramaxx last night. This morning her limp was noticibly better. Hopefully at the end of the week when the medicine runs out she’ll be good as new.

She is a much better patient than someone else I know.

He’s not gonna make it off my bad list very easily this time.

Richard…drove himself into work today. Should he be driving? No. Especially not on a rainy Monday morning where the chances of having to drive defensively are pretty high. His range of motion isn’t anywhere near normal yet. Has he demonstrated his ability to make it through an entire day without needing to lay down? No. He still needs his pain meds and even with them he’s sore enough for everyone in the house to know he’s not feeling good. He just said last night that he can’t even sit in his recliner.

So what the fuck? What is SO important that he needed to go to work? He doesn’t even LIKE his job, he’s got a legal reason not to go…so why be such an asshole about this?

I’ll tell you what’s so important. He can’t stand to be told that he CAN’T do something. The more he’s told he can’t the more likely it is that he will, whether common sense tells everyone else that he shouldn’t.

So fine. Have your way. I didn’t argue with you this morning but I DID call your mother.

And don’t come to me later telling me that your doctor said you could drive to work today. I won’t believe a word of it. I didn’t hear him say it so as far as I’m concerned he didn’t. You have a tendancy to hear what you want to hear, not what’s actually said. Your version of anything relating to your health is always gonna be fabricated.

I hope you have a good day. Your evening isn’t going to be pleasant.

Now: Rich and the girls are watching a movie that I haven’t paid any attention to…but now I’m sitting here feeling sorry for some kind of sea dragon thing that just pulled a Free Willy maneuver, saving himself from death by cannon ball.

Earlier: The girls and I went to church and Sunday School today. Amie was tickled to find one of her friends from her old school in her Sunday School class. I let her sit with that girl and her family during church. Amber loved church today because two babies got baptized and the pastor invited all of the kids in the congregation up to the font so they could see the ceremony.

After church the girls and I went to the storage unit. I ran out of checks and had to find more. Of course they were in the least convenient place in the entire unit. At the BOTTOM of a tall stack of large boxes, which wasn’t within easy reach to unstack. After much struggling and an impressively limited amount of cussing on my part I found what I needed and we were able to head back home.

Rich is stir crazy. He can’t stand to not be able to come and go as he pleases. He asked if we could go to the mall so he could find some thingamabob. We went, he located some thingamabobs, but he didn’t like any of them so we left. Amber decided she wanted to get her hair cut so we went and did that. Her head of hair is now about six inches lighter and she’s been prancing around, flipping her hair around every chance she gets.

That sums up my Sunday. Tomorrow at work I have a class for half of the day and a nice stack of work to do after that. I’m anticipating a quiet week for me housewise. I’m not calling anyone, I’m not emailing anyone. I don’t want to hear from anyone unless they’re telling me when and where to be to sign the papers.

There might not be anything blog-worthy to report for the next few days. Don’t be suprised if I don’t update.

I did not want to pay for another month on my storage unit. However, since I am still homeless I didn’t have a choice.

I did not want to rent a P.O. Box. However, since I am still homeless AND addressless I didn’t have a choice.

I am so over all of this house buying bullshit. We missed the contract deadline for closing. We missed MY deadline for closing. I now have another month to keep my stuff in storage. Hopefully Rich can stand having us live with him for a while (notice I didn’t use the word “little” before the word “while”) longer. At this point I’m about ready to forget the whole thing, walk away from my earnest money deposit, and tell everyone working on my deal (except for my realtor) to go fuck themselves. The settlement company and my mortgage lender are the two sorriest excuses for businesses I think I’ve ever had the misfortune to deal with.

Although I would love to walk away from this whole mess I can’t. I’m relatively certain my last landlord wouldn’t give me a good reference (since I chose to give up my security deposit in favor of not filling the oil tank AGAIN and not cleaning the carpets as requested) and my prior rental was about five years ago. There’s no history to check. Although I suppose I could omit that last landlord…I’m pretty certain my realtor wouldn’t be down with that.
Then there’s the fact that I really, really like the house. I LOVE the house. Once I get in there I will be all warm and fuzzy, and probably sweaty too since the AC is fried…

I’ve decided that I won’t be calling anyone to check the status of my closing. That got me exactly nowhere for the past month. Plus I kind of pissed a bunch of folks off during a string of emails between me, my realtor, the other side’s realtor, and the loan officer and processor.

Me: Should I assume it would be wise to cancel my moving truck reservation for tomorrow?

Loan Officer: Kristie, I advise that you not schedule anything until you have a confirmed closing date and time.

Me: My mistake for thinking that a contract stating “on or before April 21″ meant that moving on April 26 wouldn’t be a problem.

Rich’s surgery went well yesterday. He’s home and, being Rich, not relaxing as much as he should be.

Last night was pretty rough; he wasfeeling green from the anesthesia despite the four anti-nausea “cocktails” they gave him. He hung out on the recliner for a little while but took his pain medicine and went to bed pretty early.

He slept well, waking up at about 3:30 starving. He ate a banana, took another pain pill, and slept until the alarm went off at 6:00. He’s in good spirits and made a point of cooking breakfast. Oh, and he’s a happy, happy man now that he has some coffee.

I’m at work. His mom works right down the street (we walk past her building when we walk the dogs all the time) and will pop in a couple times a day to check on him. I called her already to let her know how he was doing and to tell he what time he needs his next pain pill.

The hard part is over. The rest is down hill from here.

My nerves have effectively been plucked. Plucked to the point that they’re starting to fray.

I did manage to down three cups of hot chocolate today. Two from the new machine and one from my standby box of Swiss Miss. That might have had a little bit to do with my jitters. My boss wasn’t there for most of the day and I ran through my work pretty fast. I wound up inventing some busy work for myself in between phone calls to the realtor and the mortgage guy.

We had what I thought was a breakthrough yesterday. I though we were on our way to finishing this whole mess. But today? When I called the mortgage guy to see if he did the very simple thing that needed to be done he had no idea that it needed to happen.

Communication people. It’s lacking. So yesterday I was happy, today not so much. I’m hearing we “might” sign on “Friday”. The broker will “do everything in his power to make it happen”.

Excuse me, sir, if I’m not confident in your ability to “make it happen”. You’ve already proved to me that you’re pretty powerless.

In other news…I volunteered to work the pet fiesta on May 3rd. I sure hope I’m moved in by then. I’d hate to have to cancel at the last minute. I think it’ll be a lot of fun. I worked it last year for the pet care company. I think I’ll have a much better time this year.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.