2011... It's Not the End of the World

I love new years. Not just New Year's Day or Eve, but just the start of a new year in general. Following Christmas up with a little champagne and a noise-maker and celebrate a new beginning... and a tax return check. There's something so exciting and pure about a new year, but so far, 2011, I'm not impressed. Not jaded. No way. Not yet, anyway. Just a little let down. Shouldn't 2011 be like the greatest year ever!? You know, since 2012 is the end of the world and all. 2011 should totally kick the crap out of 1999 and all that Y2K business. That was just supposed to be the end of all electronics... perhaps leading to long life in the dark ages, but 2012 is supposed to be the END OF THE FREAKIN' WORLD. So far, though, this year has been mediocre at best. With 2010 ending with events like a white Christmas, 2011 has a lot to live up to. A white Christmas. An actual "go to bed with no snow and wake up Christmas morning with over an inch of snow" WHITE CHRISTMAS. That's the only time that's happened in my lifetime! Take that 2011. Of course that happens when we're just falling in love with the snow, too. There's that childlike awe we get watching the first snowfall. Now that it's January and I'm starting to fantasize about sending my kids outside to play, the snow and cold weather are really starting to lose some of it's romance. In fact, every time I look at the Facebook posts of our local weather station and see an exclamation point after "Snow expected this evening, up to 1" to 2"" I get the sudden urge to stab hot pokers in their eyeballs. I mean really? An exclamation point? A period wouldn't suffice? Like we're supposed to get super excited about living in a city that shuts down at even the very hint of snow? We got 4 inches of snow and we were snowed in for 5 days. FIVE. And you have the nerve to get all giddy over MORE snow!? Hot pokers. That's all I'm gonna say.

So I have these 3 children all forced to live indoors with me with nowhere to go, nothing to do and it's wrestling season. So my officiating husband is gone basically every weekend or evening in January. I'm sure by now my kids are wanting to stick hot pokers in MY eyeballs. It's miserable. I'm forced to be Grumps McGee constantly yelling at them for trying to keep themselves entertained by doing things like trying to ride their scooters in the living room or trying to climb the stairs as a human pyramid with the baby on top. Apparently I never let them "have any fun." Pile on top of that our electric bill from all of those ridiculously cold days we've had for weeks (before you get on me for complaining about the cold in Tennessee, let me remind you that I live in TENNESSEE!) This is the HIGHEST electric bill we've ever had in this house. $180 higher than last month's bill... the one in 2010. So 2011 - you and me are not cool, yet. I still have high hopes though. Lest I forget it's only January, and only mid January at that! There's still a whole year left and I have a feeling 2011 is going to make up for this crappy January. So, I'm going to try and focus on some of the good things that have happened in 2011 so far.... right now.

On January 2nd I got to go to my first game at Mile High! That was awesome. It's so different seeing the Broncos play at home. It's pretty cool not having people give you dirty looks for wearing blue and orange. Also, it's January which means PLAYOFFS!! And even though the Broncos had the 2nd worst record in the league, the Patriots lost to the Jets in the playoffs and the Patriots losing is always worth celebrating! Shawna pooped in the potty for the first time the 2nd week in January and I'm really hoping that we'll have her totally potty trained before summer. I'm thinking if we can continue bribing her with various items pertaining to Scooby-Doo (with whom she has recently become unhealthily obsessed) then I think we'll be successful. Plus, my cousin and my best friend are both having babies in 2011 so that will be amazing! So, the optimist in me is thinking we can start this 2011 off right... if we could just get it to stop snowing... maybe let the weatherman put an exclamation point after "unseasonably warm this week" this time. That I could live with!

In all seriousness, I really am looking forward to all 2011 has to hold - snow or no snow. So, Happy New Year! And even if 2011 ends up sucking hard... it can't be worse than the end of the world, right?

I'm gonna look into this 2012 thing more... I'll bet there's some really great material there.

Our Christmas Card

Merry Montage Christmas

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Denver... in a few words

I said goodbye to a dear friend today. He was my snuggle-bunny for 13 years. Born on St. Patrick's Day, my little Denver was a true Murphy. I called him "the dog that was never meant to be." He was a mix of a Daschund/Beagle and a Shepherd. I don't know what kind of shepherd the mom was, but she wasn't a huge dog... maybe 50 pounds, and tall. Way too tall for a Daschund/Beagle, but I think she had a crush on him. Anyway, their little litter produced black and tan puppies and cream colored puppies. They were giving the accidental litter away. We wanted a boy dog, being that we already had a very big girl dog and we didn't want to stir the pot too much by adding another female. Matching dogs would have been fun, but all the black and tans were girls. So we picked the feisty little cream colored boy and off we went.



That little bugger was a piece of work right from the start. Growled at me all the way home. The vet said we needed to "mom" that attitude out of him. So every time he growled or snapped we had to roll him on his back and growl at him. I think we might have done it too much because before long he was a timid, little love with a pension for snuggling. He and Girlie got along fine even with the size difference... she being 95 pounds and a Rottweiler and he being a 30 pound squirt. Girlie was no stranger to small dogs, though. When Neal and I moved to Knoxville, she stayed with my parents for a few weeks while she recovered from being spayed. They had a Lhasa Apso named Riley who was as dumb as a post and looked like an Ewok. She fell madly in love with him and he wanted nothing to do with her. Unrequited love... but she was never bitter.


Denver was quirky. I like to think most dogs are quirky, but Denver was exceptionally quirky. His favorite pastime as a puppy was to run the length of the house, jump on the couch, swing his back legs up by his head - bending his impossibly long body into a "U" shape and then push off with his back legs. It looked like a swimmer pushing of the wall on a turn, but on dry land. He would do lap after lap after tiring lap. When he was done, he would climb the stairs and sit in between the first and second floor on the steps and shove his head through the railing and hang down the wall as far has he could. The only thing holding him up was his shoulders and then he would fall asleep.
At night he would climb in bed with me to go to sleep, but he would have to burrow under the covers and sleep in the curve of my legs. Our first bed was sort of this king sized bed that was so old I think it might of been one of the original king sized beds... like "Ozzie and Harriet finally pushed their twins together" type of king. It had a king sized box-spring, but two twins on top. They make a piece that fits over or around the space between the two beds to keep them from separating, but we didn't have it. Sometimes we would wake up in the morning and Neal would be in the middle of the bed, the two mattresses would be about 6 inches apart and the only thing keeping Neal from spilling onto the box spring would be Denver. He would be laying underneath Neal in the crack of the two mattresses like a giant mole - perfectly content to be stuffed between two mattresses and sandwiched in between Neal and the box spring. When he didn't want to be on the bed, he would bury himself under it. Sometimes we would look for him everywhere only to discover two small rear paws sticking slightly out from under the bed skirt from where he had sprawled out and slid under the bed to hide, but just didn't get under far enough.


He never really learned any tricks, but he did track a new bed all the way up to the guest bedroom by simply smelling the floor. He had as good a sniffer as I've ever seen. The only command that ever really stuck with him was "Get in your house." He LOVED being in his kennel. He was very obedient. Never went into the kitchen or ate people food. Never bit anyone... but the old man version did grumble a lot. The kids as babies kind of unnerved him, so for the most part he kept his distance. He liked them much better the older they got. On several occasions he stayed in Gwyneth's room when she was scared and helped her get to sleep.




His ears were so big when they finally stood up that everyone thought we should have named him Yoda. Everyone except for Neal who desperately wanted to name him Elway. I thought that was a horrible name - I love John Elway, but it didn't suit him one bit. We compromised with Denver and I never, ever got tired of watching his ears perk up every time they said his name during the Broncos games.



As the years went by, Denver's back began to act up. I guess being the dog that was never meant to be has it's drawbacks. I don't think a back that long on a dog with those legs was designed right. His back leg began to twist and he just couldn't lift it anymore. His front leg seemed to be a bother as well, making it very difficult to navigate the tri-levels of our house and ups and downs of our yard. He got to the point where he couldn't even scratch his own ears. How uncomfortable that must be for a dog. We tried steroids and different treatments, but all only temporary fixes. This morning he just couldn't get anywhere and I think he'd had his fill. He whined and whined all morning and stood at the front door to be let out. We never let him out the front door. He wouldn't run away, we just didn't put them out that way. The pattern was always out back. When Neal went past him and didn't let him out he continued to whine until I got up and checked him. Nothing wrong. So I walked to the front door and he did his very best to trudge after me. When I opened the door and moved aside, we walked straight out the door, down the stairs and stood at the door to Neal's car and whined. For no reason.
It's funny how when I pray for something to happen I'm always amazed when it does. When Girlie was struggling and we knew it was her time, I asked God to take her from me and to not make me take the steps to help her move on. I just couldn't do it. The next morning we discovered that she had passed during the night. God had answered my prayer and, what I'm sure was hers. It was a rough road at the end for her. Fast forward two years and we had come to that crossroads once again. I asked God to let me know when Denver was ready. To yell it at me. Make it so I couldn't miss the sign and I would know it was his time. God had answered that prayer as well. Denver was yelling at me. I was listening. I grabbed that furry little face and I buried my face into it. I told him I loved him and to be brave and that everything was going to be just fine. I looked into those dark eyes and I saw a knowledge and understanding that I had never seen in them before. It was an amazing moment that I will never forget. And just like that it was gone. I hugged him and kissed him goodbye and told him to say hello to Girlie for me. When I opened the door he was ready to get in and let me carefully place him in the car. He wasn't even shaking. It was the first time I'd ever lifted him into the car where he wasn't visibly afraid. When I had that moment's hesitation, I looked down at the driveway and saw an amazing site. When I first went out there it was just a wet spot on the driveway, but when I got up to go inside it had dried to this:


God never ceases to amaze me.

I will see you again some day, beloved friend of mine.

Denver: 3/17/97 - 9/1/10

Now THAT's something!

I haven't written since Signs of Ireland!? Really? I'm such a slug. So many things have happened since then and I haven't written about any of it? I suppose nothing's really been that interesting, but that's not the reason I haven't written. If we're being honest, I really don't care if what I write about is interesting, I'm still gonna write about it. Interesting, Schminteresting - if you had anything better or more interesting to do, you'd be doing it, so you have to eat what I'm puttin' on the plate. Ya dig?

So, no, level of interest has nothing to do with my lack of posts. SUMMER has everything to do with my lack of posts. How does that Duggar family do it!? Don't they have like 48 kids? And I'll bet that when she lines them all up in their perfectly-hemmed-by-mom dresses and french braided hair to go into Wal*Mart that not one of them screams "Mallory quit touching me!" I have tried everything down to calling my kids "ducklings" to get them to follow me in a single-file line through the store and it just doesn't sink in. Today in Target I had to ask Mallory 3 times to get behind me and when I bent down to her ear and said, "Mallllloooorrrryyyy. Geeett beeeeehiiiind meeeeee." She looked me dead in the eye and said back to me - from my side, "I am." How do you not want to choke that sweet little midgets ears off her face!? Instead I just nudged her behind me like a good mama duck and said, "Yes. Now you are." And the very patient lady was then able to pass by. *sigh*

Summer is not all it's cracked up to be. And with Shawna in a big-girl-bed and sharing a room with Mallory means that I don't even get to sleep in. Such a bummer. If I knew how to get to bed at a reasonable hour I suppose that wouldn't be a big deal, but I'm a night owl. I can't help myself. I thought if I took the television out of my room that I'd be forced to turn the TV off and go to bed, but instead it just means that instead of laying comfortably in my bed at midnight ready to turn the TV off and get some needed shut-eye, I am now in my living room at midnight still needing to shut down the house, get in my jammies and brush my teeth at midnight. So now I'm thinking the bedroom TV isn't such a bad idea anymore. Dammit, Oprah! Why'd you have to dog my bedroom TV!? You're not GOD!

I guess my point is that summer is hard when you have a child that can walk, but has no sense. At least she has enough sense to get up and down the stairs without killing herself, but still not enough sense to not play in the toilet. It's a gradual process, developing sense is. So we're at that stage of "look, Mom! I can climb onto the dining room table and reach the candle sticks!" Which means that when she's awake, I'm a scrambled mess. Work? No. Cleaning? No. Running after a naked toddler with a diaper in my hand screaming "Shawna, NO?" Several times a day. It's a good thing she's cute!

So let's see - Since MARCH, we've had field day at Gwyneth's school. I was Photographer at my first wedding. Our garage door broke the week we were to leave for vacation. We went on vacation to Disney World and the like - Mind you I use the word vacation VERY loosely... it was a vacation for my kids. For me it was just normal time with later bedtime and earlier rise time and more booze. I suppose I'll write about all of these things soon, but right now it's midnight... and here I am again! Is there no hope for me!? But at least I got to get something down as a blog! It's not much... but it's something.

Signs of Ireland

I almost forgot! This was the single most entertaining part of our trip - the signage in Ireland. We were first drawn to the exit sign. Although for some reason it took us a couple of days to figure out that it was, in fact, leading us to an exit. I guess, because the guy looks like he's running I thought of it more as an escape hatch sign or something to that effect. Need to make a quick getaway!? Follow this guy with the REALLY long leg -

We tried a dozen times to get Fashion's picture in front of it and FINALLY we were successful


Then, we noticed this sign on the bus and we were totally cracking up!

I don't know if it's the rounded qualities of the stick figure... sometimes it's the props. Perhaps it's the seriously over-exaggerated movements that our little stick friend is making. It's probably a combination of all three. Here are some we got a picture of:

Men with Shovels Ahead
AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Careful, this is crossing for kids with cargo pants, high-tops, and buzz cuts circa 1985
Look out! Oddly misshapen school kids might be crossing... with a tiny lunch box!

I had no idea what this sign was for at first. At first glance it might seem like - stay off the fire pit that the birds fly around - especially if you're holding a hat or book under your right arm. Turns out it's a "keep off the grass" sign


Don't climb the wall?

Fire Assembly Point for humans with bodies and/or just floating heads. The two chubby guys on the side look like they're touching the guy in the front's butt. The floating head man isn't a participant, but an innocent bystander just trying to avoid death by fire.

Seriously? What does this even mean!? I took it as "follow this path under the UFOs to find the beer." There was no beer at the end of the path.

Gangly Man Crossing

We first thought this was a crime scene... turns out it's just a life-size spray painting of a child to let you know people might be around the road. My boot is to the right to give you proportions. His father is obviously featured above - they have the same squared right toe -
Even the sticker-graffiti was confusing... I keep meaning to google this, but I'm lazy

Then there was this - They clearly didn't want anyone confusing this for a bicycle or a moped. No one on a moped would have a beard and a scarf and wear jeans and boots. No stick figure to piss off the biker community - they get an incredibly detailed sign... in COLOR. Damn. That's power.
Way more bad-ass than this guy:

The street signs were the most sought after because they were the funniest and the hardest to get to being that we were on a bus. The one sign that I tried desperately to get a shot of was the Children at Play sign which featured a little girl stick figure in a dress juggling. I will never get over missing that sign. It was the Holy Grail of street signs in Ireland.
Some day... some day.

Ireland Part 5

***WARNING - This blog is long. I just can't keep doing this! So bear with me! It will be the last about the trip and there are a lot of pictures. Next will just be the missing pictures. That is all.**



Looking back at the blog and then through the pictures I have yet to post I realized... we had not visited the Japanese flower gardens yet... they were just some regular ol' flower gardens. Still not in bloom and definitely not very Japanesey looking. When you see the pictures from the ACTUAL Japanese flower gardens you will be able to see the difference.

Moving on...

I saw Fashion this morning and she seemed positively irritated that I called out her navigational skills. Which means 1) Fashion has been reading my blog (HI FASHION!) and 2) I need to quit ripping on her abilities as a navigator. So let me just say that I am the last person on Earth that should be critical of anyone's sense of direction. Fashion did the best that she could in a foreign city and was completely on her own because I have no sense of where I am at any time. So even though we were lost and went the wrong way SEVERAL times...

she still did a great job and let me just say that she could get me to any point within the city of Knoxville without question. The End.

So where were we... Oh yes! This day, our last day of the CIE tour with Pat. Our last day as a group. A sad day indeed, for we knew that in the morning almost half of our group would be flying home and the rest of us had two more stops on the way back into Dublin and that would be that. Thank goodness for Facebook and email! So the events of this day would take us to the Cliffs of Moher and then to Bunratty where we would stay at the Bunratty Castle Hotel and go to a Medieval-type dinner, drink mead and then some of us would venture to a bar where we manufactured our own session... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

First - the Cliffs of Moher. We had to put the bus on a Ferry and go across a body of water...

which body of water I have no idea, but it was a pretty one.

There was this crazy bird that rode the ferry with us and didn't seem to care how close we got to it to take it's picture... I did not zoom to get this picture
We found another Murphy's on our way...

Then off to the Cliffs of Moher where we were warned to not go past the boundaries as might see some other people doing because the ground could give way at any moment - there were signs to this affect, but I'm saving the signs... Ooohhh the signs!!! To special to scatter about the blog. They will get their own section at the end! Here are the MAGICAL cliffs


The castle near the cliffs... but I don't remember what it's significance was... In fact, I don't think I ever knew since we didn't go inside.

We thought it was hilarious that his jacket looked like it was warning us of his mood

More shots from the cliffs

Then it was back on the bus to head toward Bunratty. On the way we saw a guy fixing his roof... The traditional roof the houses would have had before insurance companies had to come in and ruin everything would be a thatched roof. Now they have to be tile... or... or... the... um... other kind, but I thought this guy fixing his roof was cool. Sorry for the glare off the bus window.
*note* in Ireland there is no point to a "th." "Th" is just pronounced "t." Sooo, when I put thatched roof, it is to be pronounced "tatched." This was particularly fun when getting Pat to say "thirty-three and a third." We're such juveniles.

She's so excited about HEAT!
Then we were in Bunratty - here's the Hotel. It was, like all our hotels, very nice!
Then we had the dinner - which really felt more English than Irish and was kind of campy and silly. They made two people the King and Queen and we had a mock dinner in the castle. The food was okay, but a bit generic. It was basically like going to Medieval Times without the jousting.
After having a glass of meade and a couple glasses of wine, I went against my declaration made that morning regarding drinking and how I would have nothing to do with it that evening. When Pat saw me that morning... dragging the way that I was he said, "And how's Liz feeling this morning?" I believe my response to him was, "Like I want to punch you in the face." Still, I couldn't miss out on our LAST NIGHT, right!? So we went to Durty Nelly's - which I took a picture of because my Mother-in-law is Nel.
When we got there Fashion and I were sitting on opposite sides of a HUGE wooden beam. The way we kept looking around it at each other was cracking us up, so we photographed it

Then we moved...

I am not hurting this woman! I was just trying to get her attention when we saw Fashion about to take our picture and we reacted this way... as though I'm electrocuting herWe did a little shooter called a baby Guinness. It was REALLLLY good. Of course, I'm always the first one to finish my shooter.
All the girls with Patrick - The girls totally dominated!
All the boys with Patrick
After we had a few beers we all gathered in a TEENY-TINY room and belted out every song we could think of! Everyone was coming up with songs like American Pie and Joy to the World and we all sang our little hearts out in a make-shift Irish session. The next day Pat announced that it was a great Craic House and we all chuckled... well I mostly squeaked as I'd had so much fun I'd lost my voice.

Our final events would take us to the Ireland Stud where the breed Thoroughbreds. Our guide, Tony, did a great job and was a lot of fun.

We got to see the brand new baby horses and their mommies as well as the Studs. Here are some pictures of the horses and the grounds



Then we were allowed to journey through the gift shop (where I again spent too much money) and the Japanese gardens. We were given a choice in the beginning... guess which one we went down?
WRONG! We totally took the Path of Life. You guys are jerks. How awesome is this sign, though? Here are some other shots I got from the gardens


Then I snapped a final shot of our bus for the sake of the memory
That night we were back in Dublin. We said goodbye to those leaving that day and got to spend one more evening with a small group. We shopped a little, went to dinner and then off to bed. Just a couple shots from Dublin
The Harp Bridge
Here we are with Future Us. You see it, don't you!? Weird, right? They're TOTALLY US.
The very last day for Fashion and I was a tour to New Grange to see a building built by the Stone Age peoples. To think this is the single oldest building that I will ever set foot in... amazing. They're unsure of it's purpose, but the doorway window was aligned with the horizon so that during the winter solstice (and 3 other days) the darkness inside would be broken by a brief moment of sunlight.
This building was built (without the staircases) before the invention of the wheel. The white stones were carried from a mountain range 70 km in one direction, the darker stones from a range 70 km in the opposite direction. There was something like 900 tons of stone built up into a dome like structure, but there is no way to know HOW they were able to move them. It was amazing. Here's what it looks like from a distance
Here I am taking a picture of something
Here's a shot of the bridge we took back to the visitor's center
And that was it for us. We went around O'Connel street during our last night and it was MAD! There was a HUGE Rugby match the next day between Ireland and Whales and the streets were full. We stopped at a little street side place and grabbed a piece of pizza and went back to the hotel for a beer
The next day we caught the shuttle to the airport with Betty and Kathy and then we parted in the airport. We happened to run into another tour buddy of ours - Trish - and grabbed a picture before we were on our way to our plane...
which had been delayed 2 hours, but we got on it... Saddened...
Then we got to O'Hare and found that our flight had been canceled, but they got us on another flight on United! Then that flight was delayed 3 hours. And the gate changed so many times! It was supposed to leave at 6, postponed until 9 and then left at 7:40 - without us on it! It was a hell of a day! We set up camp in gate F9 and slept until our next flight out at 6am. That one was on time and we were home by 9. I still miss it and I cannot WAIT until I get to go back!