The Uncanny similarities between a dog and his owner

Taylor vs. Walter


They both like to sleep with their "blankies"
They both like to sleep late and it is very hard for them to wake
They both pee outside and inside
They both are very peticular and protective about their food and their food stores
Both wimper when you scratch them
They both like to eat in the middle of the night
They both have napping skills
They are both pleasantly plump
They are both soooo cute
They both have short legs
They love to smell EVERYTHING!!!!
I am sure this list will grow as time goes on, but it is true that a dog and it's owner have very similar attributes

Top Ten Favorite Sounds/Smells

This may seem like a weird topic, but so many of our life experiences are linked to a smell or sound;experiences that cause us to feel emotions that always make us rise to a better place because they have changed us fundamentally.

Chew on this a bit and think about what your favorite sounds/smells are and why they bring up such great emotion.

Top 10

10. Puppy breath


9. The sound of a newborn baby's diaper rustling when they move their legs
8. Summer rain on hot pavement


7. The sound of the bells at the bell tower
6. Sunscreen
5. The thundering of a fast car engine
4. Pine trees on single track on the Ridge trail


3. Hot soil in the greenhouse
2. Sprinklers
1. Laughter of short people outside

others, because who has only 10 favorite: smell of BBQ, the ocean, the smell of school on the first day back, chatter of a peloton, the roar of the crowd when a soccer goal is scored, saw dust, coffee brewing, bacon frying, chirping of crickets, call of the quail, when someone says, "I love you"

This is why you should mind your mother!!!

The last picture on this post is quite graphic. So please be prepared.

This is for all the kids who need to ask how come and why 90 thousand times a day, and never accept the answer "because I have lived longer than you have" as an acceptable answer. Here is to all the people who run with scissors, forks, knives and wonder "what if"!


I don't know who this is, but he obviously has had some time to heal in this picture. I'll bet he doesn't mess around or pick his nose with forks anymore.

Willow Girl and the Chick

Is that not the funniest picture you have ever see? If you look closely you can see that she isn't even squeezing the chick.

The Pitiful One and The Mean One

There is not one person on this planet that is exactly the same as another. I am so grateful for that.

I am not feeling well, as far as my health goes. I tore some muscles in my back and it has caused my sciatic nerve to become inflamed. To say the least, I have been in a lot of pain for several days.



For anyone who knows me, understands that if I am ill it doesn't bode well for those around me. I tend to be grumpy when I am sick or when people call and wake me up. I really just want to be left alone and I don't want to play 3000 questions. I want to go to bed and get better. I know this about myself and I have come to accept it as part of my personality.

Taylor on the other hand, when he is not feeling well, is just plain pitiful. He lays or sits or walks and moans.This is his only claim to fame as far as multi-tasking goes. Not a good kind of moan, mind you, like the kind you would hear after an extraordinarily excellent meal, but a pitiful moan that makes you want to run away as fast as possible. It's the kind of moan that is constant and annoying and could lead to eye gouging and buying large quantities of ear plugs and sedatives.


Tonight, Taylor was his trying to do something,I don't recall exactly what it was, but all it really did was annoy me in a deep way. He told me that he doesn't really like it when I am feeling bad because I am just plain mean! He said "You are mean when you are feeling bad and I am plain pitiful when I feel bad!"

So next time you are irritated with life's little variances remember that we are all created to make our world interesting and to create new jobs, such as, foam factories for the making of ear plugs.

Gloating

At times I become so enraged with TV that I want to take it outside, put it on the retaining wall, get a shot gun, and blow the whole stupid thing to smithereens! I actually fantasize about the liberating day I do it!

However, there is, on a rare occasion, that I am grateful for the noise that infiltrates my home. One of those days came just the other day.

Bailey has a habit of talking a lot. In fact he talks so much that we have nicknamed him "Donkey" as in Donkey from Shrek. In addition to talking a lot, he festers Kate a great deal. In reality he just wishes she were a little brother and that she would play with him and think he is the cat's meow.

The other day Bailey was his usual self and posed a question to Kate.

"Aren't I the greatest?" he asked her.

She looked at him and immediately responded, "Easy on the gloating Bay!" (Keep in mind Kate is 5.)


He asked her where she learned that word. She told him, "I learned it on Word Girl."

For anyone who doesn't know what Word Girl is, it is a TV program on PBS that teaches vocabulary. Word Girl is her secret identity and her side kick is a monkey named Captain Huggy Face, her nemesis are many such as the butcher, Dr. Two Brains, etc.

Cars vs. Basketball

Bailey is 12, in fact he just turned twelve. As far as being 12 goes he is pretty normal, but he is developing some pretty interesting talents. Two of those emerged the other night as I was taking he and his friend Paul to basketball practice.

Normally it only takes about five to ten minutes to take them to where practice was, but because it had been snowing, for two days straight, it took us a bit longer. This is a good thing because I had the wonderful chance to hear this exchange between the two of them.

"Toyota, Camry, v6; Chevy, Silverado 3/4 ton; Mazda 6," Bailey rattles off, and the list just went on and on as we drove past all of the cars. He would call out the make and model of every car, truck and SUV, and he was right about everyone of them.



Paul says, "How do you do that? How do you know what all the names of those cars are?"

Bailey said, "I don't know, I just know them." At this point Paul decides he is going to join in the car naming fun.

"That one is grey, and that one has 4 doors!" he states. "That's about as good as I will ever be naming cars." Both boys laughed.

At this moment I pulled up at a stop light and to the right of us was a beautiful old building. Bailey pops off with a random statement, "That building is erroneous!"

Paul and I both start laughing and Paul asks Bailey how he knows such big words? And I was laughing because I know what erroneous means, and it is not a word to describe an old beautiful building.

Erroneous: based on or containing an error, to be mistaken, wrong, incorrect or inaccurate; to stray from what is considered moral, decent, proper, etc.

So I said, "Bay, do you know what erroneous means?"

"No, but when you combine enormous and radical you get erroneous!" I laughed even harder. He truly had a point.

The light turned green and we started moving. In order to help Paul feel more comfortable with Bailey's fascinating talents I said, "Paul, you know, you have a talent like Bay. You can name every college and NBA player and their team, just like Bay can name cars."




As if on cue Bailey plays "Name that basketball player" like Paul played "Name that car". Bailey says,"Yea, if you asked me to talk about basketball all I could say is hey, that guys black and that one's bald, and oh, there's another black guy."

We all laughed some more. So today, actually on Tuesday, I am grateful for the growing minds of twelve year old boys. Huzzah!

Gratitude and Crazy People

Today I am grateful that I have shoes and sock and a heater to keep me warm. I wish I could grow a fur coat, but people might point and laugh or dry-heave. The older I am getting the less I am liking winter and the nicer is sounds to be somewhere warm where I can ride my bike all year.

The other day I stated to a perfectly good stranger that it was colder than a well diggers butt. She asked me how I knew how cold a well diggers butt was. Isn't it common knowledge that it is cold at the bottom of wells, and knowing that, wouldn't it make sense that his behind would be cold? Perhaps I will start writing down sayings like that and make my own version of that one game that I can't remember the name to.

Today Taylor and I helped his sister E move. She lives in this cool little building downtown and she has some nice neighbors and some interesting neighbors. One of her more interesting neighbors is Otis.

When we first saw Otis he was walking up the street talking to himself. Taylor has this little game he plays called "Bluetooth or Crazy" that he learned from a radio program he listens to. The gist of it is to determine if people are talking on the phone with a bluetooth or just talking to themselves. It can be a very amusing game because you never can tell sometime.




We asked E about it. She said he was defiantly just crazy.

We took another load out to the truck and he followed us all the time talking to his imaginary friends; posing questions, and then answering them. He had the vocabulary of a drunken sailor. I also learned he doesn't like Mormons or garbage piling around his building, but that is all I could pick out of the mambo-jumbo he was talking.

Otis followed us back into the building after we loaded up the truck and leave it to Taylor to strike up a conversation with this man. I was just trying to get inside as quickly as possible because I couldn't tell which eye he was looking at me with and I was on the verge of dry-heaving myself from his smell. E and I made a bee-line for her apartment hoping to get to safety. Taylor just kept on talking. Not soon enough the door was finally shut and locked! E said he sometimes just stands in the hall outside of his door and talks and talks. She also said his apartment smells. She didn't know if it was dead bodies or not. No bluetooth for Otis, just CRAZY!

Gratitue

Today I am grateful to have a warm place to live.

Those who inspire us

Have you ever stopped to consider why a particular individual inspires you? What is it about them that causes you to want to be better? Is it the way they teach? Is it the way they force you to look at a specific issue in a different way? Is it because they are always changing themselves? WHAT OR WHO INSPIRES YOU?

Take the time and really think about it. Be specific; be honest. See what happens to you internally when you really notice why you are inspired.

I leared something really interesting today. The root origin of inspired means to "breathe in spirit". When you feel inspired what spirit do you breathe in?

Up the down staircase

This year, 2009, I have decided to start participating in blogging for my own self, plus I have been inspired by my predecessors. Not only that, I would like for this to be a catalyst to remind me of how great life is no matter the circumstances. To begin I would like to take a moment to say thank you to all the special people in my life, seen and unseen.

I first need to start with my parents. I would not be who I am if it weren't for them. They are sensitive, generous, hard working, humorous, sassy, spiritual people, and always encouraged me in every endeavor I wanted to do. They didn't always agree with what I chose, but they supported me nonetheless. To the two of you I am deeply indebted. Thank you for believing in me. I love you.

Next I must thank my balancing half, Taylor. He has taught me to be soft and forgiving and to have humor. He has taught me it's OK to take a nap and not feel guilty. He has taught me that poo and farts really are funny. He has shown me what selfless love is. He has taught me to be true to myself. He is my soul mate. He is my catalyst to seeing what I really can do. I love you baby!

My children also need to be named. Again, if it weren't for them I would be so naive about how the world really is. I have learned so much from them. For instance, Austin has taught me that any object, such as rubber ducks or banana's or sticks of any size or shape, can and will be used as guns. Bailey has taught me that girls are not complete as humans because they are missing vital parts; ding-dings, which they should go buy.Eliza has taught me that if you say something like "you stink" to someone and they ask you what you just said you say, "Me say nothing." Kate has taught me that carrots can not only be peeled, but sharpened.

To my siblings and their spouses thank you for your humor and your love and the way you watch out for me and my family. You have never let me down, but have showed me compassion and humor and above all real friendship.

For my in-laws and brother's and sister's-in-law I must say thank you for being patient with me and my husband and all of our excess personality. I can guarantee you if you will continue to stick by us life will never be dull. I love you all, and am not great at expressing it as often as I need to, but thank you for your humor and you sincerity.

For all the angels that have come into my life; thank you for carrying me when I was to weak to walk on my own. Deepest love to you.

So, with that, I begin this new year. Huzzah!
I choose to;
live with intention.
walk to the edge.
listen hard.
practice wellness.
play with abandon.
laugh.
choose with no regret.
continue to learn.
appreciate my friends.
do what I love.
live this life as if this is all there is.
-mary anne radmacher

The top 10 Taylor Snyder sayings

10. Said to Austin in regard to the proper use of a rubber duck, "Duck's aren't guns!"

9. When I eat bad food I don't feel good.

8. Could be meat, could be cake (with a bit of help from George Carlin may he RIP).

7. Just smell it, it smells like vinegar.

6. Spiders freak me out!

5. Do I have a bat in the cave?

4. I love you more than a dog loves flowers.

3. What if my Aunt Mary had a pair of nuts? She'd be my uncle Ralph.

2. I am a smoldering volcano of viral manhood.

1. If one and one half chickens could lay one and one half eggs in one and one half minutes, how long would it take a chimpanzee with a wooden leg to pick the seeds out of a cucumber?

Motivation to keep your New Years Resolution to get in shape

For all of us who really have good intentions and not much motivation when it comes to keeping our New Years Resolution.

I was on vacation this last summer, 2008, with my mom. Our first stop was in Boston, and we walked around the historic district. We happen to be walking on a paved walking path and I came across this little gem. In Boston they are very liberal...gay marriage, Denny Crane, and a fat lane for walkers who need a little more room. Huzzah to equal rights.

Fall in Utah...and how kids remember it

Fall in Utah is a magnificent sight. The leaves change into beautiful colors, all kinds of creatures begin to come out to forage before winter covers all the vegetation and we humans sigh with relief that the gardening season in finally coming to an end.

That being said, our family decided to go on a wonderful afternoon excision up the canyon to beautiful South Fork where we frequently ride our bikes and hike. We also decided to take the dogs...all three of them. However Taylor only acknowledges two of them and the third dog, Eddie, is referred to as, "that dog".




It may seem that we have more dogs than we should. I forgot to add we also have a cat named Pinky. That is another story however. Nevertheless, the dogs are named Chloe, the big one that looks like a red and white striped bear, an Alaskan Malamute; Walter, a.k.a., my sweet little, angle puppy dog, the beagle; and Eddie, a.k.a. "that dog", a Wheaten Terrier. We indeed have a motley crew and that includes the children and the parent's who produced them.



Before we even got started, we had to get all the dogs, and the kids, into the 4runner. Chloe is getting on in years and doesn't get around to well, so it has become necessary to lift the tiny little thing, into and out of, the car. The other two we wedged into a dog box together to prevent them from romping all over us in the car. Chloe has travelled enough to know that she just needs to lay down, keep her paws and legs in the vehicle at all times, until the ride comes to a complete stop. The other two, aren't so experienced. Walter puked, and Eddie peed. The good part is they were inside the box and instead of sharing the joy with all of us, they just kept it between the two of them.



This episode set the tone for the rest of this hike. The only really pleasant one, for the whole trip was Eliza, and she's almost always pleasant, as you can see in the following pictures.






Taylor was really starting to annoy me as well with his big talk of how "superior" his dog was and how "that dog" was so stupid and barks so much and all that crap. We were on our way back down the trail, which by the way, is a multipurpose trail, used by hikers, bikers, horseback riders and even campers. Anyway, as we are perusing down the trail, Walter comes upon a pile of horse manure; then he ATE IT!

Taylor just couldn't believe that his sweet, angel, puppy dog ate horse manure! And he kept groaning and saying, "Oh, gross. That's disgusting. Don't eat horse shit. Ewww." I was laughing my guts out as Chloe and Eddie just walked past it. Comeuppance is AWESOME!


This all happened in September of 2008 and it is now January 1, 2009. Several weeks ago Kate was standing in the hallway and said, "Mama, remember when we went on a walk with the dogs and Walter ate horseshit?" I laughed so hard I had to sit down; again comeuppance is AWESOME!