Mandy turns one year old today!!

The newest member of our family Mandy a Schnorkie is turning one year old today. We purchased her on February 13, 2010(but she was born on 11-29-2009) from a place called moorepuppies.com they seem to be a reputable place to get a puppy and we are so happy with Mandy. She looked more like a yorkie when she was smaller but when I had her cut with a schauzer look she looks like a miniature, miniature schnauzer and that is fine with me. I have always wanted a miniature schnauzer and now I have one. She was purchased as a dog for Roger, I got to pick Molly out so he got to pick out the next dog and he did kind of.But with him working so many hours she hardly ever sees him so she is really attached to me. She is my little shadow she goes everywhere I go and is sometimes under feet but that's okay with me I enjoy her company a whole bunch.

Here are a few pictures of Mandy growing up over this past year.~

On the ride home sitting in my lap~

In her pink bed~

In the living room playing with some of her toys~

In the kitchen waiting for some food to drop on the floor~

and relaxing on the couch~

Here is what she looks like now and what she does most of the day with her big sister Molly~

Thanks so much for visiting, may you have a blessed week.

Blessings,Joann

A sad day for our family.

Today is a very sad day, I took our cat Oreo to the vet expecting some test and medicine to make him better. Lately he had been loosing weight, stopped eating, wasn't drinking very much and had no strenght to even walk hardly. They did all kinds of tests on him and came back with a very bleak outcome. The choices were to put him in the hospital for 3-4 days and then send him home where I would have to keep giving him under the skin injections for a while but all that would really do was put off to another day what really needed to be done. Option #2 put him to sleep. Wow I was totally not prepared for that option and being there by myself and having to make such a major decision without my family around was very hard to do but after doing all the test I found out he was in major kidney failure, dehydrated, and anemic. The last two were fixable but not the kidney failure. So after much thougth and feeling that I had done everything possible to keep him alive(we didn't care how much it cost to do all we could)I went ahead and made that horrible decision I did not want to make. I thought that it seemed very selfish of myself to keep him alive if he is suffering, because I wasn't thiking of him.So I thought about it and decided to have him put to sleep. I really wanted Roger to be there but in the end I know that even if he was there we would have come to the same decision. I was very sorry that Jennifer and Matthew weren't able to say goodbye, also Roger didn't get to either, it was just me !Jennifer and Matthew both loved Oreo very much and I know they will miss him just as much as I and Roger do.

We got Oreo from an ad in the paper, he was already an adult cat and we had him approximately 16 years. When we first got him his name was Sweet Pea, wich the kids and I thougth was kind of strange for this very large adult male cat, so we named him oreo because of his coloring, actually his name was double stuffed oreo since he was over weight but when Mattie was little he called him Sweet Pea all the time he would even sing him a song for him to go to sleep. Oreo used Mattie's back one time for a spring board and left a large scratch on his back of which he still has the scar.We gave him a wonderful life and I know he was a very happy cat. He wasn't all that thrilled when we brought Molly home and really didn't like it when Mandy first came here to live. I still have my wonderful husband Roger, my children and my 2 little dogs but I will miss Oreo very much. We don't know his actual birthday but I have always put on any paper work 1994 because that is when we got him.



We think of our pets as part of our family and would do everything possible no matter what the cost to take care of them. But sometimes the best thing for the pet has nothing to do with money.








Oreo very beloved pet Oreo 1994-November 24, 2010








Here are a few pictures of Oreo~

In his most favorite spot~

My favorite time of the year started today at our home

Yesterday Roger and I spent the day together running errands. We got the majority of the Christmas shopping done and we went out to a nice what we call linner, you know kind of like brunch (Breakfast/lunch) this is linner (lunch/dinner) :) We shared a very nice meal at Sizzler and then our quest began.......When we were at Walmart I seen the prettiest artificial Christmas tree, it was 7.5 feet tall and was called some sort of Hymalaian spruce I think any way it was just gorgeous, so we decided to buy one, that sure made it sound easy you would think you would just get the box and pay for it well you would be wrong!! They had none in a box. So we went over to Manteca(about 25 miles away) to look at another Walmart. They didn't even have this tree on display, so we went to Target thinking they may have one similar but they didn't. On to Kmart who also did not have a tree like this one. We decided to go home for a while and then go check another Walmart. We got home, spent some time with the dogs (our babies)and at about 8:45pm went to that other Walmart...oh did I forget to mention it was pouring down rain and it was very windy!! This other Walmart is about 15 miles south of Modesto. We got there found a good parking space because I am sure all the sane people were home out of the rain. We went to the Christmas part and there was the tree we wanted. The very first tree we seen had no tags on it, so when we looked at this tree that did have a tag on it we were very stunned it cost $148.00 I was so sad, I just knew this was the tree for us. We looked at all the other trees and found one similar but smaller and it was only $88.00 so we put the box in the cart and started to the checkout place. Roger looked at me and said are you going to be happy with this tree? I was honest with him, this tree would be fine but I really liked the other one better. So back we went with the smaller tree and traded the box in the cart for the new one. Oh was I so happy!! We got it to the car and drove home our precious cargo in the back of the van. This morning the box was sitting in the living room and of course we had to put it up so here is a picture of it though the picture does not do it justice, it is so pretty in person.

Our new Christmas tree~

We have not done the decorating yet, but I had to see what it looked like with the lights on and as I thought it would it was beautiful. My Christmas season has begun and with such a great story on how we got the tree. You know you are married to the right man when you go shopping all day and he drives all over everywhere to find the perfect tree that you dreamed of.

Have to also include a picture of our babies, they were so cute snuggled up on the same blanket.

Our Babies~

I will probably wait until tomorrow for more of the decorating....

Thank you so much for visiting my blog I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures in life. Have a great Monday and rest of the week.

Blessings,Joann

I am sorry but I have to brag a little here!!

Our local newspaper has a column on the front page of the local section that is called in Service and it mentions every Sunday a person from our community that is serving in the Military. A couple of months ago I emailed the person in charge and gave them Matthew's information. After a few weeks of back and forth emails I got an email about 2 weeks ago saying that it would be in the newspaper on the 14th so I have been waiting very patiently(anyone who knows me at all knows I am not good at this!!) for the 14th to come.

So today is here and in our Sunday paper I was just thrilled to see my wonderful son of whom I am so proud honored in the "In Service " section, I know it's probably not that big of a deal to some people but to me it is very big. I think of my son on a daily no on a minute basis every minute of my day. I don't usually brag about things,but My son being gone and so far away right now is a really big thing and I just wanted everyone to know about it.

If you click on the picture I believe it will make it big enough for you to read if you are interested. There are a few things missing but I figured it was a space issue. I had sent the fact that Matt is with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and they left out the cavalry part and I also mentioned that he has a sister named Jennifer that lives in Brentwood.

I just got his packages ready to mail tomorrow (Nov. 2oth is the last day for Christmas delivery) of his Christmas gift and I included a copy of the newspaper clipping and I also made him a picture cd which took me forever as I am not that good with a computer. I hope he enjoys all that we are sending. I was hoping to fit everything into one large flat rate box because they only cost $12.50 to mail and that is a great deal doesn't matter how much it weighs. But I just couldn't get everything to cram into one so I will be sending 2, I took a red marker and put MERRY CHRISTMAS all over the boxes. I am just weird aren't I???

I have a busy week ahead of me and I am really ready for it. I have a dr. appt. tomorrow after noon and I am working my fingers to the bone making some christmas gifts. I may post some pictures after I have some of the items completed.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed reading my post and that you come back and visit again. Have a wonderful week and may you be blessed by the Lord daily.

Blessings,Joann

What I got done on Wednesday..

Today is Wednesday, I actually found one of my countertops, no it wasn't actually missing just cluttered and not clean! Now it is. I know that this sounds like a minimal accomplishment but for me and where I am right now it was a huge step. I am trying to set some smaller goals to get done everyday and hoping and praying that I get them done why I am still sane:)

I also went to the library, returned some books and picked up a book on depression, very interesting book so far. May let you know what I think about it after I am finished or I may not??

The animals today and last night have been bothering me a lot!! I tried to go to bed last night at a decent time around 11pm and the cat continually walked across my head and then would just stand right in front of my face...drove me crazy (Ya I know I didn't have far to go : ) Then this morning we played "I want to go out, I don't want to go out" with the dogs this is not a fun game.
Tonight I made dinner, something I have been struggling with lately. It is in the warming drawer right now waiting on Roger to get home. I made pasta and sauce (very easy) and salad and peas.
Tomorrow my goal for the day is laundry and getting the bedroom done so we will see what happens.

Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog I appreciate it.
Blessings,Joann

I have returned!!

Ever since I have changed from using this blog to the newer blog I have felt totally not with it, now I am not saying that this blog makes me magically different or better but I do feel somewhat strangely more like a home keeper. Maybe it's just the name of the blog, that it mentions Titus 2 I don't know all I do know is that right now in my life I need all the help I can get at being a homekeeper.
Today so far I got up, let the dogs out, got Roger off to work and then nothing else has gotten done yet, but I am trying my best to get myself going get myself pointed in the right direction. Hey I may suprise myself and make dinner tonight :)
Our weather here has changed in the past few weeks, now it is mainly cool, not cold yet but definately cool. Roger leaves in the morning when it is dark and comes home in the dark, not a good thing feel like the day is just gone in a flash.
Sorry this is kind of a jumbled up post...just writing out my feelings as they come to me.

Hope to get back on track, this may take some time so please bear with me.

Thank you for visiting my blog and for keeping with me through all my jumping around.
Blessings,Joann