Jake

Jerry and I had been dating MAYBE two weeks and he made the comment he wanted a chocolate lab so he could take him hunting with him. Jerry bird hunts and I guess it's cool to hide in a coffin with your dog and jump out and shoot dove. Well, Jerry doesn't hide in a coffin, but he wanted a dog to retrieve the birds he shot. I was trying to be that awesome amazing girlfriend and I had some money saved, so what did I do? I bought a chocolate Labrador Retriever the very next day. My friend, Cindy and I drove out to this house in the country and the lady had six or seven lab puppies running around in a corral. The mom and dad of the puppies looked good so I looked back over at the yapping puppies and my eye went straight to one puppy. The runt. That was him. That was Jake. I had his name picked out already and it just so happened that runt was a boy. I picked him up, smelled that sweet puppy breath and handed the lady the money. 

I was on my way to give him to Jerry. I was driving a black 1987 4x4 Nissan Pathfinder that was given to me by one of my friends. It had all black interior and no air. Well, it had air, but it over-heated when I turned it on, so I would roll down the one window that worked. It sounds terrible, but I actually loved that car and going off roading with it. I put Jake in the seat by the one working window.  I was eating lunch with Jerry that day. At that time, I was done playing volleyball and was finishing up my 'super-senior' year and we were both working at The Home Depot in Wichita Falls.  He opened my door and he couldn't see Jake in the floor board since he was so dark. I pointed down there and Jerry was completely shocked. Meet Jake! 

Jerry picked him up and instantly loved him. We took Jerry's car to go eat at Scott's drive in. Oh, and at that time Jerry was driving his 1971 Buick Skylark that had no air either, but both his windows went down so we'd take his car everywhere.  He was trying to restore it, but it's hard to restore a car without money.  Did I mention we were broke, really broke, but we got a dog to take care of! 

First thing we did was get his series of shots, that was not in our budget.  Jake was cute and looked like a little bear. He slept all the time and it was great. Then he started getting bigger and bigger. He was teething. Teething bad! We came home to Jerry's coffee table eatin' up on every corner. Then we got a big crate, that was not in our budget either and he quickly was crate trained.  We got pig ears and rawhides for him to chew on. That wasn't enough, he chewed up toy after toy after toy. He chewed up Jerry's Oakleys.  He just chewed everything! We were potty training him and I don't recall that being too bad because he loved to go play in the backyard with the really long grass, we didn't have a lawn mower. 

Jerry and I got married and moved into this cute rent house. I finished school and we moved to Fort Worth, into an apartment. That was terrible for a dog! Then we bought a house in Granbury. That was great because we would put Jake in the back of Jerry's little truck and take him to the lake that was right by us. Then we built a house in Fort Worth so we could be closer to our jobs. Poor Jake moved five times in the matter of three years, but this was the last move. He had a huge backyard to run around in now. We always had a little pool for him to lay in. You'd think Jake would love going on walks and would walk you. Not at all.  You were dragging him and it would make Jerry so mad. Jake didn't do walks. I don't think he liked being on a leash. So we stopped doing the leash. He never tried to run off either. In fact, Jerry came home from work one day and the gate was wide open and he panicked, driving around looking for Jake. Jake was asleep on the front porch the whole time. 

Jake had become lazy and completely set in his ways after six years of living here.  Labs really are the best dogs once they settle down. They are so smart and good tempered. Jake could swim better than me, sit, lay down when you pointed to the ground, he'd shake your hand and fetch whatever you threw. Although he wouldn't fetch too long before he'd get bored and quit on you.  He slept on the floor by Jerry's side of the bed, in Jerry's recliner or by the window in the living room where his bed used to be. I got rid of it because it took up so much room and was always covered in dog hair. Jake didn't seem to mind because he wasn't going to move from his spot.     

You don't realize your pet is so much apart of your life until they're gone. It was that day you knew would eventually come but didn't want to accept. I woke up at 3:30am and looked down at the carpet. It's like I knew something was wrong. Jake had had an accident and there was blood on part of his stool. It's like he was coming to tell me that he needed to go outside. Jake NEVER has accidents in the house so I knew something was wrong. I looked in his usual spots and he wasn't there. He was in the hallway by the front door, very unsual for him. I called him over to go outside, so he didn't have anymore accidents in the house. He was so listless walking to me.  I cleaned up the mess and went back outside to check on him. It was dark and I couldn't find him. I knew what was happening, he was going off to die. The funny thing about dogs it's like they don't want to be an inconvenience when they know it's their time to go. The weird part is Jerry woke up too. I told him what was going on and he went outback and found Jake lying there. Jerry pet him and he wagged his tail a few times. That gave me hope that maybe his tummy is just upset and he's gonna be fine. Jerry said to leave him alone. Jerry checked on him again before he went to work and Jake had gone to heaven. I wrapped a blanket around him and we buried him next to Jerry's smokehouse. 

I cried all day and I'm still crying. We thought we had at least three more years with Jake, at least that's what we had been telling ourselves. It's surreal and I'm just numb that he is gone forever. I'll never get to feed him, or pet him, or brush him, or sing "Who Let The Dogs Out" to him (that was his song), or step over him when I get out of the bathtub, or watch him chase Bailey while she is riding her bike, or listen to Bailey yell "move Jake" cause he was always in her way or smell his bad breath again.   

I keep thinking I see him come around the bed or running in the backyard. Your mind can really mess with you in sad times.  Jake has been with us from the very start and it's going to take some time to accept he's gone. To say he is going to be missed is an understatement.  

Needless to say, we never made him a hunting dog.

Oh Yeah! I Have A Blog.

Volleyball ended (sad face), real volleyball, not middle school volleyball and basketball started. I semi-coach a basketball team now. Poor kids. UCLA won the National Volleyball Championship for all you volleyball guru's, incase you didn't know. My Texas and Nebraska teams didn't even make it to the final four! Total bummer. I wanted to go down to San Antonio and watch them (sad face).


The last week of school, before break, was brutal. I don't want to see another kid, other than my own, for the next two weeks.


I got all my Christmas shopping finished. All the presents are wrapped and placed ever-so-neatly under my slim Christmas tree. By the way, what did we do before 'slim' Christmas trees? I guess it was okay for a tree to take up half the room.


I'm not gonna lie, I find myself liking Christmas music these days.  Maybe it's because I like to have music for my four year old to sing to and misprounce all the words to, but nontheless I like it now.


My Bailey is getting so big, (bigger sad face) Here are her Christmas pictures:

I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hard Work Pays Off

I haven't wrote a blog in months! Volleyball has kept me incredibly busy. I'm not going to complain because that's what I love to do and why I got into coaching. I would do it all over again if I had to. My girls worked hard this season with Saturday practices, conditioning, weights, plyos, and the many drills I put them through. I can't even begin to count the amount of balls I tossed for them to hit or the amount of balls I hit at them to make them better defensively. I can't count the amount of times I had to put their butts on the line for not 'cutting it' or just down right urking me.

Well, all I gotta say is hard work pays off. They ended up getting 1st in the district, thus placing them in the district tournament first seed and playing Hurst Junior High. We beat them in three sets and were on the way to the championship game to face North Ridge again. North Ridge beat us in three sets during the regular season. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't handle the after game talk with my girls too well. Anyway, we went three games and the first set, we capped at 30! For you volleyball gurus, how many games have you won with a score of 29-30?  My blood pressure had to be out this world. We took the first set, they took the second set by two points, and we won the third set 18-25! We WON! We were district champions AND district tournament champions! Truly, the best day of my coaching career so far.  I have the flip chart still in my office and refuse to change the score.

And just like that, it's over. Volleyball is done and now I have to listen to the pounding of basketballs, squeaking of shoes,  and the foul smell of 7th grade boys when we switch gyms. I'm not a fan of change and changing of sports is even harder for me. I'm thankful for this volleyball season and my girls. I hope they continue to play volleyball in high school and I can watch them grow into even better volleyball players.

Recap Summer 2011

As the summer of 2011 comes to an end and I have to go back to work tomorrow, I thought I would show you how busy this summer was. Although we had plenty of fun, shopping, swimming, taking Bailey to Six Flags once a week and our adult river trip, we were incredibly busy with home projects. Sadly, I'm not even finished yet. If I only had two more Jerry's, I would be done.

My very first project was painting these two rooms. Painting is such a beating and I knew if I put it off, I wouldn't have done it. 

 New decorations.

 We put crown molding in Bailey's room and my art teacher put her name on canvas for me.

 A little project. Painting my new old milk can.

The eye sore of the pool and lack of  fence.

I had to use my surf board!

 New roof!

 I dug up all my old ugly photinias and planted canas.

 Finally 2 1/2 months later, we have a nice looking fence! I'm still picking up fence debris.

 I planted 3 trees!

The mother project, Jerry's Man Shop.  The project of all projects. It was hard work, but totally worth it when I look at this picture. 

Man, I need a summer for my summer!

Unkie Brian

Tomorrow makes three years since Brian has been gone. Brian was Jerry's only brother. Brian was born with a heart condition and battled with it his entire life. He went up to Chicago in 2008 for another heart surgery because he was out running his medicine basically. He really didn't have a choice. He could go up there and fix it or die a slower death. He was only 29 when he died. Brian ended up getting an infection in his heart and his kidney's shut down.


I will never forget the day Jerry called me and told me the news. I remember telling Jerry, "this happens to other people, this doesn't happen to us." I cried. I still cry.  I never had the opportunity to go up there. Bailey was just over a year old and we didn't have the money for me to fly up there. We did visit them through our webcam though. We were just thankful that Jerry could be there when Brian passed.


Jerry has talked to me about the whole Chicago trip in detail, but it's too hard to write about. It was awful and I don't know how Jerry and his parents were so strong through all of it.


 

We collect tabs and donate them to The Ronald McDonald House every July 16th for Brian. The Ronald McDonald House is an amazing place that helps so many families when their loved ones are in the hospital. Jerry's family stayed there 50+ days while Brian was in the hospital. We will be making another donation to them tomorrow morning.

Two of the stongest people you will meet in this picture, Jerry's Mom and Dad. (Grammy & Pappy)

Jerry says each year gets a little better, but it will always hurt. He said if he were stuck on an island and had no idea of what day it is, he would always know when this week was, it's engraved in his body.

We love and miss you very much Unkie Brian.

River Trip 2011

Let me go ahead and state for the record this blog will not do this year's river trip any justice. Jerry and I have been going on four straight years of floating the Guadalupe and although some years are better than others, this year tops them all.


Here it goes...


We left Thursday morning and we had the camper all packed and ready to go. We were waiting on our friends Jones and Nick. Amanda was already here because I had picked her up at the airport the night before. Amanda comes from Chicago for this trip. We were on the road by 9:18am, 18 minutes behind my intinerary.  We arrived in New Braunfels and stopped at the last fast food restaurant. We were completely out of options  here. There are three places I never frequent: McDonalds, Jack-N-The-Box, and Burger King. I remember why now, because they suck! We ate in the BK lounge and it was disgusting. They should call that place the Fly Lounge. We all felt like 'grim death' after it. We got to our campsite and it took all of five minutes to get the camper level and situated before we sat outside on the picnic table and enjoyed some adult beverages under a big tree. We then walked down to the river and hung out down there. Before it got too ridiculous we all got dressed and headed to Gruene to eat at The Gristmill. We went back to the campsite and continued our fellowship down by the river.


Friday. We all were up pretty early thanks to Jones. I know I didn't mind. We all chipped in to make breakfast and lunches for the day's float. We got our tubes and were floating by 10:00am. It was going just perfectly. The river was the lowest I've ever seen it, but it was doable. Except the part where I get off my tube and start walking across rocks, I jump back into it, reach down to grab my water camera, and it's gone. I had some great pictures on there too. I REALLY tried to not lose it. I tried to put a string on it the day before but it wouldn't go through the itzy bitzy hole they provide. I even bought a water tight box to wear around my neck, but it didn't fit in there. AHHHH, it still makes me mad! That was the same time that Jones was doing his Chewbacca voice to a flock of geese and getting them all riled up. Our float ended up being 8 hours. We finished it with some football and  fajitas. Our friends, Heather and John joined us that night and it was great seeing an old friend.


Saturday was strong. Too strong. It was Amanda's 31st Birthday! We just did the half float, which still turned into 6 hours of floating. Jerry's sterio cooler was a hit. We had a bunch of people flocking to us passing around their nasty bag of wine. The playlist I had made was good. Really good. I put Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline on it and the entire river was singing to it. "Sweeet Caroline Bah Bah Bah Good Times Never Seem So Good  SO GOOD SO GOOD SO GOOD!" Then, Jones got out of his tube, picked Amanda up and said, "In the name of the father, the son, and holy spirt" and babtized her! Not once but twice! The second time he dragged that 6'1" amazon girl out of her tube, her arms flailing everywhere and he dunks her again! We noticed a guy holding a pink flamingo the entire time. We thought was incredibly odd. Turns out it was a beer bong. Pretty creative I thought.  It was a great two days of floating and making fun of each other. Nipples that needed to be lopped, Nancy, Cankles.... We got off the river,  Jerry started the grill for burgers, Amanda showered, and Jones Nick and I endulged ourselves in a game of volleyball at the pool. Nick was good. Jones was not.  We ate, got ready for the Robert Earl Keene concert, and left. It was a great concert and he played all his classics and even my favorite song.


Other then losing my camera and Jones cutting his big toe open, that weekend couldn't have been any better.


Sunday. Nick is waking up and looks down at his REK band around his wrist and says, "Oh good, I can keep drinking." I couldn't stop laughing. The drive home was ridiculous. I was in the hurt box and Jones did not stop talking the entire way home. Whatever he was looking at, he would say something about it. It was like having Bailey in the car. At one point, Jones was telling a story, Amanda asked him a very simple question. He looked at her blankly. She asked the question again. Still blank stare. Nick yells, "Jones, you havin' a stroke?!"


Top Quotes:
all the Dave Chappelle/Rick James references by all
"Solid"
"Strong"
"Nancy"
"Ball Soup"
"I hate classic rock" (total lie, it was funny because I was wearing a The Who shirt.)
"My goal is to keep up with Jerry." -Amanda




There's a bunch I can't put on here, but trust me when I say this river trip was epic!

NOOOOO!!!!

Tonight, I found myself saying things my father said to me when I was growing up and I hated those sayings then and I hate them now!  I mean, we try so hard to not be our parents.

I walked into Bailey's room and immediately started picking up the copious amounts of junk on her floor. She whines that something doesn't work anymore and I say, "because you don't take care of it. When you are done playing with something, put it back where it goes!" I'm saying this to a 4 year old, haaaaahahahah!  

She was taking a bath and she said she didn't know how to do something and I knew darn well she did. I told her, "I was born at night, but not last night." Which is a complete lie, because I was born at 2:37am. What an awful saying, why did I say that?!

She was making up some bull the other day and I told her to, "stop making up stories." My Dad said that all the time!!!

EEEEK!

Thanks a lot Dad.