• Share this on Facebook
• Tweet This!

7. Forget the Miata and buy the mini-van. And don’t think you can
   leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don’t
   look like that. Buy a chocolate ice cream bar and put it in the glove
   compartment. Leave it there. Get a quarter. Stick it in the cassette
   player. Take a family-size bag of chocolate cookies. Mash them down
   the back seats. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car. There!

   Perfect!

   8. Get ready to go out. Wait outside the toilet for half an hour. Go
   out the front door. Come in again. Go out. Come back in. Go out
   again. Walk down the front path. Walk back up it again. Walk down it
   again. Walk very slowly down the road for 5 minutes. Stop to inspect
   minutely every cigarette butt, piece of used chewing gum, dirty
   tissue, and dead insect along the way. Retrace your steps. Scream
   that you’ve had as much as you can stand until all the neighbors come 
   out and stare at you. Give up and go back in the house. You’re now
   just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.

   9. Always repeat everything you say at least five times.

  10. Go to your local supermarket. Take the nearest thing you can find
   to a pre-school child with you. A fully grown goat is excellent. If
   you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Buy
   your week’s groceries without letting the goats out of your sight.
   Pay for everything the goats eat or destroy. Until you can easily
   accomplish this DO NOT even contemplate having children.
 
  11. Hollow out a melon. Make a small hole in the side.  Suspend it
   from the ceiling and swing it from the ceiling and swing it from side
   to side. Now get a bowl of soggy Fruit Loops and attempt to spoon it
   into the hole of  the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
   Continue until half of the Fruit Loops are gone. Tip the rest into
   your lap, making sure that a lot of it falls on the floor.  You are
   now ready to feed a 12-month old child.

  12. Learn the names of every character from ‘Barney and Friends’,
   ‘Sesame street’, and ‘Power Rangers’.

   When you find yourself singing, “I love you, you love me” at work, you
finally       
   qualify as a parent.  Congratulations!

• Share this on Facebook
• Tweet This!

How to cope when it’s time to say goodbye

The Humane Society of the United States

When a person you love dies, it’s natural to feel sorrow, express grief, and expect friends and family to provide understanding and comfort.

Unfortunately, the same doesn’t always hold true if the one who died was your companion animal. Many consider grieving inappropriate for someone who has lost “just a pet.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Members of the family

People love their pets and consider them members of their family. Caregivers celebrate their pets’ birthdays, confide in their animals, and carry pictures of them in their wallets. So when your beloved pet dies, it’s not unusual to feel overwhelmed by the intensity of your sorrow.

Animals provide companionship, acceptance, emotional support, and unconditional love during the time they share with you. If you understand and accept this bond between humans and animals, you’ve already taken the first step toward coping with pet loss: knowing that it is okay to grieve when your pet dies.

Understanding how you grieve and finding ways to cope with your loss can bring you closer to the day when memories bring smiles instead of tears.

What is the grief process?

The grief process is as individual as the person, lasting days for one person or years for another. The process typically begins with denial, which offers protection until individuals can realize their loss.

Some caregivers may try bargaining with a higher power, themselves, or even their pet to restore life. Some feel anger, which may be directed at anyone involved with the pet, including family, friends, and veterinarians. Caregivers may also feel guilt about what they did or did not do, and may feel that it is inappropriate to be so upset.

After these feelings subside, caregivers may experience true sadness or grief. They may become withdrawn or depressed. Acceptance occurs when they accept the reality of their loss and remember their animal companion with decreasing sadness.

Coping with grief

While grief is a personal experience, you need not face loss alone. Many forms of support are available, including pet bereavement counseling services, pet-loss support hotlines, local or online Internet bereavement groups, books, videos, and magazine articles.

Here are a few suggestions to help you cope:

• Acknowledge your grief and give yourself permission to express it.
• Don’t hesitate to reach out to others who can lend a sympathetic ear. The Delta Society offers a list of pet loss hotlines for those grieving over the death of a pet.
• Write about your feelings, either in a journal or a poem.
• Call your local humane society to see whether it offers a pet loss support group or can refer you to one.
• Prepare a memorial for your pet.

You may also want to ask your veterinarian or local animal shelter about available pet loss hotlines. Explore the Internet for pet loss support groups and coping information.

For children

The loss of a pet may be a child’s first experience with death. The child may blame himself, his parents, or the veterinarian for not saving the pet. And he may feel guilty, depressed, and frightened that others he loves may be taken from him.
Trying to protect your child by saying the pet ran away could cause your child to expect the pet’s return and feel betrayed after discovering the truth. Expressing your own grief may reassure your child that sadness is ok and help him work through his feelings.

For seniors

Coping with the loss of a pet can be particularly hard for seniors. Those who live alone may feel a loss of purpose and an immense emptiness. The pet’s death may also trigger painful memories of other losses and remind caregivers of their own mortality. What’s more, the decision to get another pet is complicated by the possibility that the pet may outlive the caregiver, and hinges on the person’s physical and financial ability to care for a new pet.

For all these reasons, it’s critical that senior pet owners take immediate steps to cope with their loss and regain a sense of purpose. If you are a senior, try interacting with friends and family, calling a pet loss support hotline, even volunteering at a local humane society. If you know seniors in this situation, direct them to this page, and guide them through the difficult grieving process.

For other pets

Surviving pets may whimper, refuse to eat or drink, and suffer lethargy, especially if they had a close bond with the deceased pet. Even if they were not the best of friends, the changing circumstances and your emotional state may distress them. However, if your remaining pet/s continue to act out of sorts, there could actually be a medical problem that requires your veterinarian’s attention.

Give surviving pets lots of TLC, and try to maintain a normal routine. It’s good for them and for you.

Getting another pet

Rushing into this decision isn’t fair to you or your new pet. Each animal has his own unique personality and a new animal cannot replace the one you lost. You’ll know when the time is right to adopt a new pet after giving yourself time to grieve, carefully considering the responsibilities of pet ownership, and paying close attention to your feelings.

When you’re ready, remember that your local animal shelter is a great place to find your next special friend.

• Share this on Facebook
• Tweet This!

The American Dream, sometimes in the phrase “Chasing the American Dream,” is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of prosperity and success. In the American Dream, first expressed by James Truslow Adams in 1931, citizens of every rank feel that they can achieve a “better, richer, and happier life.”[1] The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence which states that “all men are created equal” and that they are “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights” including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” -Wikipedia

Thank you to all who serve, have served and will serve.  Including my sweet husband!

On a side note, I thought it would be fun to have a little interaction.  This is 10 month old Grant and this series of pictures is only a fraction of the different faces he made during the session!  I will be having a contest on this post starting on Tuesday so stay tuned to participate!

• Share this on Facebook
• Tweet This!

Preparation for parenthood is not just a matter of reading books and decorating the nursery.  Here are 12 simple tests for expectant parents to take to prepare themselves for the real life experience of being a mother or father.
 
  1.) Women:  To prepare for maternity, put on a dressing gown and
  stick a beanbag chair down the front. Leave it there for nine months. 
  After  nine months, remove 10% of the beans.
 
       Men: To prepare for paternity, go the local drug store, tip the
   contents of your wallet on the counter, and tell the pharmacist to
   help himself. Next, go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your
   salary paid directly to its head office. Go home. Pick up the paper
   and read it for the last time.
 
   2.)  Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who
   are already parents and berate them about their methods of
   discipline, lack of patience, appallingly low tolerance levels, and
   how they have allowed their children to run wild. Suggest ways in
   which they might improve their child’s sleeping habits, toilet
   training, table manners, and overall behavior. Enjoy it — it’s the
   last time in your life that you will have all the answers.
 
   3. To discover how the nights feel, walk around the living room from
   5 p.m. until 10 p.m. carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12
   pounds. At 10 p.m. put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and
   go to sleep. Get up at 12 a.m. and walk around the living room again
   with the bag until 1 a.m. Put the alarm on for 3 a.m. Since you can’t
   go back to sleep, get up at 2 a.m. and make a pot of tea. Go to bed
   at 2:45 a.m. Get up again at 3 a.m. when the alarm goes off, sing
   songs in the dark until 4 a.m. Put the alarm on for 5 a.m. Get up.

   Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.
 
   4. Can you stand the mess children make? To find out, smear peanut
   butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains. Hide a fish stick
   behind the stereo and leave it there all summer. Stick your fingers
   in the flower beds then rub them on the clean walls. Cover the stains
   with crayons. How does that look?
 
   5. Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems: first buy an
   octopus and a string bag. Attempt to put the octopus into the string
   bag so that none of the arms hang out. Time allowed for this–all
   morning.
 
   6. Get an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a can of paint,
   turn it into an alligator. Now get a toilet paper tube.  Using only
   scotch tape and a piece of foil, turn it into a Christmas tree. Last,
   take a milk container, a ping pong ball, and an empty packet of CoCo
   Puffs and make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower.
   Congratulations, you have just qualified for a place on the play
   group committee.

Stay tuned for part two!

• Share this on Facebook
• Tweet This!

It was such a joy to spend the day with this lively family.  New mommy, Lindsey loved being pregnant with her little chick pea, Baby D, but it was clear that she was completely smitten with him once he arrived!   I felt like one of Lindsey’s long time friends while we just sat and chatted while I shot her gorgeous son.  Thank you for having me spend the day with you!  It was a pleasure… 3 1/2 year olds and all!