I Really Want a Dog

I DO... I r-e-a-l-l-y want a dog. Yes, I love my Swoopie cat. She's precious. She loves me and follows me EVERYWHERE. I don't want another animal to take her place. I want a dog because it would be so helpful to my spirit and I KNOW I would be helpful to a kind and loving animal. I grew up with my dad's "bird dogs"...that's what you had in the Missouri Ozarks. Bird dogs! Our dogs went hunting with my dad every fall...shoot and kill. We had bird dogs and they had quail. It all worked out that way; for my dad and his dogs. I grew up loving animals. Now, I want a dog from the Humane Society...or the Rescue Pound in Tulsa... to walk with, to brush, and feed and love. Sounds great to me. My husband does "NOT want a dog!" We may have a conflict larger than the dog.

After Christmas

One thing remains the same. After Christmas, I always think of what I will do "next year." Next year I will plan better. I will begin collecting little things for the grandchildren's stockings in May. Or June or July. I will begin to make things during the cold and dreary days of THIS winter, preparing as the squirrel does for the coming year. That's what I tell myself. I even make lists and write down all the plans and promises to myself. I do this every year. This year will be different. It MUST be different than 2011. That was a year I'd like to "learn from" and move on down the road! As my coach-son says, "Go to school on it!"

2011 was colder than any year I can recall in Oklahoma or Missouri. 2011 was hotter than any I can recall, too! I did not like it, Sam I Am. Several things I did not like about 2011! Get out of here as quickly as you can!!! Please bring me a new year.

I'm starting a journal with scraping stuff and writing and prose and notes. I'm hoping to enjoy the journey of making it; hoping to have something for those who walk behind me. Something they will enjoy looking through one day. The things I miss most about my mother are the stories I never got to hear. Opinions she never got to share. Thoughts and ideas, dreams and desires that were a part of her life... I never knew them. I hope my children know mine. Not that they are so "out of the ordinary," but that they are probably much the same as some of their own. If not now...someday.

To make my day nicer, I need milk. And coffee and Dr. Pepper. And quiet time early in the morning or late at night. A little of that every day. Thank you very much. Love, Lana