Lexi

LEXI IS BECOMING A BIG GIRL

Lexi is my Mother's Miniature Schnauzer.

Her previous Miniature Schnauzer  Zoe had died

from complications from diabetes.  It was a really sad time for my mom and usually we 

spend more time grieving and wait to replace them.  

This time because my Mom is older I decided we needed to rush the time frame and try to find a new puppy for her.

I knew we couldn't replace Zoe, but Mom was so terribly depressed.

When we named her Lexi, my husband said "Lexi is short for Lexapro (a antidepressant medication)

because of  the difference it made in my Mothers mood and attitude!

When we bought Lexi from the breeder, he made the statement that this puppy was going to be the best dog you have ever had.  He said all the puppies born to Lexi's mother are really good dogs.  

We thought "yeah, right", we will see.  

Oh my gosh, did we ever get a surprise, she is so smart she thinks way ahead of the box and knows what you are thinking almost before you do.  

It is kind of creepy at times.

That being said, she is a handful, she keeps my Jackie busy playing and romping.

I took Lexi to obedience class and she did really well.  

I am thinking of taking her to advanced obedience

starting later in the month.

Lexi is 23 months old now and the joy of my Mom's life (we love her too at our house)

We love our dogs and I realize I am not happy if I do not have a dog to love. 

Isn't it funny how an animal can make all the difference in the world on how

you feel,  and the unconditional love they give you.

  I have noticed since

my husband retired the dogs play a much more important part of his

everyday life.  Jackie and Lexi both adore him and it is wonderful to 

see how he interacts with them, so much more than when he had work on his mind.

Does that mean we should be retired when we have children?  In a perfect world

I think that would be fantastic, go to work after the kids are grown up!  ha ha

The problem is that our bodies and minds would be shot by that time!

We love our Jackie Girl

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

Cuteness!

My Jackie Girl,  I can't help it she is just darn cute!

When I think of my Grandparents

I think of the farm they lived on when we were young children in the 1950's

My cousins all thought that was a big house when we were kids in the 1950's.  Funny how when you are an adult you realize how small it really was.  

We used to like to sleep out on the upstairs sleeping porch in the summertime and you could see all across the pasture and to the barns. 

 Grandma and Grandpa milked and we used to like to separate the milk from the cream in the basement.  I still remember that old separator, the bench it sat on was still in the basement room along with the dank smell that only an old basement has in 1993.  We also had to pump water from a well to carry into the house.  It had no running water, so that meant no indoor toilet.  I would just die if I had to live like that now.  You forget how spoiled we are now and how much has changed over that last 50 years.

This is also the house that the Butman's were building, friends of my grandparents, when my Mom was born in August 1923.  It was 110 degrees and they took the new baby over with them to see the house.   They say Mr. Butman saw them drive up and he stepped right out through the open porch window to get to hold my mom, the newborn, and the story was it was so hot they made homemade ice cream and fed the new baby.   Maybe that is why my mom loves ice cream to this day 88 + years later.

This is my big brother who loved that farm and didn't ever want to go anywhere but to Grandma's!

This is also where I learned to love horses.  This was Dusty and he was the best horse and was great with the kids.  My brother loved that horse.  It belonged to my uncle and we were all devistated when Dusty ate some loco weed and died.  

The farm was for sale in this photo in about 1993,  part of a large parcel broken up into smaller acreages,  it had been bought in 1962 by a family, then sold again and for 30 years or so you couldn't even drive down the road because of a padlocked gate until this sale.   

This is a photo of my mom and I in front of the barn door taken some 40 years after my Grandparents left the farm to move to town.  




  When I walked into the barn all the memories of that barn and my childhood memories of it came to me and transported me back to when I was about 5 years old and the smell was exactly the same as I remembered....way back then.  I have been in lots of barns over the years but this one smelled different and the same as it did the last time I smelled it in 1962..... 


 It brought tears to my eyes and a overwhelming feeling of the loss of my grandparents and my cousins as we were as kids playing together gathering up eggs and running with the turkeys my Grandma used to raise.  Thinking of my cousin Kathy going to get  eggs from under a hen that had other ideas, chasing her, pecking her legs, and me laughing mercilessly!  We were all together then and happy as little larks, now my grandparents are gone and my cousins are scattered to the wind all over the country....  Time changes,
people pass on, but the memories are always there.