Laurie, Fudge, and Vern's Blog (342)

My title may be a bit melodramatic and I will leave it to you to decide after you read my blog.  Most weekend mornings, you will find me getting up with the dogs and letting them out to do their business.  As often happens with Type A individuals, I have a hard time delegating responsibility and seem to feel that no one does it better than me. I know that the dogs like to go out the front door first and then explore the backyard next.  They then go back to bed when the exploring is done and…

With the outside temperatures rising, it is rare now to find one of the dogs in our bed.  The other night was an exception.  Fudge slept the entire night with us and it reminded me again what I do not miss when she joins us in bed.  Fudge is a cover hog.  Most every night, Fudge waits for Hayley to come home from work and put her up on the bed with me.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Fudge can leap tall buildings, jump into trucks, jump on and off our stone wall with ease, catapult from our…

If our boating season keeps going like it has been going, we may be selling our pontoon soon.  The weather has been so uncooperative this year and despite our boat being in the water since early April, we have only been out on it three times.  Two of those times have been fairly eventful and we are too old for all this excitement.…

I grew up in a suburban area and never saw much wildlife out and about in our neighborhood.  When we moved to our first house, also in Suburbia, I came home one night and couldn’t believe the number of frogs or toads (just to keep Pat off my back) lined up on the walkway leading to my house.  Not having much experience with frogs and…

For months, Joanne and I have been trying to plan a date for her to come visit.  Time after time, Joanne had come up with some lame excuse after another to get out of visiting…..we had an ice storm….the roads are closed due to snow….I promise I will come soon…..until I finally took matters into my own hands.…

My dog-training regimen, or lack thereof, has been well documented on DK.  I have the absolute best indoor dogs in the world, who turn into completely different dogs when out on our daily walks.  Vern pulls like an ox, is oblivious to his prong collar and thinks corrections are my way of letting him know I am ready for another surge or…

It happened again last night.  John and I were in bed, watching TV, when I heard a funny, faraway noise.  It really is a miracle I heard any noise at all, because the older we get, the louder the TV gets.  At this rate, it won’t be long before we have to caption all of our programs, so the neighbors don’t yell over across the fence, “Hey, stop flipping the…

Another niece got married this weekend.  Another long drive in a car with people who do not talk on long drives.  Another reminder that time is going by too quickly. …

Last week, John and I started another Photography class with the same teacher, Bob, we have had in the past.  When we last left off, it had clearly been established that my fondness for taking pictures of my dogs had labeled me “over the top” by my teacher.  It isn’t that he doesn’t like dogs, but rather that he thinks dog photos are…

Not too long ago Vern went to the vet and we found out his weight had skyrocketed to 108 pounds.  The vet was fine as long as he hovered around 100 pounds, but once she saw the 108, she declared that Vern needed to lose weight.  Unfortunately, this is a scene I am all too familiar with in my own life and I was determined to handle this…

This blog has nothing to do with dogs, other than the fact that my newly pregnant daughter and I have four between us. For those of you that follow my blogs, you know that my daughter and I have a long-standing disagreement about whose dogs are better.  We argue about a lot of things like who is smarter and she loves to play her PhD card.…

When the first words you hear from your husband upon waking up are, “Hayley just called and her car broke down and she is stranded miles away in a parking lot,” you can pretty much assume it might not be your best day.  I blame it on grogginess that I said the first words that entered my head, “I hope you told her wrong number and hung up the phone.” No such luck and after a tow, a day in the shop, and a hefty bill, her car was all…

My dogs are not the best-trained dogs in the world.  In fact, on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most obedient, on his best day Vern would get a 6 and Fudge, on any day, would get a 3.  The command that gives us the most trouble is recall, because they can never recall what it means when I yell, “COME!” Sometimes they do surprise me and come running when I call them, but on other days Vern looks…

I talk to my mom on the phone almost every single day and most of the time she likes to mention that the ladies she eats dinner with got the biggest kick out of some story she told about my dogs and me.  It is getting so I can’t tell her anything about Fudge or Vern or she turns it into a comedy routine for the table she sits with at dinner.  I really think her main goal is to make me sound nuts…

I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but this winter has taken over my life, my thoughts, and my moods.  I don’t ever remember a winter when the snow would not melt and stayed around for such a long period of time.  We live in the boondocks and I drive to different locations to walk my dogs.  We…

I used to love winter, until this winter.  Now, I can’t wait until it is but a dim memory.  My dogs and I have had cabin fever most of this winter because there is no place to go that isn’t covered in snow or ice and some days we have not been able to get out at all.  I am not always able to get…

The last time John took the garbage out, he fell on the black ice.  Of course, he blames it on the garbage, but I blame Mother Nature. Taking the garbage out is John’s big job in our household and let’s just say the walk down the driveway to the garbage cans takes less time than the nagging I have to do to get it done.  Even my mom asks me when I am going to give up the nagging and just do it…

This Polar Vortex thing is starting to tick me off.  I don’t really understand it all, but I tend to base my opinions on how something affects my little world and me and so far, I am not happy.  I take after my mom in this regard.  Indiana could be experiencing the worst drought in history and Hoosiers could be lining up with buckets for water at rationing…

Vern’s birthday was January 10, 2014.  He turned four. That is some of the good news.  The bad news, which ended with good news, happened the day before his birthday.  On that day, like we always do, the dogs and I went walking. I opted to take them to the campground to walk and then I did…

Because of the extreme weather where my sister lives, she has been confined to her house for four days and has been going insane.  Not that I think that is a very long trip for her, but she is bored and on the fourth day decided to paint her bedroom.  She told me she asked herself, “What does Laurie do all day to stay busy?” and then…