A Dog of Many Adventures

Folks, this is a dog that lives life to the fullest. No kiddin'. Taffy (or Taffy Lyn to be exact) is an eight year old yorkshire terrier. She belongs to our friends, Richard and Betty. Remember, they are the ones that we are visiting this weekend? She is definitely their baby......their spoiled baby!



Taffy has had many adventures and "close calls". She is the spunkiest dog I've ever seen and so smart too. She is a country dog through and through.



Last night awhile after we arrived at their home, Taffy experienced her latest adventure. She cornered a skunk in their carport and I bet you can guess what happened next! Yep, we were "blessed" with skunk scent room spray for quite awhile. They didn't have any tomato juice in which to bathe her but did find some tomato sauce. It didn't work as well, but helped a little.



Let's see...here's a few of Taffy's many exciting and dangerous adventures:

She once bit a frog and came in foaming...and foaming...and foaming...at the mouth for quite awhile.

She had a scrap with a rooster....and I guess you could say the rooster won. She had numerous cuts and lost alot of blood. It didn't keep her out of commission for long though.

She fought with an opposum. The fight left her with an opposum tooth embedded in her 3rd eyelid. (apparently dogs have 3 layers of eyelids and this was on the 3rd one). She was one miserable dog.

Taffy chases armadillos......and rides them! Now that's one thing I wish I had a picture of!

She's been bitten twice by either a copperhead snake or a tarantula spider.

Her closest to death experience was a fight with dogs. She was in pretty bad shape with infection. She pulled through though.

Taffy nearly drowned twice. One of these times, she had chased a flock of birds over into water without Betty and Richard realizing and the area had a walled area and bless her heart...she couldn't find a way out! She was fighting hard when they discovered her.

She's also had a tooth pulled and a hernia removed.

And did I mention that Taffy loves to fish? She perches right on the edge of the boat and attentively and patiently watches the lines for a catch. She anxiously waits for it to be reeled in and then she has to "examine" and "approve" and lick every one! One time Richard and my dad were fishing using weiners as bait and Taffy decided to help herself to a weiner (with a hook inside). My dad caught her just in time before she swallowed it!



Yep, Taffy is definitely a dog living on the edge. She lives for thrills and adventure and wouldn't be happy any other way. After all, life would be dull otherwise. :)

Adventures at Lowe's & Awards

Under normal circumstances, I really do love Lowe's and Home Depot...actually I prefer Lowe's...but I had my fill of them this weekend!



And I should also point out that it's definitely NOT one of Joy's favorite places to go. She will usually avoid it if there is any possible way to do so (as in stay with Grandmama and Pop). She did so on Friday night, so Jason and I had a date for dinner and a visit to Lowe's (which I'm fine with...home improvement stores and bookstores make a good date for me...is that boring?) Anyway, that was a quick trip to get some prices together, so all was well that night.

Saturday morning the plan was to get up and leave at 9:00 a.m. to pick up the countertops for the kitchen and come home and put them in (well Jason, my dad and his dad). The old countertops were pulled loose and taken out (which pulled off some sheet rock and required more mudding and painting before we left).



Joy looked (and acted) horrified when she found out we were going AGAIN! She packed her keep-her-busy-stuff and Jason walked her over next door and got himself a cup of coffee and chatted...so our 9:00 a.m. leave time had turned into 9:30 or 9:40 a.m. I took advantage of it with computer time! At the last minute, as we were getting in the truck, Joy came out....changed her mind and decided to go. We told her it shouldn't take long at all as we knew exactly what we needed. There would be no trying to decide anything. (Little did we know what we were in for). Now the Lowe's we usually go to is about a 35 minute drive for us. Oh and I forgot to tell you that we were returning a piece of formica countertop that we brought home last week because we found a scratch on it.

So, in the parking lot, we found us a big blue cart. You know the kind....with three bars on it....and Joy got a free ride into the store (and all through the store for that matter). First thing, Joy has to go to the bathroom (that never fails). After getting our money back on the countertop, we could not find a piece that wasn't either chipped or scratched...mostly right on a corner that we had to have. So the associate checked another store on the computer and sent us to another Lowe's fifteen minutes further. The computer "said" they had seven in stock. Well we got there and they didn't have ANY in stock. This guy was real helpful though and called ahead to another store (not trusting the computer) and found out they had three or four. He even asked them to make sure they weren't damaged...and they weren't so we set off to yet another store about 20-25 minutes away. By this time, it was lunch time so we took at break at Burger King (the highlight of Joy's day since she got to play on the indoor playground). We told her, "See you never know what adventures you'll have when you hang out with dear ole' mom and dad!" We did eventually make it to the third Lowe's of the day. We found and purchased the needed countertop and headed home.



Approximately 3-4 hours behind schedule, we got back home ready to begin. After many set-backs, Jason, his dad, and my dad had them all cut and in (but not fastened down) by late Saturday night. Boy what a mess I was living in that day and all day Sunday! Fed-Ex was supposed to deliver our sink on Saturday, but when it didn't arrive by late afternoon, we tracked the shipment on the computer and found out that it had been sent to the "wrong" terminal and we had a new delivery date of September 3rd. They went ahead and cut the hole for the sink anyway (hoping and praying it was right). During all this time that they cut countertops, I cleaned out under all the counters. By Monday noon, everything was fastened down, shelf-paper put in, dishes and pots back in place and my old sink was put back in the hole. I just sat in my kitchen Monday night and admired everything so far. I didn't want to go to bed! I didn't have one prim decoration up on a wall or on a counter, but I could "see" it there!

As I write now, Jason and my daddy are working on getting the old sink out and putting the new black sink in (which arrived this morning). So there you have it....that's how we spent our long weekend!



I concluded a few things from our adventures:

1) Expect the unexpected.
2) Always plan on finishing later than you anticipate.
3) Things will get very messy before you see a light at the end of the tunnel.
4) People can get very irritable in the middle of a remodeling project.
5) There are at least 10 or 12 different ways that a kid can ride, hang, lie or sit on those blue carts (with the 3 handle bars) at Lowe's (and my creative daughter found every one of them)!

**Update...very late Tuesday night....Another unexpected....They couldn't get my sink in because of plumbing issues. I had to take my supper dishes next door to my mom's house (in a box) and wash them. I will apparently be without a sink (with a big gaping hole in my countertop) for at least one more day...maybe two. I guess I'll find out what living primitively is all about.....I think I just like Primitive DECOR! :)

And on another note, among all of this through the weekend, I was so kindly awarded by several blogging friends the Primitive Excellence Award (I just love the picture on this award!) I am very honored to get this!



Here's a big hug and thank you to the following ladies for thinking of me!
Mary of Gettysburg Homestead
Merrie of Where the Blackbirds Sing
Wendy of The Cozy Yellow House
Marie of A Little Bit of Country on the Shore
Sandy of For the Love of Prims
Siri of Gone Country in Bayport
And there really seems like there was one more person...I had a list which got lost in the shuffle of remodeling...and I can't remember it for anything...remember I am over 45 now!) Whoever you are, thank you!
I'm blessed to have so many friends here!

And thank you so much to Kathy of Kat's Corner and Lisa of Black Sheep Prims for awarding me the Smile Award! I love this one too...it just makes me smile to look at it!



And since I'm late posting this, I think just about all my bloggin' buddies have received these awards. If you haven't, then please, please, grab it for yourself...you deserve it! If you're on my blogroll, it's because I truly enjoy visiting your blog!