The Great Mr. B…

I shared this on my Facebook page but wanted to add it here too…on Monday night, February 23, 2009, Oliver Ray, age 11 1/2, left behind all of us here that loved him to join Momma Ray in heaven. He no longer struggles to breathe, his eyesight is clear, he can HEAR, and he doesn’t have to worry about his HUGE, very worn out heart any longer. He is romping around heaven like a pup!!! Although he was Momma Ray’s pup, since adopting him upon her passing 3 1/2 years ago, I have loved him like he was my own. How could I not? I will look forward to seeing the little guy again some day…

Our many different names for Oliver
- Ollie (Momma Ray’s fav)
- Ollie Bubba
- Bubby Boy
- Bub

- B-Bub
- Mr. B
- the Boy
- the Boy Dog (we only had one!!!)

Random things about Mr. B…

- I loved the patch of “unruly” hair on top of his head, best when made to stand straight up, even as a faux hawk…I’m sure he loved it…

- he loved to sit or lay ON you…not just with you…but ON you

- if your towel was left on the toilet lid when showering, he would drag it down so he could make a nice soft bed right outside the shower

- he was low man in the Ray “pack”…in other words, he was a wuss

- he loved with his whole heart…through his smiles and his wagging tail

- I loved watching him go down the steps to go to bed…his butt wiggled back and forth all the way down the stairs as his little legs carried him down as fast as he could possibly go…every time

- when he got nervous, he would “lick” the air…over and over and over and over…like his own little nervous tick…

- he loved his treats before bedtime – next to breakfast and dinner, treat time was the BEST

- when being fed, the twins knew thier place on the bottom step…his was on the left, Riley’s on the right…not once did I ever see him eating out of the bowl on the right

- Faith picked on him because he is the only pup in the house that didn’t fight back…we had to force him to socialize anytime after Faith would snap at him…

- he spent a lot of time sleeping in the bathrooms…his little safehaven away from Faith

- he loved to GIVE kisses…but was not so fond of GETTING kisses…I had to steal them!!

- he loved his crate…it was his other safehaven…and of course, the twin’s crates were side by side and his, again, was on the left…and he knew it. If it was closed, not latched, just closed, he would use his paw to open it if he wanted in…clever little guy!!!

- he looked great wearing a red bandanna around his little neck

- it took us nearly 3 years of having him groomed to figure out he looked really cute with SHORT hair

- he was one of our best car riders…he would put his chin up on the little window ledge to look outside…he put in a lot of miles over the last 3.5 years with us!

- he loved his twin, Riley…they were inseparable…on occassion they would even sleep together in one of their little crates…or piled on top of each other in a chair…normally if you found one, you found the other

Thank you to the Great Mr. B for loving us as much as we loved you!!!!!!!!!!

Thankful…simply thankful…

Beginning this coming Monday, my dear Brad is back amongst the employed again!!! I’m so proud to say he is my husband…and I’m so proud to know what an incredible employee he is that in this bleak economy, when so many people are out of work, he has found a great new opportunity outside of telecommunications. Thank you to Bill for believing in my wonderful husband and providing him this opportunity. Thanks to Clay and his team for building a great product, BidBridge, for Brad to sell. I know he will make me proud and I know you will be proud to have him as your product’s ambassador in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

And for you, my love, I am your biggest believer, supporter, cheerleader…because you are the love of my life!!!! I am so very very thankful…simply thankful!!!

The wait is over…oh and Happy B-day Honey!!!

First off…my sincere apologies that I still haven’t made time to upload some photos, I’ve been pretty busy. Today I feel the need to purge the anxiety Brad and I have been holding onto over the past three weeks or so. After much waiting, we unfortunately found out on Friday that Brad’s job was eliminated along with 12,000 other co-workers at at&t. Thankfully my job is safe…for now…but we are building our dream life on two incomes, not one. Today has been tough…I have survivor guilt…we second guessed the fact that he changed jobs just 10 months ago (just for a moment though…we did what we felt was best at the time and who knew the economy was going to go to hell?)…I have cried at the drop of a hat…the tears are just hanging out in the top of my throat…in the meantime, Brad is strong and is only hurt by seeing me sad and a bit scared…I will allow myself one day…24 hours…only one day…to feel sorry for us…to feel sorry for the fact that we need to change the way we are living…to be more frugal rather than so darn free with our money…my 24 hours isn’t up quite yet so no guarantees I won’t shed a few more tears before I drift off to sleep…however, tomorrow is another day…and we are survivors…and we can be frugal…and Brad is a great salesperson and will find a new job despite the economy…no matter what sacrifice we need to make…and we are a great team…the best team actually…together we can accomplish anything we set our minds to…and it is Brad’s birthday…a day to celebrate LIFE…Brad’s LIFE!!! We are strong and we have faith that the path we have been chosen to take…this one for which we had no control in choosing…will be a good path…and we will make the best of it if it isn’t as good as the last one we were on…we have each other and THAT is what is most important! I love this man and I’m so glad that I have him by my side…as my partner for life. Rambling complete…I love you Brad and Happy Birthday!!! When I wake up in the morning, it is a new day…and I’ll be done feeling sorry for us…I promise!!!!!!!!!

Absentee…

…so sorry!!! I’ve been absent for a long time…sorry! Between having guests from July 4th through Labor Day, then having 3 weddings, and a couple other photo shoots along with my normal 40 hour week job, something had to give and it just so happened to be my blog.

I’m working on getting caught up…but I’m not really any where close. I’m thinking as the weather gets colder and the wedding photo editing is over, I may have some time to catch up and post some of the fun stuff I’ve been doing!!!

Thanks for your patience…stop back by when you get a chance! I’ll try to have something for you!!

A little flower fixation…

…ok, a really BIG flower fixation…I just love them!! Some of these are in our “yard,” others on the side of the road. I’ve been eaten up with misquitoes while taking some of these, but the results of some were well worth the annoyance. Flower girl…signing off…

A little parade…and a little baseball…

…makes for a very good day in my world!!!

We started out at “Cakes at the Lake” this morning. Record turn out…156 attendees. Michelle joined us just in time for the program. This month’s program was bird calls. The presenter was incredible!!! He could whistle the bird sounds of about any species we threw at him. I was so impressed…he sounded just like them…he did all three loon calls, several owls, blue heron, and many different song birds. Oh so very impressive!!! Sorry no photos…because he was using the overhead projector, they closed the door…would have been like taking photos in a movie theater!

Brad convinced Michelle to spend one last day up here…after the short night of sleep and seeing how beautiful the day was going to be, it wasn’t a hard sell!!! Because she was late and Brad and I were both working the event, none of us managed to enjoy the apple cinnamon pancakes the Hunt Hill staff had put together…so by the end of the program and after cleaning up the program area, we were all starving…ok…we were all very hungry! Since we were going to go into Spooner to meet Kathy at Mark’s baseball game, we decided to make our way there to find something to eat. We noticed something strange once we got to town…just about every square inch of the main street was lined with people’s portable seating devices…people had staked out their front row seat to the Spooner parade in honor of the Rodeo. There was some major “stuff” going on there! We were able to get a seat at a sandwich type restaurant right there on the main strip…we ate and drank and pretty much just walked out the front door in time for the parade to begin. The only part of the parade I was really interested in was the Budweiser Clydsdales. WOW are they big and WOW are they pretty!!! Here are a few shots of the parade.

Is it me…or are they both smiling at me????

Once the Clysdales went by, it was time to head out to see Mark Turner’s baseball game. More fun for me! Not only do I love watching baseball games, love getting a chance to see Kathy and Walt, but of course, I love taking photos at the game. Here are a few…

Too old for this…

Tonight we went to the Spooner Rodeo with Michelle, Donna, and Kevin. As Michelle explains it, I do think she and Donna are “sisters from another mister.” Putting the two of them together is dangerous!!!

The forecast when we left the house looked as if we might get wet…well, the storm intensified after we left the house. We were able to see probably half of the event before the skies opened up and it downpoured. There was extreme lightening…but the strange thing was, there were still people in the metal bleachers and the show was continuing. Only in Wisconsin! The people in the stands and the performers were all drenched to the bone! We all took refuge under vendor awnings. It was quite a storm. We probably waited for an hour before it let up enough so we all wouldn’t get soaked just getting to the car. I didn’t take my camera in given the weather conditions, but Michelle had a “Gorton’s Fisherman” jacket on so she took her’s in. Photos compliments of Michelle!
As we were leaving the Rodeo, Donna and Kevin both told us how they thought it was quite funny that the “Pass Out” Gate showed Beer 50ft…for the rest of us, the sign actually read Beer Soft Drinks Food. I laughed until my stomach hurt!!

We all decided then to head up to Uncle Mike’s for a “bump” as many call it here…Brad used to call them “orange whips”…ok, we went up to Uncle Mike’s in Trego for a drink or two. The place is pretty nice…only thing I could see missing was a dart board…bummer for me. The place was quiet…then after a couple drinks, some fun photos with a rooster hat (not going into that!), the place came alive. A large group of people showed up together…they were drinking 190 proof shots and taking pictures as they passed the rooster hat around. As they were taking the photos, Donna was sneaking her happy little face into the background of as many photos as she could. It was a game…and she was winning by a landslide. It was totally funny…they had no idea it was even happening! Again, photos compliments of Michelle’s new Nikon camera…she took some, I took some.

Here’s an example of Donna getting in one of thier photos!!!
We finally packed it in and ended up home at 2am…we are old…we are too old for this when we know we have to be on the road to Hunt Hill in the morning by around 8am!!!