Running Stitch

November 2006

Saturday we had a Mr. Moo driven funeral. He wrote a speech, he played a song on his violin. The Man made a cross for the grave, at the boy’s request, all though they were still holding out for a carved stone marker. We had long conversations about how long. Loooong that would take. They really wanted to carve the stone themselves. In the end they agreed to the wooden marker so that they could move forward with their funeral plans.

I nixed the ‘very sad’ decorations that my oldest wanted to make, and we talked about the difference between a party and a memorial.

My four year old declared he needed to bring his Sword to Dog Hill

Sunday was the final performance of “Oklahoma” our first born’s first on stage experience. He auditioned in September and was cast in the role of ‘child’ which frankly, he is very prepared for. We learned a lot. It was a lot of late nights, and tired boy but there was a lot of excitement as well. He preformed on a stage that I have preformed on, as well as one his aunts and uncle have all walked across. He carries on the long thespian tendencies of my my side of the family (a tad dramatic are we) which probably didn’t start with my father and definitely didn’t end with him.

It was a long weekend. That followed a long sad week. But, the beat goes on as they say. We said a final goodbye to our Doggie Saturday, left him to rest on Dog Hill, where he can watch over us all from now, without needing to herd us into one spot. And we went on, as life does. To play performances and to work and school.

This week we celebrate all that we are thankful for and this week I’m thankful that Jonah passed quietly, last week, that the play is over for now and we can all rest and recover. And I’m thankful for the one day school week we had this week thanks to Snow. Allowing us to recover from last week, together, by the fire.

And a little bit outside.

The Beat goes on-Sonny and Cher

Today at The Burrow we said goodbye to one of our own. The one who has been with us the longest in the time we have spent at The Burrow.

Jonah.

Photographs courtesy of the fabulous Jenica Lemmons

Jonah who has walked by our sides up and down this Creek Road for almost seven years, left us rather abruptly this afternoon. He waited for his six year old friend to get home from school, and then The Stitches said goodbye to our four legged pal in the cramped bathroom where he had made himself a nest of our dirty laundry. Legolas was called. And she arrived promptly to escort young Stitches away for the afternoon.

Photographs courtesy of the fabulous Jenica Lemmons

Jonah had been sick for a while, medication obviously wasn’t enough for him. And this afternoon I was more grateful than I could say for these pictures that arrived, timely as it was in our mailbox from Jenica. We sat for a family session in October and on a whim I had her take some shots of the Menagerie in action.

Jonah was a great dog, he was friendly with the kids, he was strong, and powerful, he used to jump from bank to bank above the creek after balls, wow could he run. Throughout his seven and a half years with us (out of nine total) he was a running partner, a walking partner, a baby holder, a baby cleaner, and a baby vacuum. He loved the boys so much, that even as he lay practically unresponsive this afternoon he moved for them. When we brought the sad Stitch boys to him, he managed to move his head towards their voices and wag his tail. This was more than he had done in the hour before, when I called The Man because I was sure it was over.

Jonah in one of his many, many costumes, that he put up with.

Jonah was my protector. When I was pregnant he used to try to get as close as he could to me at all times. When the boys were babies he would lay on his back and wiggle over to them signaling to us that he was not aggressive but wanted to sniff that thing! It smells delicious.

When I was pregnant with my second son, My older son toddled around in the fenced in yard while I waddled after him. A neighborhood dog (badly behaved) came running up to the fence, aggressively barking at my son who was close to the fence. I wasn’t worried, understanding how fences work and all, but Jonah ran over, lifted his leg and urinated all over myself and my toddler.

I was pretty sure Jonah had lost his mind.

But later a friend, who raises labs, told us that he was marking us. As his own. As in, you mess with my People, you mess me. FISTS OF FURRY!!!!!

(HA! I’m funny).

The whole thing endeared Jonah to me forever. I liked him alot before and all. But a little urine within the tribe goes a long way with this Mama.

Jenica Lemmons

When I was a SkSdM (Single kid, single dog mama) Jonah and I were regulars up and down the road, with Moo in the backpack, we wandered up and down this road.

I can barely remember a time when Jonah wasn’t a part of The Burrow and for the boys that time has never existed, until now. Today as The Man and his father dug a grave on Dog Hill, I looked at the pictures from Jenica, read through old blog posts, like The story of when Jonah went to the Pound, cried and thought about my old pal, who has stuck with us through so much, loyal and stoic to the end. Not wanting to cause us any bother.

The Man has his shovel, a necessary part of the grieving process, and I have my blog. A place to record the song lyrics that I used to sing to Jonah, His theme song. As we wandered up and down the creek and he lost ball after ball.

(To the theme of Lola)

Joooonah, My dog’s Name is Jooooonah
Well, Jonah’s a dog
He’s not very smart
He likes to chase balls
but u sual ly he loooses them all.

Arf arf arf Bark Bark Bark Bark Bark
Bark Bark Bark Bark Bark Arf arf arf
Oh my Jonah Jo o o o ooonah
Jo o o o ooonah
Jonah.

Oh my Jonah.

Photographs courtesy of the fabulous Jenica Lemmons

Lola-Kinks

My posts aren’t posting..sad..this should have been posted Tuesday

Spring is trying so very hard to get to us. When the rain stops, we hear birds and get glimpses of woodland creatures.

And while the sun doesn’t necessarily put in an appearance, our expectations are low.

Very muddy woodland creatures.

no longer with us….sadly

Don’t forget all the giveaways this week! First there is Murray the Tote! And Zoot’s iflip (if you donate to her marathon**a good cause!!***) and Cagey’s gift cards at Snapgifts.com.

There was a time before the plague of illness. It was called Halloween.

That Saturday my son had a lot of energy and many, many hours before his Halloween party and trick or treating adventure. Luckily Poppop was visiting and so I send them on some errands around the yard, which turned quickly into a meandering wander, as tasks with Moo often do.

And later when I emptied out the camera I found these, Frankly, AWESOME photos. He is totally hired.

his pals;jonah and lily

Oh and look we got a new car.

Introducing Mush…vrooom. (best not to ask)

My absolute favorite.

As you were….

*The Christmas Can Can-Straight no Chaser

Today held all the dreams that yesterday promised including a rescued dog, chocolate and a birth announcement!

Welcome Jacob Ryan!

9.5lbs…and I thought I had big babies….Leah isn’t a big girl either I’ve seen her in real life and I don’t know where she was putting 7 of those lbs! Congratulations to Ryan and big sister Lily!

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Here at Running Stitch we welcomed one of our own home today. After an unbelievable series of events yesterday the boys and I found ourselves outside the local pound at nine this morning, waiting for the doors to open so we could take our lab home. If I told you the story you wouldn’t believe it. I know I don’t.

You’d be all ‘dude, you totally made that up.’
And I’d be all ‘whatever! for reals”
And you’d be all ‘you be smokin’”
And I’d be all ‘catcha on the flip side looooser’

And then I’d drive away in my asphalt scraping mommy-mobile that bounced to the beat.

For sure.

Needless to say. Our dog was at the pound. It never occurred to me that he wouldn’t just come home, and when he didn’t I called the humane society line and a black male lab was reported as being picked up in our area. So I waited all night and rousted the troupes early for a little dog freedom flight.

The cacophony of barking from the rather depressing pound setting scared my two year who clung to me but Moo ran up to the cage where his dog stood wagging his tail and said to him “ooooh JOnah, you is in timeout! Ooooh no!”

We sprung our dog and headed home with only a small freakout by Moo who was concerned about Jonah’s puppies (Jonah is good, but not that good!- one night?) that we left at the pound, but seemed to recover once we got moving in the car and he and Jonah were able to openly converse about their very trying day.

Moo: Jonah you es in timeout! We es walking and woooo (whistling)
for you and you es not home.
Jonah:
Moo:And I es Sad. And Brother es sad.
Jonah:
Moo:you es very, VERY VERY!! NAUGHTY and you es en time out.
Jonah:
Moo: you es need a bath….Jonah. yes.
Jonah:
Moo: you es my friend. You es my new friend Jonah….

Here’s to new/old friends. And sleeping in your own bed.

We’d like to take this commercial break to share pictures of our cutie pies. I would post them to the Moo’s family site, but Blogger is down again today. SEW HAPPY that I’ve moved to WordPress, even happier that the Mighty Zoot made me all pretty and stuff!

Now that she is admitting her pregnancy, (15 weeks! phew!) Maybe I can admit that I want to make her a baby quilt. Any ideas? You gotta share the love, especially when peeps make you all pretty and stuff.

Mr. Moo is sleeping and I’m trying to teach myself website stuff. By teach myself I of course mean, email The Man every five minutes to ask him a question and then get all irritated with him when he can’t READ MY MIND and tell me exactly what I want! Sheesh.

I’m having a non housework day (stop laughing! sometimes I clean!) While I was following the Moo around on one of his destroy the house passes this morning I realized, MY HOUSE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION! I mean, duh!

My house is not just trashed because I’m messy, my house is trashed because the entire upper floor (baby’s room and sewing room) now live elseswhere in the house. Elsewhere being pretty much our bedroom. The sewing machine and a few of my tupperware containers are in the bedroom, as well as the changing table and all the baby’s clothes. While the co-sleeper/playpen/detention area are in the room (along with most of the toys) with the Woodstove.

Feeling better about this realization I immediately stopped worrying about cleaning and instead have been SCREWING OFF ALL DAY.

And if you believe that….i’ve got some farm land in the Okefenoke for sale.

Run report: Uh yeah, haven’t run since sometime last week. Have walked 1-2 mile each day ( I can hear Athena laughing at me)including chasing Lily around the yard as she does not respond to commands yet. Must. Run. Soon.

Took her royal Puppiness to the vet yesterday.

Have you ever gone to the vet with a puppy and a 14 month old?

Super fun!

Mr. Moo wanted to pet all the ‘donahs’ (moo talk for Jonah or any dog including Lily as well the kitty cats) and put leashes ( the cheap plastic kind they keep at the vet for all the dumb dumbs that don’t bring them from home ) on all the animals…this of course meant laying them on the animals backs. He is not so sophisticated yet.

So we found out that Lily is at least six months old because she has all her adult teeth, and now she has all her shots and in just three weeks she won’t have all her parts. Because I think we all know what a boy dog and a girl puppy with all their parts make.

Puppies (for the slow crowd).

They also talked me into $entinel for flea and ringworm and heart worm prevention, scaring the poop out of me by telling me how these disease can LEAP from your dogs to your child causing possible blindness. I KID YOU NOT THE DOCTOR SAID BLINDNESS! Yeah so we bought the drugs for our pooches.

I left safe in the knowledge that I was protecting my child from all those doggie diseases.

And this morning.

He woke up with a rash. All. Over. His. Body.

Mr. Moo’s new time schedule “Hi, Mama!! It’s 4:30am lets get up!!” Makes those early morning runs easier to get up for…because hey, I’m up.

Here we are dressed for success, notice it is STILL DARK. Oh, well did an easy 3.5 this am with The Queen Bee, back from Boston, her hubby did the Marathon in 4:30. Have I mentioned that he is sixty five?! Uh yeah. I’m impressed.

I didn’t get any quilting done yesterday (but check out Talia’s link today she posted her last BOM quilt) because I spent the majority of the day ripping out the carpet in The Moo Cave. Jonah (my favorite) decide the baby’s room was a great place to relieve himself on Tuesday night. He did this two or three times when the Moo was about 4months old (when he first moved from the co-sleeper to his crib) and he has never done it since.

I stepped in the “presents” he left in the middle of the floor, in the middle of the night, in the dark. And he urinated all over my favorite rocking chair.

Jonah and I are not talking.

So The Man and I decided the carpet (ugly anyway and hey the last owners BURNED THEIR INITIALS into the floor) had to go. And it went. Guess what? Hardwood floors…under the lineoleum. Yeah, baby Yeah!

Check out The Man’s blog for pics of this adventure.

Just back from our two mile walk. And my instep is cramping all over the place. I am commencing to FREAK OUT, officially, speaking.

Jonah the Dog’s Log
Balls started with: One (Mr. Moo’s football)
Balls lost on run: ZERO!!!
Balls found on run: zero
Balls totally deflated/chewed to death: One.

A good day

almost upon finishing this post, I heard a *gag* and an *urp* and flew upstairs to find Mr. Moo staring at a pool of puke on his sheets. (and this only ten minutes after I told my brother on the phone, “if one more person in this house throws up, the half is off!) I placed him on the floor and changed his sheets, and put him back in his crib, much to his horror and disbelief. I’m certain he thought puking was an a foolproof get-out-of-nap-free card. I am watching him in the baby monitor now, where he is babbling to himself (no doubt cursing the Mama’s name), has taken off his socks and is tying them together, no doubt in an attempt to make a naptime, rope ladder escape.
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Somedays, it is good to be alive, and today it is GREAT! It is downright balmy today and the fire I built this morning was so stifling by noon that I opened the windows and front door to keep from sweating to death. (the better to let in the breeze and the cacophony of lawnmowers up and down the street…..it’s Spring…MOW THE LAWN…NOOOOOW! (I had to physically restrain The Man from mowing the lawn when he got home, you know The Man puking his guts out in the can, just yesterday? That Man)

Much to the joy of Jonah the Dog, I loaded up the kidand we headed out for a nice walk. I love are road. I love that you can walk up and down the road and only be passed by a few cars. I love that you can walk in the morning or early afternoon in order to avoid the we-drive-too-fast teenagers and the we’re-just-obnoxious adult drivers. I love singing to my kid and my dog (they may not love this as much) and hearing my baby babble in my ear as we hoof it up the road. I understand and agree with The Man’s reasons for wanting to leave this road, we live on a straight away, our house is a money pit, it will never be the house we want, and you just can’t grow old in a house with 24 stairs in and three stories, but it makes me sad all the same.

I love being my own boss and I’ll gladly trade the 8-5 world for the 24-7, on call, all the time, especially when you are FREAKING EXHAUSTED world of stay at home mommyhood. And two years ago you would never have been able to convince me off it. Stay at home Mommyhood was for wusses. Today I think, whatever it’s your choice, but I wouldn’t trade my day job for any microsoft potion no matter the pay. I am raising the next generation, and let’s face it, he is going to be choosing my retirement villlage so, I’ll take the time now to snuggle his cute little snotty mug.

I love being able to go for a walk with my kid and (get hit repeatedly on the head with the ball thrower -his new FAVORITEST TOY) dog in the green, green, greeness of the Northwest. Well I dawdled up and down the road, taking pictures, and got my two miles in, not because I’m panicked about the half, just because I wanted to walk, if not in the woods, near them. And it was lovely. Now if only I could get hungry enough to eat something….don’t roll your eyes at me, the only time I ever panic about being not eating is before a run. If I don’t start eating more than RiceChex and bread soon, I won’t be running anywhere on Sunday.

Strangely enough I’ve been able to stomach chocolate…what do you make of that Jon?

Well its a Five o’clock world…off to love my family.

Jonah the Dog’s Log
Balls started with: One (found under the bed by Mr. Moo)
Balls lost on run: One
Balls found on run: ZERO!!!

Jonah lost the ball within ten yards of the house, in the first seconds of our walk. A new all time low. Poor Jonah.