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So for my Vlog for Tim's Vlog Emotions, through Fort Thompson, we get to do whatever we want! Wahoo! So I decided to post this video I took of me, Kat and Sam playing with Max recently. It is my newest favorite Maxie video as he is just adorable!! These Thursday Vlogs are all about emotion, and Max gives me so many emotions, good ones, laughter, love, happiness and so many others! So I dedicate this week's Vlog to him! I hope you enjoy my lovable, adorable Max!
Today, the 19th of July, was our Anniversary of having Maxie in our lives. 5 years ago today THIS happened and we adopted Maxie into our home and our hearts. I can't believe I ever worried about being able to take care of him. I can't believe I worried I wouldn't love him the way he deserved to be loved! This lil 23 pound dog has me wrapped around his paw, and when he is on pain, I am in pain. And when he is super happy, I can't help but grin. He makes everyone in the house happy and is such a blessing. I may have had to wait 25 years to get my first REAL pet (no I am telling you goldfish do NOT count!) but he was well worth the wait.
We took him out after dinner for ice cream, and man did he PIG out! I don't share my ice cream, I am a germaphobe people, but everyone else does, and he prefers the hard stuff. He will eat soft serve if it is what's available but he prefers hard ice cream. So he had some of Mom's vanilla, some of Sandy's mint and a LOT of my Dad's chery vanilla. The dog was biting into that ice cream like you would not believe and it was a big cone!! The dog was in a sugar frenzy when he got home, trying to get a little too friendly with me, me yelling NO MAX!, and finally he is in a happy food coma, snoring zzzzz's. I love this dog!! So Happy Anniversary my lil guy and here are some of my all time fave pics!
P.S. I managed to design my first Grab button, so I hope any of you who collect them on your blogs or Who like to have them, will Grab away!! :p
Well I am SO serious, Max is laying here beside me, in a ice cream induced coma. He had WAY too much, snarked the rest of Kat's cone, ate the end of mine....and Dad's and ate a lot of soft serve and hard vanilla. He is so smart, he figured out that hard ice cream needs to be bitten into to get the biggest amount and he did it. Unlike the rest of my family, I will give Max pieces of my food I break off, or am finished with, but I cannot let him lick my ice cream and then go back to enjoying it myself. Gross! I am the germaphobe though. LOL.
So my results from my cat scan are clear...which made everyone else happy, but to me it is just troubling. If something had shown up we would know what to do to make things better, but things are still unclear for me. The nuero said the trauma could have caused these migraine like pains, but what am I supposed to do with that? How is that going to help this pain go away? I just find it really frustrating not to have a definitive answer and a way for this excruciating pain to stop. It ruins my sleep, even with vicodin and ambien together it still rips me from a sound sleep, so this sucks...I have a follow up appointment this coming Monday but I am not feeling hopeful. This Frova med he gave me to take, my Mom and I have decided I am NOT taking it. Since my Mom is a nurse she has the drug books, that go into depth who shouldn't take it and the side effects, etc, and 3 things it says not to be if you take this pill, I AM. I AM a Diabetic, I AM taking Celexa, and I DO have heart issues!! So Frova has been nixed which means I am on nothing (maybe some Vicodin if I really stretch it) until Monday and even then he may say, oh it will have to lessen on it's own...dude!!! It has been 17 days!!! Come ON!!
Anyway, we had a good time hanging out with Max and he soaked it up like a sponge. When we got back from ice cream we showed him his presents...he was still interested in FOOD!! Wouldn't even touch the new squeaky toys we got him until he had been given a treat, then he decided he did like his new toys. Then we made dinner, and watched a dog-centered movie. Marley & Me. I bought it last week because it is such a good movie, yeah I cry at the end but it is so beautiful! All during the movie, Max was a spaz. He could not settle down, he wanted to play, to be scratched, to kiss people, to be fed (yeah and he was given chicken), he was a sugar hyped up beast, lol! Towards the last quarter of the movie, he went into one of his hiding places and conked out. At the end he came out though and he sat sandwiched between me and Sam. I needed my baby near me when Marley...*sniffle*....goes to heaven. My Mom was crying again, but no where near as badly as when she finished the book it is based on, she was a mess of tears...no I will NOT ever read the book, the movie made me sob when I saw it in the theaters and I got tears streaming when we saw it tonight, I do NOT need it to get any more real!
It has gotten cold tonight, back down to 32 so officially freezing, this weather is so weird! And all of a sudden my computer says my c drive is all filled up!! I just removed like 1000's of photos like 2 months ago to free up space and I have not taken that many pictures since so I have NO idea what it is I have to delete!! I am freaking out here with a dog that looks dead beside me. I am 100% serious, I just picked up his paw and it dropped to the sofa with a plunk and he is not even opening his eyes. He IS alive, he is snoring that is how I know...man...dog's lives are SWEET!!
Well Sam ended being home in time for my nuerologist's appointment, so she went with me, which ended up being really good. The guy seemed to know nothing about why I had made an appointment with him. He was all about what I had been seeing him for, finding a migraine medication to help with my migraines. But the reason I stopped that pursuit for now, was it was the reaction I had to one of the meds that made me get really depressed, and is why I am in such a dark place right now. And I really AM the shyest of the shy, I was sitting there with no clue what to do or say. Sam was like, yeah but it is the fall that she is worried about. Thanks Sam. But he still kept on going back to my migraines that I have all the time, and even I had to say something finally. It was like a struggle to get him to understand WHY I was there today. Finally he checked my eyes out (did he tell me if he saw anything? Of course not.) and gave me samples of some med that will hopefully help (my Mom has her doubts though, we are gonna look up the med online first) and set me up to get a Cat Scan. They actually were able to fit me in right THEN so we went over to the hospital and I had myself scanned. My doctor said he would hopefully have the results tommorrow, and as weird as it sounds I hope he finds something, then I will KNOW what is wrong and can do something to make it better.
Anyway, this post is dedicated to all things Max. My puppy is 5 today!! He is a nickel!! April 8th is his day, we usually get him some presents, dog treats and chewies, a new toy or two, etc. And this year we are all going to go in the car together (he loves all the attention) to get him a McD burger and then take him to get ice cream. He LOVES ice cream, vanilla, strawberry, it does not matter, he loves it. He is hilarious with it too, so I hope to get video footage of it. He knows that biting will get him big pieces but licking is his favorite, it is so cute, it looks like a piece of proscuitto ham wrapped around an ice cream cone. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY my baby boy!! Here are a bunch of my favorite pics of Max, as it IS all about him! Happy Birthday my lil prince, I want at least another 100 of your birthdays, you hear me!! :)
Yes this IS a real pic of my pookie bear Max, the first full day we had him. Isn't he gorgeous?!! I decided, since I talk about my lil guy so much, I should tell the story of how he came to be a part of our family.
It was late July, I had turned 25 earlier in the month. It was just a lazy summer day. Just me and Sam in the house, Katie off at a summer semester class, Mom at work. My Dad arrived home and asked Sam and I, if we would go on an errand with him. He said it was about an hour drive away but he said he would bring us to this really famous ice cream place we have never been to. So we were like sure. Dad was kind of evassive about what his errand was, Sam was sure it was for mulch, I thought maybe it was a church thing. SO we drove an hour, I had brought these cards from a game I had bought, that asks quiestions on Ads and Logo's, etc of well known brands and such, so we had fun driving.
We arrived at this very small, shabby looking house. For me, it confirmed this was some sort of service project my Dad was involved in. For Sam, it made her think, they must have mulch here. He had us all go IN the house, so I was sure it was some poor church family that Dad was helping or giving a blessing to or whatever. We got inside and it was hot as blazes. It was kinda smokey and extremely cramped. There were cats everywhere, it made me jump every time I felt paws climb over my flip-flop covered feet. There were a few cages with birds sqwauking, and you could hear barking from somewhere else in the house. The "side tables" were covered with towels, but it turned out when I got too close, yeah NOT side tables. There were dogs that were abused,etc and had to be crated because they were very angry and vicious, under those towels. The woman asked my Dad if he was ready to see "them" and he said yes. Sam and I were standing there, my head nearly touching the ceiling, feeling very out of place and uncertain. All of a sudden there were three jack russell dogs in the room.
Now this freaked me out a little, I have always been afraid of dogs. There were one or two exceptions during the years (Puppy the dog ate ritz crackers out of my hand, and Misty was so sweet and gentle), but most I met seemed so scary and teeth-y (yeah I know NOT a word). And while we had discussed a dog a few years earlier (most of us got allergy tests...those hurt!!) it was still a NO from the dad. So as these little dogs ping ponged over the room, hopping like kangaroos (seriously) almost to my eye level, it was very disconcerting. This was when my Dad turned to us and said "Pick one". We (me and Sam) were like "wwhhhhhaaaaaaa...?", and he said we were getting a dog, mostly for Mom but also for us girls. Sandy kept on saying "what are you talking about" over and over (and she has been the one pushing for a dog for eons, she was in such shock), and according to Dad I clasped my hands together and went into "shopping mode". The black and white one wasn't very cute and hopped so high, so I went on to the next. He was tan and white and really cute, and I thought THIS ONE. So my Dad was like pick him up, so I did, very carefully, being scared still, but they were puppies. And he would not sit still, he was jerking, flopping, struggling to get down so he basically jumped from my arms and made me feel like "this is really not my thing". Sam was finally starting to get Dad was really serious, so when he asked her wich one she liked, she pointed down towards the door and said "that one", but didn't move. I don't know what happened but I got brave. I went to where she'd pointed and underneath a cage was a white, tan and black puppy. I pried him from his hidey hole and stood up and that is when he just...settled into my arms. And my heart was lost. He just snuggled in and was content. He was quiet and had the sweetest lil face. Sam looked in love also, and scractched his head and petted him, but didn't even try and take him. My Dad was like "well, is he the one?" and we were both "YES". So he paid the woman the $400 and she gave us the name if the puppy food he was on, etc. We met the mom, but she was so old and tired looking, she looked like "oh you are taking one? 'Kay". Apparently the three sisters had been snatched almost immediately.
We walked out to the car and as we were getting in, as much as I wanted to keep holding him, I asked Sam if she wanted to hold him and she had him before I knew it. He was so quiet on the way home, a lil shaky, so Sam covered him with part of her skirt. Halfway home she gave him back to me (Dad was calling him Skippy 2, he and Mom had a JRT named Skippy) and turned into Sarge. Okay, we must stop at the pet store. Food, toys, collar, leash, shampoo, a book on JRT's, etc. And we listened to Sarge and did it. I picked out a RED collar, it spoke to me, and is his signature color to this day.
When we got home it was still an empty house, so we bathed "puppy" or "skippy 2", and noticed...hey he is kind of lighter...less yellow white. So we bathed him once more and he was really white! And he no longer smelled like cigarrettes!! Sam had about half of the "Dummies Guide to JRT's" read, which is a fat book. We set up a balled up mattress pad in the mud room with puppy pads on the floor and Sam even found the spund machine with the heartbeat so he would be all set for the night. When Katie arrived home next Dad went out to the garage and told her to be calm and not freak out, she thought we had done something majorly wrong. So when she saw me holding a lil puppy, she was like "whose dog is that?!" and we were like "ours" at the same time, and she was all awwwwww he's so cute. Why did you freak me out? But he was very jumpy at loud noises and Kat can be LOUD. We were getting really excited about Mom meeting Skippy 2. We tied a red bow to his new collar and I stood behind Kat and Sam when Mom got home. My Dad had called her and said there was something wrong with the mud room floor, I can't remember why, I knew part of it was so she would get off work asap. So when she walked in she went to the mud room first and was all confused. Then Kate and Sam stepped aside and Mom gasped, she said "who is this?"! And we were all Skippy the Second and I placed him in Mom's arms and she melted. She was "hello you." And then, to him, "no you're not a Skippy, no, you need your own name", and snuggled him. We all sat on the kitchen floor where we had placed a towel, and "puppy" (as he would be called for days until mom picked McIntosh aka Max) prowled around us, curious. Still no noise from him. Katie and I both started to feel panicky. I know all of a sudden I was like, I can't take care of a dog! I was just freaking out. My parents told both of us, the dog is everybody's, "not mine though" Dad said, but Max had his heart that night. He was fascinated with dad's 5 o'clock shadow and loved licking his chin. He also liked gnawing on our fingers, the poor teething baby, which didn't hurt, his teeth were just prickly baby teeth. The 'rents assured us we didn't have to have the dog with us all the time, we could be involved just as much as we wanted, and that helped but I still worried.
And that night was hard. The book said, put him in a room and do NOT get him, even if he cried. Except I was the only one hanging out on the main floor, so I heard him crying, the only noise to leave him all day, for hours until he must have fallen asleep. I can't believe I ever worried about having a dog. He kept worming his way more and more into my heart and my families, and into our home. We got baby fences, he was only allowed out of his house when one of us had him or were taking him outside. He peed on the pee pad on day ONE people!! Go puppy!! Then when he was there a week or so, we put up the gates so he had his room and the entire kitchen, He did NOT like being stuck on the other side of the fence when we were in the living room all together eating while we watched tv, but there was a process. Next he got to roam the downstairs, until he was old enough and potty trained enough to have the run of the house. Poor Max uses his head to knock on doors. My Mom taught him to grrrr on like week 1, she would do it, then he would mimic her. SO yeah, this dog dug himself a place in our hearts and he has been our baby since. Sam taught him to sit. I taught him to kiss on command (yeah me the dog-fearer, loves Maxie kisses...heck I let most dogs kiss me now, I am so not afraid most of the times of dogs anymore), with my help (I am the tall one with LONG legs) Sam taught him to lie down. I taught him to count to three, I mean it. When I throw a treat or ball into the air, he doesn't jump until I get to three! My good boy!!
Of course, he did learn he could bark...and has never stopped. He hates other dogs even in his view, man he never shuts up! We don't LOVE the bopping under the chin or flicking the nose (sensitive!!) so we have adopted the spray bottle of water when he gets real bad. He hates that. And he gets time outs, ehich he hates. We put him in his room (painted with a red chair rail and paw prints going up the wall), which has his house/crate, and put the baby fence up and depending on what he did, depends on his jail time. Usually it is 10 minutes and he is all ready to be let out. He has forgotten when he was really little, we got him at 3 months, he figured out he could jump the fences. That was when we had to use the taller one, but he has forgotten that OR gotten too lazy/spoiled and we use the shorter one still.
And he IS spoiled, we know it. We have all sort of JRT knick-knacks, we buyhim special treats, oh he gets fed human food. He loves cheese and...well most things except for fish. He loves cashews. Dad is nuts for him. He started taking tiny Max out almost every day for a burger in the morning, and Max got SO used to it, Dad takes him out every bloody day, so spoiled. Dad now heats up chicken because it is much healthier for Max, but on Sundays for sure Maz, gets the steak from a Steak bagel sandwich from McD's. LOL. But sticking to chicken and he is in his weight bracket, go Max! He is 4 now, and the love of my life. He spends the nights glued to my side while i watch tv and blog, etc. He has his "special" spots throught the house, HIS pillows...he climbs all over me like he is a mountain goat if he wants to lay ON me. He has gotten into a bad habit of mean grrrr'ing when we stop him from biting (he has bad allergies and gets Benadryl) and has this Cujo thing going on. For Mom and Dad he stops like THAT. Not for me, I have found a way, I call him BAD BOY, which he HATES and he gets all apologetic and kisses to death. Only 3 times have I actually flinched from him when he meant no harm. When he has Cujo face ON and is lunging at you, yes to give a kiss, but is does NOT feel to my senses, SAFE, I have flinched back, which freaks Maxie out and he gets such an upset look on his face, he is shocked and so saddened. But is he bites any of us or anyone I should say, he is on his way to DOG school! But he is a good boy mostly, he loves being cuddled, and likes to have even a paw touching someone when he sleeps around us.
So this is how Max was adopted into our family, and his adventures with us began!
Okay so the day seemed like it was gonna be good. I went with the 'rents to see Max Payne. Now I have been sleeping BAD so I drank a cup of Pick Me Up cocoa, as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, and I rarely drink caffeine so this usually gives me caffeine shakes and keeps me AWAKE. And did it this time? Uh NO. Half hour into the movie and I am slapping my own face, trying to keep myself awake, but it is NOT working...so finally I give up, I ball my sweater behind my head and lean against it...next thing I know I open my eyes, see Mark Wahlberg on the edge of a roof and then the end credits...what the crap?!! So I have no clue what happened, and I have questions from the first 30 minutes!! What were those ghostly things? What WAS up with the tatoo's??! And my Dad hated it...but he hated What Lies Beneath with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer and I LOVE that movie...so good! So I have to rely on my Mom and so far she is making me crazy, Wait for it on DVD...uh NOOOOO! I can't wait that long for it to make sense!! She is so going down...
It was like 12:30pm and I still had to unpack my winter clothes and PACK my summer ones. And they are supposed to be readying their room for fixing the carpet and painting their walls, so there is a twin bed in my room, my Mom ha been sleeping there, so I only had while she was taking a bath. (Yeah the fixing of their room has been going on for awhile...they both snore but claim they can't sleep with the other one snoring....so the fixing has been dragging on AWHILE now...yeah roommate is more like it, LOL) And then I couldn't find my booties. Foot booties people! 
SO I was really upset, yeah probably too upset, but I have had an emotional few days...well months...and years...but the last few days were particularly difficult. After going up into the attic...I do NOT feel safe up there walking around...not a finished attic people...not even remotely...plus it was even COLDER up there and it's 37 degrees people! Luckily after 15 minutes of my Mom looking, she found them in the "safe" place I had put them last year when I put stuff away...yeah they were IN the tv room, in Max's hidey hole which was supposed to be an area I could put more dvd's but he took most of it over...WENDYYYYY!! Ahhhhh! I hate "safe" places...they end up being safe FROM me!
So I finally had a shower and went to my laptop and tablemate, but Max was biting really bad, so he got benadryl...the vet said so...he has ALLERGIES bad! But he was still biting and when I made him stop he started grrrrr-ing at me and then it was the bared fangs and CUJO noises when I told him he would go to his room with the gate up if he didn't stop, and he scared me, so I went to bop under his chin lightly, I just did it to myself, it's a bop. And he purposely, with clear intent BIT me. HArd. He punctured a small hole and it bled. I was so angry but more upset. I grabbed him, put him in his crate in his "room" and gated it. I then went to see Sam who I knew was up...we need to do something about his behavior in the last few months. He never used to bare his fangs and CUJO us. And biting...if he bit someone outside the family, the law says after the second time, he'd be put down...this is NOT okay. Sam tried to calm me down and said he bit her, but everyone had made it sound like he nipped her and that she had snuck up behind him and he hadn't known who or what it was. And I was so upset, she told me to wake up Mom and tell her, so I did. Mom was really shocked. And she could tell how much I was upset and...HURT. I was afraid of dogs before Max...and now I feel like I can't trust Max...so what does that mean of my 4 year old love of ALL dogs. If I can't trust my own baby, how can I trust that other dogs won't hurt me? I just feel so...I can't even explain it! And Sam said do NOT let him lay with you and I was like uh yeahhhhh. So he has tried a few times but I have shooed him away. He doesn't get to cuddle when he tried to bite my finger off! He has now gone off to sulk, but this has to stop, yeah he hates other dogs and barks at people until he gets used to you (while his lil stumpy tail wiggles cuz he does like people...he just thinks this is HIS turf...the whole world), but until a few months ago he never did this...especially to US. So this has just not been a great day either...hopefully it wasn't a depressing read, just an ahhhhhh one. Cuz seriously, doesn't my title fit? I think it is very APROPO.
So I have decided what I am going to be for Halloween this year. I don't care how old I get, it doesn't feel like Halloween unless you dress up SOMEHOW. Last year I didn't get anything and my sister Sandy dressed up like a gothic rag doll, and I was like....I am soooo jealous...dress me up like one too! The NIGHT of Halloween. I knew I wasn't going anywhere, just handing out candy...but it just MAKES the night! And Katie got in on it too...the pictures were...interesting, LOL!
SO when I was out at Walmart today, I decided to see what they had. I mean I knew they wouldn't have much for me, I am no size 4 young girl, who can fit in a tiny pirate dress...I have a fuller figure. And I am unwilling to slap down $50+ to get a costume from IParty, no matter how much I WANT to have the cute goth fairy or queen of hearts costumes. ( I do have a pair of fairy wings though...SO pretty! I am obsessed with Tinkerbell, I AM Wendy...plus they don't sell Wendy stuff, so Tink is my go to gal). Anywho, as I passed on even looking at sizes for hooker vampires and maids, and ran from the Woopie Cushion costume, I saw some capes and stuff. And then I found a long Red hooded cape, supposedly if you wanted to be a vampire princess, but I was like "Little Red Riding Hood"! And I figured I could make her more interesting with these arm things you pull on and it looks like you have full sleeve tats (tattoo's for the...slow, LOL) on both arms. And I am gonna wear my plaid skirt with the skull on the side and some cool tights and my lil faux-mary janes with sparkly skulls as the clasps. And I figured I might do my make-up with really goth eyes or something like that...and so Lil Rebel Red was born! I dunno, maybe it will look cute, or maybe I will look like a big geek, but Halloween is for fun!! And I want to feel more a part of it this year. Just handing out candy (oh and eating it too, like every time the bell rings...and one for you and one for you...and one for me) is no fun. And things have been so crazy, we don't have our decorations up yet (sadddd) and my ghost clip ons that go on my shoes and flash red with every step are with the decorations...I'm sorry, I am just a big kid, what can I say?!
And Sandy decided to all my her lonesome, decide that Max would be a pumpkin, she got an orange dog shirt with a face on the back...okay lame unless we get him a hat or something. I'm sorry but JUST the shirt?! Last year it was okay, because it was black with glow in the dark bones...he was Bone Daddy, but this is SO uncreative! The first year he was a bat, he was lil so it was a thing that just went around his neck like a collar, and it had wings. Year two, he was 007, James Bond, I made the "007" onto a white dog tee and my Mom made a black bow tie, and we posed him with a martini glass...he was SO cute! And then he was a biker dog. A black rolling stones dog tee, and a Harley Davidson dog hat...he hated that hate with a passion, but he looked SO cute!
So we will have the Adventures of Lil Rebel Red and her faithful sidekick... Pumpkin Boy?? Oh we have to find a hat or something...a plain tee cannot be done two years straight...it's just not imaginative!! Anyone else got costume plans? Do tell!
Well did your dog, after you tried to put him in a bowl (hey I thought it would be cute okay?!), balk as if insulted, and then when you put the bowl on the floor, crawl inside it on his own and curl into a ball? That's right...be jealous.
MAX IS MINE!!
Okay Blog World, you should all meet the love of my life, his name is McIntosh, aka Max. He also goes by Pookie, as he is MINE, and McStinky, which is when he blows bad air...if you haven't guessed Max is a dog. THE dog. 23 pound Jack Russel Terrier with a heart bigger than he is. He is 4 years old, and is the first real pet my younger sisters and I have ever had. No the millions of goldfish who got flushed just did not count. They didn't seem very snuggle worthy. One of them did get really huge and was renamed JAWS, as he started to eat the other goldfish, and we had him forever, til he died one day when we were all mysteriously at school. Years later we found out my mother was sick of the fish eating all our other fish so she took him to the great white bowl and bid him luck on finding his way through the sewers...this is something my siblings and I have never let her forget. So BLOGGERS, meet Max, Max, the blogging world.
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