Skip in my step on a Monday?

For those of you who know me even just a bit, you know I am NOT a morning person. And Mondays are the worst! I don't usually sleep very well as I tend to wake up at different points during the night. When I dream, I usually have some really strange dreams. For instance, a couple of weeks ago, I had a dream that Sister #1 was having a baby as a surrogate for someone else. Don't ask me why the hell I dreamed that, especially since she's *cough* a little out of the age range for birthin'. That dream was tame considering some of the bizarre things I have dreamed about recently. I mean, one night I dreamed Reggie Jackson (famous baseball player for those who don't know) stole my Jeep. What the... ?? Don't ask me where these things come from.

Do you ever have a dream that's so good that when you wake up you're kinda pissed that it was just a dream? I had one of those last night, and OMG did I want to throw my alarm clock when it went off. Some of you may recognize this guy...

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He's been on commercials, various TV shows, and he used to be on As the World Turns playing Mike Kasnoff. I happened to see him on a commercial yesterday (Breathe Right strips), so I guess that's why his image was planted in my head. On the show (ATWT), he was the sexy construction worker who was a romantic type and knew how to TALK to and treat a woman. I know you guys are saying that he had to be fiction if that were true, but Mark Collier played him well. I always hoped his career would take off after leaving the show, but I haven't really seen him in much.

Anyway, in my dream, we had this majorly hot, romantic time together (and I'm not talking about sex, although that too!) where he hinted at asking me to marry him. Now if you know me, you know I'm not one to be pining away to get married. In fact, I've been single so long that half the time I forget I was ever married. It was a LONG time ago. (Okay, scrub picture of ex-hubby off my brain now and get back to Mark!)

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So pressing on... I know I said it wasn't about the sex, and it wasn't. I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about. It's like one of those "intimate" moments where touching each other's fingertips can be erotic. Ya know what I'm talking about? Okay, maybe I'm not describing it well, but it was HOT! HOT, I tell you! So of course, I went to tell a friend of mine that I thought he was going to propose and we were all excited about it. Then my damn alarm went off... After I was done throwing it across the room   beating the thing senseless  hitting the snooze button, I'll admit I had a smile on my face. *sigh*  I was none too happy about missing the rest of the dream, but it was refreshing to have a good dream and not a strange dream. 

Notice, I don't consider it strange to have a dream about an actor who I'll never get my hands on. Ha! But then, I guess it's strange I'd be so excited about getting married with the way my life has been in the romance department. But who the hell would tell him no?

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It sure as hell wouldn't be me! Now, though I hate Mondays, I'll admit I had a little bit of a skip in my step when I came to work this morning. Yeah, it was THAT good of a dream. I think I'm going to have to figure out exactly what I did last night before bed to hope I can continue the dream. Fat chance, I know. 

Have a great week, everyone! At least I started the week off right for the ladies, and the guys have a target to throw wise cracks at. 

I tried to get a life.. Honestly!

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Friday night I was bored out of my mind for some reason. Normally I'm fine with my solitary existence, even though my pitifulness is sad for you viewers at times. (Hey, did you know spell check thinks pitifulness is okay? Who knew?! Why hasn't it figured out "ginormous" is a word yet?) Anyway, I texted several people to see what they were up to. (Texted isn't a word yet either, by the way.) Apparently, they were all having too much freaking fun to answer me. Rude, right? I mean, I'm trying to get a life here, people!

Eventually a friend of mine answered and said she was at her nephew's birthday party so I should come out to her sister's place at the river to have a few cocktails with the adults and enjoy the view. I told her I had to change, and she fussed that no one was dressed up. Ummm, I think you want me to at least put a bra on, ya nut! I'm considerate that way.

She ended up meeting me at the store because she figured I would have trouble finding it. Good thing she did because as she took me off the paved road and down this scary path, I'm sure I would have chickened out and gone home had I been taking this journey alone. I mean, talk about being right in the middle of town and feeling like you stepped into the movie Deliverance! I am going to have to take pictures of it for you next time. I was a bit worried about my safety on the first trip.

Source - South Park had George Lucas and Steven Spielberg  make Indy "squeal like a pig." Is nothing sacred to those freaks? NOT what I expected when I did a search for that phrase, although I never expected to search for that phrase!

Of course, I had enough cocktails later on in the night to tell the wonderful host of this party that I felt like I was stepping into said movie as I drove up. I felt bad. Kinda. I mean, I DID really feel that way as I was driving down the path. And yes, I'm calling it a path because it sure didn't look like much of a road! But they were nice enough to invite me to their home.. I'm glad she laughed about it. I was worried. For a second.

We had a pretty good time though. The moon was so full that you could pretty much see the whole river. Well, our piece of it anyway. You know what I meant!

Their house was absolutely beautiful, and I decided that I hate them. My bedroom could fit inside their walk-in closet for God's sake! But I've been invited back for a huge 4th of July thing they do down there every year. So I must not have been too bad of a guest. Unless they regretted it the next day. They are just stuck with me now, suckers!

Monday's are for playing catch-up

I feel like I can't seem to catch up on anything lately. I am "on time" with my school work, but I really need to get this term finished up early so I can have a bit longer off this time. I am SOOO sick of school!

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At work, it's a never ending process of course. I have piles everywhere that seem to never end because people keep throwing things on top of them. Typical, of course. But with the new company owning us now, I'd really like to feel like my head is above water before they come in and start auditing us.

For the animal shelter... Yeah, I have things to do I need to catch up with there, too! I need to get some software bought, and get the financials entered. And I don't even want to THINK about when someone filed the taxes last. Plus, I have a huge event I need to start planning for later in the year.

Finally, my blogging friends... *sigh* I miss being able to keep up with all of your blogs! I am going to try to set aside so much time every day, and I always try to at least read the people's blogs who comment on mine. It's at least giving me a system here. Things will be so much better after June. I just keep telling myself that hoping I'll believe it by the time June gets here.

So I will keep this short and sweet so I can go read some of your blogs while I eat my lunch. One little funny I have to tell you that I ran across... Someone had a slow cooker recipe up for Sloppy Joe's. Okay, I'm sure it's probably delicious, but have you ever thought to yourself, "How the hell could I make Sloppy Joe's even easier than they already are to make? I mean, that 10 or 15 minutes I have to stand over the stove to make them is ridiculous!" Ummm, I don't think so. I bet it takes them longer to put the ingredients in the crock-pot than it takes me to make and eat my Sloppy Joe's. I'm sorry, but there are many things I need made EASIER... not more complicated.

Have a great week, everyone!

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Friday foolishness

First of all, I wanted to welcome all of my new followers. I've gotten a little kick in my numbers this week, and I am LOVING it. I was kinda in a rut there for a while. I'm sorry some of you get to start out with this post, but what the hell. It's Friday, right? Cocktails will be served shortly, so pull up a chair.

I have never been very creative, at least I don't think I am. Some recent posts by others have made me think of things I enjoyed doing when I was young. Drawing was not one of them. I'm just not good at it. See?

I tried to draw a dog on there, but that was really pathetic. So I gave up. Color is one thing I have always been fascinated with though. I could color my ass off! Or fingers off. I don't know how many boxes of crayons I went through as a child.

Have you ever seen artwork that looks like this and wondered how the hell it is worth money?

For some reason, as a child, I started making my own creations like this. I don't know if I ran out of coloring books, or if some teacher showed me, or if it was just something some friends and I came up with. But for some reason it came to mind last night. Have any of you ever done this? You just take a piece of paper and a marker and let your hand go crazy on it. Then you color in the spaces. It really looks something like this.

Am I bizarre or just really more creative than I thought I was? Okay, I know I'm bizarre, but I mean about this particular past-time.

My mother called when I was in the middle of this creation last night. As usual the conversation started off with, "Hey, what are you doing?" Ummm, did I really want to tell her I was coloring? I thought for a second about making something up, but then I figured. Okay, why would I waste a lie to my mother over not wanting to admit I was coloring? So I told her. Of course, she laughed at me and somewhere in the conversation she ended up asking, "So are you trying to tell me you want coloring books for your birthday?" Uh, no! And between me and you, I have two coloring books. Yes, I'm that mature!

I told her about this little habit I did when I was young, and she doesn't remember it. Apparently, I was a closet creative artist. Maybe I just got bored with coloring in Mickey Mouse and all the Disney characters over the years.  Who knows? Regardless, I spent 3 hours last night on this masterpiece for you all while I was catching up on some things on my DVR. That's 3 hours I'll never get back, right? Yeah, Mom didn't really understand why I was doing it either.

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Oh, well. Happy Friday, everyone! I get the joy of cleaning house tonight because my family is coming to visit tomorrow to take the old washer and dryer to other family members who need them. So I'm making quesadillas for them. Which means my house has to not just be clean, but "mom clean." Just how I wanted to spend my Friday night! And yes, I know it's my fault for waiting until the last minute, but that's how I roll.

My world has gone to the birds

This morning as I was waiting for Bailey to do her business, I noticed there was a flock of birds flying north the entire time I was standing outside. This was about 10 minutes, or longer. I might have nodded off. I'm not much of a morning person so I'm not very alert after climbing out of bed. Anyway...

I tried to get a picture of them flying overhead, but oddly enough my cell phone doesn't take good pictures of birds in flight. What is wrong with technology nowadays? But I did manage to get this picture of a shit ton of them in the tree behind my house... if you can see them.

The funny thing is that it's been in the 70's during the day for several days now, but these birds waited until the coldest morning we've had to fly north? Did they just get the memo that it's getting warmer or what? I just found it very strange that they picked this morning. Obviously their mail service uses snail mail and not air mail. Yes, I had to go there.

This reminded me of a story I've been meaning to tell you all. Have you ever watched a baby woodpecker try to learn how to peck? My mother and I had this humorous view once when I was visiting. She noticed a baby woodpecker on the wooden post they have planted in the back yard that holds the bug light. It was a beautiful bird that looked something like this.

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Momma bird was nowhere in sight, so we assumed he had decided he was ready to branch out into the world. Unfortunately, I think he had a bit of brain damage from the way he was pecking this piece of wood. Ya know how normally it's a steady sounding "peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck" when a woodpecker is at work? Well, this was more of a "peck, peck, bang!"  After every two pecks, he would slam his head into the post. "Peck, peck, bang! Peck, peck, bang!" It was really pitiful. I don't think he was the brightest student in his class, but I imagine after the 30 minutes we watched him trying to get it right, he probably felt a bit like this. 

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It was a bit like watching a drunk trying to do something that requires precision and not being able to figure out why he can't do it right, yet going back for more even though it was painful because he forgot what happened just seconds before. 

Some Linkage and Giveaways!

Okay, now that I wasted so much time trying to do something simple like set up a Facebook account, I think I got it done finally! Geez, Facebook was being testy about verifying my email address. It's hard enough to keep my personal, work, and blog emails straight without them messing with me about it! Anyway, you can go here to follow me there now.

If you aren't following me on Twitter, you should! I've been having some fun conversations over there lately with Canadian Blogger Girl, Amber, and Simple Dude. Well, it's mostly been us picking on him, but it's been fun anyway! So click on this to follow me so you don't miss out!

Speaking of CBG, she is having a giveaway on her blog, and she's got a bunch of exciting things going on over there. Go check her out and today you can even read a guest post by the crazy Simple Dude, too.

I've heard some blogging friends getting frustrated with losing followers lately. I have been lucky and haven't had that problem (and please tell me I didn't just jinx myself!), but I was wondering. What makes you leave someone you're following? Do they say things that offend you? I mean Average Girl had a FANTASTIC idea that involved a battle of the sexes on posts and she lost followers for it. What the ...? I didn't think any of my followers were that sensitive, but I could be wrong. Honestly, the only ones I think I've ever left are ones that I started following when I first got onto Blogger, and they just didn't interest me anymore. Seriously, you all aren't picky people, right? If so, I'm sure I'll offend you at some point. This is my stress free zone!

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I finished up my classes last night. Yay! Unfortunately, I only get one week off before I have to start three more though. Geez, is it June yet? I am sooooo ready to be done with school. Now, if my slow ass professors will post my grades, I will be a bit happier.

Oh, Studio30Plus is having a giveaway for reaching 500 members, too. So click on my button over there, join us, and go sign up for the giveaway! It's a great little community that's coming together nicely.

Tomorrow, Bailey and I have a little surprise for ya. I think you'll all enjoy it, and we got a little help from Bruce and Tuck.

Final thought.. I think the Frito Lay guy who put these signs up in a store near me knew the Super Bowl was going to be shitty. What do you think?

 Honestly, it was a good game. It was just not a good outcome for me and those who love me. *sigh*

Blonde Moments

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Happy, guys? Boobage just for you!

A friend and I were discussing things you do that make you want to slap yourself in the forehead the second after to say, "What the hell were you thinking? That was about a dumbass thing to do!" The other night I was getting Bailey some water, of course in her Steelers bowl. I had the remote in my other hand when I picked up her bowl. Instead of setting the remote on the counter, which would have been the smart thing to do, I put it in the crook of the arm I was holding the bowl in. I turned on the water and filled the bowl. Just as I turned off the water, the remote started to slip. What did my brilliant mind decide to do? I snatched that arm close to me to catch it and threw about half of the bowl of water right down the front of my shirt. Brilliant! Bailey even jumped back away from me and gave me a look that said, "Are you epileptic or what?"

So of course, this friend had to share something she had done the night before that was equally as stupid. Her boyfriend had stayed the night the night before and she was in the hurry to get to work that morning. She asked him to let the dog out for her, but he had decided to sleep in. When she got home, she took her shoes off and went walking across the kitchen only to step on a throw rug that had been pissed on.

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Why is it that stepping in piss with a sock on is so much more gross than even stepping in it with a bare foot? Is that just me? My friend whole-heartedly agreed with me on that one.

Anyway, the blonde moment came after that. She took the rug outside to clean it. Did she lay it down and put something on it to scrub it clean? No, that would have been the logical move. Instead she proceeded to shake it out. I'm sorry but that beats my water thing. Of course, she ended up with pee all over her and had to go shower after she finished cleaning the rug. I laughed so hard when she told me, and she'd probably be mortified that I wrote about it here. Good thing she doesn't know about this blog. 

I often have these blonde moments, but I'm allowed. I am a natural blonde, so I have an excuse. Plus, it's an easy excuse for doing something that is just really damn stupid. Have a blonde moment story you want to share with my followers? Let me know!

I'm feeling the love!

I am so blessed to have such great followers and blogging friends! Over the weekend, I ended up getting TWO awards so my week started off wonderfully. However, I was so busy yesterday that I didn't get a chance to tell you about them here. I also have a giveaway (my first ever... yay!) coming up probably tomorrow so make sure you check back for that. I'll address the awards separately since they have different rules to them.

Canadian Blogger Girl thinks I'm stylish or likes my blog anyway, but she thought enough of me to give me this awesome award. I think she was one of the earlier blogs I started following, so you should go check her out. She has some great stories about her wacky neighbors, but I think she deserves an award for living next to them!  I guess if I'm going to have such a snazzy award on my blog, I better spruce up the place. Expect that soon, since I've been meaning to do so anyway. In any event, thank you CBG! You rock, woman!

Here are the rules for the award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award
2. Share 5 things about yourself
3. Award 5 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award 

Five things about myself... I'm trying to come up with things that you all don't know about me yet.
1. I've worn glasses since before I could walk.
2. I have always secretly wanted to become an author.
3. I record General Hospital religiously every day though I'm insanely behind on watching it.
4. I listen to Country music more than any other type normally.
5. My favorite board game is Monopoly.

Recently discovered great bloggers.. There have been so many since the holidays that I found, but I guess I'll have to go with these folks. It's so hard to choose, and I'm trying to spread the love a bit to those I don't think have gotten the award. Please go check them out!

1. Vicki at Glitter Frog .. I found her on Twitter recently, but she has been so worth it. Go read about the crackhead she met recently, and vote for her in a competition she's in if you don't mind.
2. The Adorkable Ditz.. She is young but is wise beyond her years. And she always leaves great comments.
3. Robyn at Life by Chocolate.. She is about to embark on a great new career, and I can't wait to read about it. Don't miss her! I think I found her on Twitter, too.
4. Alessandra at The Life and Times of A. Nighbert.. I simply love her, and I'm sure you will, too. Another great one for comments. :)
5. Average Girl at It's an Average Life.. Okay, this one is my "fudge" on the rules. I didn't find her recently (unless you consider my entire blog to be recent), but she needed to be given an award called "Stylish." She has a new, really nice look to her blog, and I thought she needed some lovin'. Go check her out.

Ib at The Habitual Hobbit totally caught me off guard with this award. I guess I just haven't talked to him much, so I wasn't expecting it. But I was so excited, and it looks like it's been going around a lot lately. His blog is pretty great, and he actually informed me I'm "naughty" the other day. You'll have to go read it to find out why.

For this award, I have to link back to the award giver, answer some questions, and pass the award on. Here are the questions I'm supposed to answer.

1. If you blog anonymously, are you happy doing this? If you aren't anonymous, do you wish you started out anonymously, so that you could be anonymous now? I am semi-anonymous, but I wish I had started out 100% anonymous. Some of my friends and family have the link to my blog and occasionally pop over to read it. Unfortunately, if I Google my real name some of my early posts come up when I used to have my full name on it. So I am limited on things I can vent about, especially work if I ever wanted to. I am loving the blog world though, so I wouldn't change finding all of you. I might start a completely anonymous one sometime though.


2. Describe an incident that shows your inner stubborn side. Seriously? You're asking a Taurus this question? Ummm, which one do I pick? Okay, I firmly believe that M&M's are the best candy ever, and no one will convince me otherwise! Yeah, it's cheesy, but I'm stubborn about a lot of things.


3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror? I see a woman who cares very deeply for her family and friends. She can be stubborn, but she will stand up for those she believes in to the end. She needs to take care of herself more and have fun more often like she used to. 


4. What is your favourite summer cold drink? Iced tea, without a doubt!


5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do? Normally, I curl up to a good book or movie. I'm thinking bubble baths need to get back into my life, so I see them making a comeback. I haven't done that in forever! (Is Bailey going to try to get in the tub with me?)


6. Is there something that you still want to accomplish in your life? So many things... I think I mentioned above that I'd love to be a published author. Maybe my publishing world will be the internet through a blog that can make me some change, but who knows? I would seriously love to buy a house someday though. I also hope that I can leave this world having made an impression on my nieces and nephews. I love them all more than they'll ever know. 


7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the shy person or always ditching? I guess I was a bit of the first two. I finished pretty high in my class, and I was always out to make sure everyone had a good time. I was pretty outgoing.


8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what would you see? I think it would have to be holding my oldest nephew for the first time. I was only 12, and I remembering being so fascinated with this little person. I am now fascinated by the man, husband, and father he has become. 


9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog, or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people and events? Well, I have to make myself open up sometimes, and I tend to joke about things to keep my life from getting too intense. So I guess I do share my true self in my blog in that way. Honestly, I don't think I can be too honest about emotions and feelings without it hurting me or someone else in my life because I am not anonymous here, but isn't that the ironic part? As far as sharing experiences though, I'm pretty much an open book.


10. If you had the choice to sit down and read a book or talk on the phone, which would you do and why? I would definitely read a book. I really don't like talking on the phone much, so that's something that's usually reserved for when I've had a few cocktails. 


Okay, are you bored to tears yet? Last thing and I'll let you go! Who do I pass this one to?


Sam over at A Redhead Named Sam.. She said she could help me spruce this place up (and I'm about to take her up on that), and I've enjoyed her posts since the first day I stumbled onto her blog. 


Stephanie over at Seriously??... Reeeally?... Seriously?.. She was an early find for me, and she has always cracked me up. She's a fellow animal (and especially dog) lover, and I feel so terrible for her recent loss. So go give her some blog love, but please be respectful of her wishes on her Scooby post. 


I'm all done for now. You can go if you must. 

What ever happened to...?

Everyone seemed to like my post about some of the 80's rockers and what they look like now so it gave me an idea. Considering how much I enjoy doing research and looking stuff like that up, I thought I'd let you give me a focus. Tell me who you would like to know about and I'll see what I can find out. Did you ever wonder where a certain character on your favorite show ended up? What about a favorite singer or group that just seemed to disappear and you never had the time to find out what happened?

It doesn't even have to be someone who is famous, although historical figures could be considered famous, too. Is there a court case/true crime event you never heard the outcome for? Ever heard a phrase that you always wondered about or a tradition and wanted to know where it came from? I am one of those crazy people who just looks it up!

So let me know here in the comments what you'd like me to get information on, and I'll do my best "Sherlock Holmes of the Internet" impression to find out.

Of course, I'll try to make the posts humorous unless they met some untimely end that I just can't spice up. Don't feel shy about suggestions either. Sometimes I have no clue what has happened to people when it seems everyone else on the planet already knows. If you want to, you can always email me at talktaurus@gmail.com. You know if you all don't give me some direction, I'll just have to bore you with people who interest me. I came up with this after looking up Allison DuBois who I posted briefly about yesterday and who is apparently a huge fraud (or so I got the impression). If you'd like to know more, let me know and I'll share what I found.

On a similar note, I seriously think I'm going to try to look for a research and/or editing job. I keep saying that's what I enjoy doing, so why not, right? Surely there's an author out there somewhere who could use cheap labor, until I get some experience anyway.

For now though, I thought I needed to give you all some laughs so here are some cute things I stumbled on that should be good for a chuckle or two.

Since you all love my Bailey stories (and if you don't, just sit there and take it!.. Yeah, I said it! No, wait. DON'T LEAVE ME!)... This morning she decided I wanted to get up an hour early because she heard something outside that got her barking. She actually grabbed my Nike from the floor, jumped on the bed, and threw it at me! I couldn't believe it. For those who don't know me very well yet, I cherish my sleep time in the mornings. I was not amused when I went outside and there was nothing there that interested her.

Screwy Street... My Half-Assed Weekend Post

I've decided to jump on the Simple Dude's bandwagon and try my hand at his "My Half-Assed Weekend Post."

I am all about editing and criticizing pointing out stupid things in movies and the world that aren't right. You know, like a car going around a corner in a high-speed chase with a dent down the side of the car, and when they go around the next corner, no dent. Those types of things drive me bananas! I really need a job as an editor and/or researcher, so speak up if you know where I can find one.

Anyway, I've posted before about things that I've seen in my world or on TV that are not right like in my "Something's Wrong with this Picture" post. Most of you weren't around back then so check it out. It's short and sweet, but if you're anything like me (and you must be to be here and reading this), you'll enjoy it.

To get to my point, there is this town near mine that I have to go to on occasion because they have a Walmart and we don't. The quickest way to get to many of the things in that town that I want to see is through a bad neighborhood, so I don't dilly-dally in that area. But, as I was driving out of that town one day, I happened to glance down a side street (because you don't want to be caught looking at the drug dealers) and saw something that amused me.

Now, as you can see, this is a one-way street. Why the hell is there a stop sign at the other end? Is it because they KNOW crackheads are going to be driving the wrong way down this street, and they want to make sure they know not to just drive across the other street? I'm sorry, but that just gave me a chuckle. And I love all of my followers, but I am NOT stopping beside two crack houses to take a picture. I really don't know what you all would do without me if the drug dealers shot me because they think I'm a narc. Well, not that I think your lives would be devastated or anything, but it's nice to think you'd at least notice if I was gone. There are many ways I've thought of leaving this world, but being killed trying to get a picture for my blog is not one of them!

My baby is so smart!

I am having some serious writer's block today, so I am just going to tell you about something my family found very amusing during the holidays. By the way, for those who have recently joined us, welcome to my little slice of craziness life. So glad you decided to pop in and stay awhile. By the way, the bar will be open around 5:30ish tonight. It is Friday after all! So kick back and enjoy...

When I went to my parents' house for Christmas, I took one of those big Rubbermaid containers to put all of the presents in. I thought it was a pretty great idea so they wouldn't get squished and I could pretty much get them all in one container. It would also give me an easy way to bring presents I received home with me. Christmas Eve I'm there wrapping presents, and I went to stack all the ones that were already wrapped under the tree. Of course, you know my girl Bailey went with me, so she's taking every opportunity to walk all over the wrapping paper. Don't ask me why I decided wrapping should be done on the floor. It's just easier to spread out that way with those stupid big rolls of paper. But on the table, I know she couldn't have gotten to the paper, so shaddup about it! Anyway, this is Bailey since I think you all have mostly just seen baby pictures of her.

This is usually what Bailey looks like when I'm playing around on my laptop. She stares and barks at me because this Princess is supposed to be the center of attention at all times, don't ya know? (For some reason my iPhone is not giving the best color to my pictures lately, but you get the idea.)

Back to the story.. I'm unloading these presents, and Bailey is looking over my shoulder into the container the whole time. This isn't anything new because any bag or other type of thing you can bring into the house she assumes has goodies for her in it. (That has nothing to do with the fact that her momma can't seem to go to the store without buying her something. Ahem!) I get close to the bottom and Bailey starts wagging her tail all excited-like just when I notice that there are one of her toys and a bone in the container. My dog packed her own things for the trip! She knew we were going somewhere even before being told we were going to my parents'. (She knows who Grandma and Poppop are.. No comments from the Peanut Gallery on that either! So I only gave them furry grandchildren. Mine are much lower maintenance and cheaper to love.)

Of course, my father just found this so funny and made sure every family member who called and came to visit knew what a smart girl my baby is. By the way, she also packed a toy in my computer bag when we went back for New Year's. At least I caught her putting that one in. I wish I had pictures of her getting her new toys that were in her stocking. Her face was priceless! Needless to say, she had a great Christmas and a captive audience.