Sunday is Funday!

Hey everybody! What do you think of my "reaction shot" pose?? Mom asked me if I like Mitt Romney and I went "phooey" and stuck my tongue out. I know he's not in the president race anymore, but I'm still worried that he might get another job, like running a dog shelter or something. Gotta make sure nobody forgets about him. Actually, I'm kidding you, Mom woke me up and I had just yawned when she took this picture. That's why I'm not really cute and alert, I'm not really awake yet. So here it is Sunday February 10 already. It's been snowing since yesterday, but it's kind of a rainy snow so there's only a couple inches on the ground. I made Mom clean up the back step so it wouldn't freeze. I'm very safety-conscious. I want to be one of those 'service dogs', you know, the ones that wear the neat vests and patches and go everywhere with their owners?? Mom doesn't think it's a good career choice for me though. She says I'm too much into 'me' to be a helper dog. Unless it was for a person who was addicted to dog cookies or socks, then I would be an ideal service dog. She's being sarcastic, I think. Whoa Nellie! The wind is blowing about 50 miles an hour!! The trees are bending over and the snow is going sideways. The lady on TV said it would be very windy today. Yikes, there goes Bandit, barking. He's afraid of the wind. When the wind blows he barks and wants to hide under the bed. Well, maybe that's not as stupid as it sounds. I mean, trees fall down in the wind, so maybe he's just being careful. Speaking of trees, did I tell you that we had one of our big maple trees taken down? Yup, one of the maple trees in the back yard was dying. One of Mom and Dad's former paramedic students came and cut it down for us. He is a certified arborist. He told us that maple trees are not the best trees for the average back yard because they should be in an area where the leaves just fall down on the ground their whole lives. The leaves give them back all the nutrients. You can't fertilize a tree and give it everything that it needs. Eventually they die. He's right. Another of our maple trees died a couple years ago and had to come down. Mom is kind of sad. Did I tell you that she grew up in this house? Yup, her dad built it when she was three years old. Her great-grandfather (her "jaju") was from Poland. He didn't speak very good English but she understood him very well. He took her into the woods in back of the house when she was about 7 and she picked out 4 young maple trees for the back yard. He carefully dug them up and she helped him to plant them. They were just skinny things then. And he planted other maple trees and some horse chestnut trees. Everything he planted lived because he was very good at growing things. And now it's many years later and two of the trees have died. The man said that there's another tree that he's concerned about. Trees are important. I hope he can take care of the rest of our trees. My brothers are worried that they might have killed the trees because they pee on them all the time, but I think they are overestimating their own powers!! Hee, hee.

We've just been hanging out in the house today. Feeling kind of lazy. Dad doesn't feel good so he's snoozing. Mom made some soap today, let's see, she made some Clean Blue Tonic (it's blue with a white topping and lots of green jojoba beads in the white) and she made Precious Amber and Patchouli. She got this Amber resin (that's sticky stuff from a tree and it holds together essential oils and stuff) and she wanted to try it. It smells really nice. First you weigh it out. Then you crush it up and melt it in a little bit of the oil that you will put into your soap. Her hands smell really nice from it. Well, I liked it, Bailey didn't think it smelled good. Then when you are making your soap you add it. And she added some Patchouli also to the soap. It will turn brown so there was nothing to do about color, but she says that's ok, because it will smell so nice. She calls it Precious Amber and Patchouli because the amber resin cost about $10 an ounce (that's $160 a pound!) and Patchouli essential oil costs around $100 a pound now. Ha, that's nothing. There are some essential oils that cost way more than that and Mom doesn't even buy them! Like chamomile essential oil is between $500 and $1000 a pound depending on which kind you buy. And Sandalwood is endangered so it is around $1000 a pound too. Man, and I thought my dogfood was expensive. I use Wellness dry and it costs $42 for 30 pounds!! Oh you know what? Dad just woke up so I am going to see how he is feeling and maybe we will cuddle on the couch and I can pretend to be his service dog. Casey Clapp, in service!!