Sunday, April 29, 2007

Jack

 ,

Last summer, a puppy suddenly appeared on the Porch.

I watched his furry pot-bellied swagger and remembered what it was like to sniff that little puppy smell.

It had been a long time.

We have never gone purposely to get a dog.

They find us.

I saw him several days in a row.

He had a collar and never had that pitiful desperate look of a stray.

Our treasured dog had died a year ago and the pain was still fresh.

For about a week he hung out by our yard.

I wouldn't touch him, but I fed him.

Finally , he looked up, our eyes met and I was a goner.

I opened the door and said, "you might as well come on in"

It was a rocky ride for awhile.

He was so big and such a young puppy.

He ate everyone's shoes, sometimes while they were still on our feet!

When he had puppy accidents, it was a gallon of puppy pee!

He knocked the neighborhood kids down and they wouldn;t play in the yard.

With lots of love and patience, he learned to quit biting us (it's not hard being our dog, our standards arent' real high!)

He has boundless good cheer, never once had he snarled or cried.

It makes me smile just to see him.

He gets so excited he rolls on his back and kicks his feet inthe air!

I was hoping since he is so big, he would be a guard dog like the dear departed ,but the other day when firefighters came to empy the fire hydrnat in the yard, I had to go get him because he was rolling all over them, licking them....a giant red truck with flashing lights, four burly men in his yard...not a bark!

Oh, well,

He is a great compainion, rides with me everywhere.

When he sits in the passenger seat, he is as tall as me. I steer with one hand and put the other one around him and every now and then, he reaches over to kiss me...Tom says I have a boyfriend!

Picture with no caption    Picture with no caption

In reading back over my journal, I revisited the day our beloved dog ,big protective growly Butterfly , left us.

 

It was a year to the day later that Jack showed up on The Porch.

I guess it was time.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Porch Miracles

     When you ride a bike, you can be 8 years old again....

 

 

 

When there are cookies to be decorated, sixteen year olds stop being moody and giggle and lick their fingers.....

 

how country are we?   There's always room for another friend in the back of a pickup truck.

   Dogs are the best friends.

    When in doubt, dance!

   A good marriage is one long conversation.

 

 Teenagers DO grow up and love to hang out with you again...It's all worth it!

Tori's proud of her creation  A child can be your heart without being your blood.

  A good party is cheaper and more effective than therapy!

These are some things we are sure of here on The Porch.

 

Wishing you a lifetime of small miracles,

Marti

Friday, April 20, 2007

at the beach

Nothing is better than a day at the beach!

I get excited when we go over the bridge to the Island!

Ohh, the warm Gulf water cradles me like amniotic fluid...

the smell of the sea...we roll down the windows to see who can smell the salt first.

white sands like sugar...

It's always home to me.

At least once each trip , I say, "we live in Paradise".

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Stating the Obvious

I don't generally write about news topics.

 

I write about positive things

Things I want to remember

I certainly want to forget the twisted face of the pathetic man who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech.

But I have to say this.

All the talk...

Who should have known.....

What should have been done......

Is futile.

 

If he was not allowed by law to walk into a store and purchase an instrument designed for nothing but killling people,

He could have been crazy all day long

And those people would be with their friends and family today.

 

I also want to add, that as an elementary teacher, I can name ,right off the top of my head, three children I fear may hurt someone one day.

They are being helped as much as possible in a school setting.

I am afraid their parents have guns, so I don't say too much.

I wonder if they will be able to purchase a firearm one day.

I wonder if I will see their picture on the news.

 

When I see this shooter's image

All across the media

I feel he got what he wanted at last.

The man who never spoke was heard.

I wonder who else is watching...lonely...sick

saying "32, that's a record."

And we know what records are made for.

 

Monday, April 16, 2007

My 45th Spring Break

So, here I am, one of the luckiest people on earth.

I have had 45 spring breaks and I am still here to tell the tale.

We went camping with my BIL and SIL , David and Judy,my nephews, Justin and Kelley  and their wives,Kathy and Kim and Justin and Kims kids, Stone and Jake, who are Irish twins at 12 and 13, Autumn Rose and George Landon, (yes, people in the south really do have 2 first names) also Irish twins at 1 and 2 , plus Allan the middle child , who is 7.

We staye dup all night around the fire, laughing and talking.

It rained and it got cold but the feeling of family and the copious amount of beer kept us warm and happy.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Fairhope at Easter

It was a perfect day...

memories to warm my hands over ...