Author: Jen Rios

Sweet 16th

So, I am new at being a, “Dog person” and I am also a new Chewy account holder. I never anticipated and spending so much money on her nor did I anticipate loving her so much! She truly is, #MyGirlL!!! I recently looked at my Chewy account history and have found out that I have ordered her 16 toys (both Tug and Chew) and she has destroyed most of them! It took some time for me to realize that she is an extreme chewer so of course, I HAD to place another order for more appropriate chew toys. Sean got her this toy when he brought her home for the first time:

She loves to play with it and if I can grab a knot at one of the ends, I can successfully play tug-of-war with her. A couple drawbacks of this toy though; it stinks! I told you I am new at being a dog person! We have washed it a couple times in the little over two months that we’ve had her though. Not too long ago, this happened:


It’s settled into a thin red line on my arm. So I immediately looked for a longer toy so as NOT to be scratched by her. Here is what I found:

I originally purchased it for Sean to play with it with her in the yard but now since it been so warm these past few days, I can play with it and her in the house.. It didn’t take me very long to realize how much my physical limitations hamper my time to play with her. But, as long as I have a good hold of it, I can play with it with her for a while!

My Mom was quite concerned that she was going to pull me out of my wheelchair. I told my Mom that my chair is 400 pounds and I am belted into it. She thought for a moment and told me that Leia was going to pull my arm out of its socket. I dismissed that by telling my Mom that she is not even 40 pounds and if it gets that serious, I would just let go of the toy.

I played with her and it for the first time on Wednesday. It was super fun to watch her wiggle her hand trying to get the toy. I kept teasing her by saying, “I got it!” as I shook my hand. She eventually got me to fall over to my left and subsequently I got dizzy so I am let the toy go.

Thursday, I did some re-calculations in my head and if I hold on to the right arm of my chair, I wasn’t going to fall over and get dizzy. This time as she tried to get an away from me, I kept saying, “Get it, girl!” and I laughed.

But yesterday, she has been here for a while and knows how lethargic I am in the morning and that my hands are pretty numb when I wake up. She trotted it over to me pretty early in the morning as I was still trying to wake up with it in her mouth so I grabbed the other side and tried to hold on but not very successfully. She won that round for sure!

I’m sure that we will have a rematch sometime today and it WILL be ready for it! My favorite part of tugging this with her is watching her stop for a moment and I can see her brain working. Each day, she tries to put her shoulder between her mouth abd my hand to get leverage over me. It’s so cute! Or, she will shake her head really fast trying to wiggle it out of my hand which just makes me laugh. It’s taken 16 different tries to get the toys that work for her and I think this one might be the sweet 16th!

Random Tune #53 in my YouTube Feed

This gem of a song showed up in my YouTube feed. I remember when I saw them perform live, that Bono started singing it wanting the audience to sing along with him. I was belting it out at the top of my lungs but I was too far away from the stage so he didn’t hear me and he stopped. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this song!!!:

Cold Spaghetti

I think it was last Sunday evening and my Mom and I decided that we would eat cereal for dinner. My Mom offered me spaghetti from the day before. I haven’t eaten spaghetti in years because I’ve known for a long time that carbs are not my friend.

I remember making it for young Sean to eat during football season and I would just have meatballs and spaghetti sauce because, again, carbs are NOT my friend! They haven’t been my friend for a very long time!

But when given the opportunity to eat cold spaghetti during this pandemic, I DEFINITELY jumped at it! As I ate the spaghetti, I was immediately reminded of a time when I worked at the credit union and I was pregnant. I was dressed and ready for work and I grabbed a bowl and put spaghetti in it for me to eat it for lunch. It looked so delicious to me so I loaded up my fork and put the really big bite in my mouth. It was delicious! What I did not think about though, however, was that the bite was a little bit too big for me to swallow all of it and some fell right on the top of my belly. I was wearing a white tank top with a button-down shirt over the top of it.

It was too late for me to change for work so I just buttoned one button of my oxford button-down shirt and went to work. I remember that I told and showed a few of my friends at work. I’ve told Sean the story many times and would laugh when that song was on The Wiggles. Sean used to watch The Wiggles when he was young. I had a heckuva time copying the link to share that song here but I figured out a way and you can see this song I heard 1 million times when Sean was young.

July 2020 Faves

I have been jamming to a lot of Gavin DeGraw but I have a really shared my faves a bunch of times. This song showed up on my YouTube feed a couple days ago and I have since shared it on Facebook and put it on my blog:

I do not own this CD because I was more into third eye blind in high school. But then this album came out and this Train song reminded me of how good their songs are. Here are some of my faves for this month:

Hermana hand saying this song the first time I saw them perform and he didn’t have a shirt on and he had a hairy chest (which I thought it was kind of gross) but he suddenly got hot when he sang this song:

So I’ve only been listening to save me San Francisco and that’s a great album!

Maybe next month I will feature their next album but I can’t write about train without posting this picture:

The last live concert I went to was a while ago and Train headlined. I think this picture was taken the first time we went. It was a great time with my cousinT, Shannon!

Random Tune #52 in my YouTube Feed

This one showed up a couple days ago, it brought back a flood of memories for me feom my time at Western Michigan University. I can distinctly remember eating Wendy’s drive-through back when my metabolism could still handle that. As I sat in their parking lot eating it, I faced a Tatoo shop that my friend Tonya ended up getting her tattoo from and this song played on my radio. It’s so crazy that was 20 years ago!:

ALMOST 40lbs. of Trouble

We called Leia’s vet today to get more information about her, “Curbside” appointment on Saturday. During that call, we learned that she is 37.8 pounds which is healthy for her age and breed. The receptionist took our number for the doctor to call us to give us more details about the antibiotic she was prescribed. Once my Mom learned her weight, she said that she was, “Almost 40 pounds of trouble.” I kind of laughed and disagreed with her and told her that we love Leia! My Mom told me that was the title of a movie:

The movie was made in 1963 and I’m not sure about ever seeing it. It was really nic to hear that she is healthy because on Saturday, as Sean took her to the vet, I kept texting him and told him that I kind of felt how I did on his first day of preschool.

That comparison kind of startled me but it is true. Going along with that, I ordered her more chew toys today because she has killed a couple of the ones from my last order. I really appreciate talking with my Facebook friends about her because I’ve never had a dog before. One of my Facebook friends let me know that they only buy Kong toys for their dog and they seem to last. I ordered her a few today and we will see when they get here. This is how she looked on Saturday after her appointment:

I really think it’s nuts that I love her but I do and she looked so cute on Saturday!

Melancholic

As I sat in my wheelchair this morning and tried to wake up. I opened my YouTube friend and saw this song and shared it on Facebook. I can’t share the exact video here but this is this song:

This song is one of my favorite U2 songs. It has a melancholic tinge to it that I find rather comforting and the words squeeze my heart.

Speaking of my heart being squeezed, I am so saddened that today I did NOT have Sean’s graduation party. I was looking so forward to it, especially, given my history of lack of graduation parties. With the uptick of virus cases, I feel certain that I was right to cancel it. I cannot handle the heat of it being outdoors and many of my family members are also vulnerable. I hope to reschedule it but I don’t know when that will be.

Pretty Girl

Leia went to the vet for the first time today. I think it went well or at least that’s what Sean said. He took her for her “Curbside visit.” I will get more details on Monday when we call for follow up. She was clean today because my Mom has been giving her oatmeal baths twice a week and she looks so clean! She really IS a pretty girl!

#MyGirlL won’t look so shiny tomorrow or smell so good after she rolls around in the yard for a little while. But here’s proof that she was once pretty clean!