Today is National Donut Day and to celebrate, I give you a true story about two people who, on this very day 4 years ago today, did not know it was National Donut Day when they ventured into a Krispy Kreme and the following happened. If this sounds familiar, then we are probably FB friends from back on June 7th, 2015. The difference is that with blogger, I can add the photos as I tell the story, and it's MUCH better this way!


Adventures at Krispy Kreme. 
Let me preface this: we live in a small town and we have Krispy Kreme -- at the local gas station. (Edit to update: our gas station got rid of them a couple of years ago. BUT! As of like a month ago, the Walmart down the ways (30 minutes) has some. They're nasty.) I can walk by them repeatedly with no temptation whatsoever. So I went into this store with confidence.

And then this happened:

We walk in and see THIS! 


Fried in front of a glass window and AS THEY COME OUT, a little lady is there whipping them off and sweetly saying, "Free sample" as she just puts it into your hand.
CLEVER!
(...marketing geniuses...)



Who can say no to a sweet old lady? And then you taste it, fresh and hot from the belt and you think, "Okay...I'll do an extra 742 laps for this" and you haven't even gotten to the display yet! So then there's this angel soft, angel sweetness melting on your tongue as you look at the case



and Rick says, "We'll take a dozen" and we each pick out 2 of 3 kinds each because hey, tomorrow is TEN HOURS ON THE ROAD, right?

THEN, Satan* opens his mouth and says, "This is $9.29 but you can get another dozen for just $5 more" and I think Rick groaned out loud. Then *I* piped up with, "I want the hot ones."
And then my righteous indignation piped up and I scolded the SatanMan. I said, "You should be ashamed! You with your JUST FIVE DOLLARS FOR AN EXTRA DOZEN! Do you know how many people have DIED from the hot samples suckering them in and then your extra dozen and heart attacks and diabetes?!"
And he said: "Do you know how many times a day, every day, people say that to me?! I'm okay with that." So then I said, "I'm quoting you on Facebook" and took his picture (with his permission, obviously)
and he laughed at my righteous indignation! The nerve!
And then we took our BAG of donuts and left
and then opened both boxes up on the king sized bed
and decided it was totally worth the extra 742 laps.
The End.

Happy National Donut Day, my freaky darlings!
My sweet girl.
Time is aging us both.

Keiko went to the vet today.


She was in heat recently only this time, there was still some spotting.
And then it got worse.

She's had a saggy tummy ever since that huge liter of 10 puppies when she was 2 years old. When I took her to the vet for her crazy skin allergies she used to have, in which she gnawed off ALL of her skin from the neck down, the vet told me it was just like with human mommas: the skin was just stretched out.

But this time, with this bleeding, I noticed that the saggy skin wasn't just saggy now.
It was hard, like a tennis ball.

So off to the vet we went.
The same vet who saw Sassy and Ambush last year.

Keiko has cancer.
She's 10 and a half.
She has skin issues and she's deaf and she has seizures but now we are on a waiting game and Cooper and I stood there and listened to these horrible things that could happen and what to do if they did and I just thought, "Please don't let that happen..."

We already know we went 10 days too long with Sassy and one day too long with Ambush. Rick and I already decided that we had to make sure we are :days too early" before we are ANY days too late this time. 

We really thought back in December of 2017 that we were almost about to lose Keiko and she crazily got better. This time, we're in a "two pain killers a day keeping her comfortable" mode.
But don't get me wrong.
She will still cut you to shove her way to her spot under the dining room table.
She will still look completely offended that the short little basset hound gets to eat off the same spoon as an Akita.
She will still not hear a word you say in all of her DON'T YOU KNOW I'M DEAF indignation until it's time for pain meds and that cheese wrapper crinkles.

Below is one my all time favorite pictures of Keiko. She was only 2 years old. She's with her 2nd born, a little girl we called Deuce.
Keiko didn't have skin issues or allergies or seizures or a single silver hair and she still heard you when you called her name and cancer was never even a blip on our radar.

This is my Keiko Girl.
And I love her.

Keiko

by on 6:15 PM
My sweet girl. Time is aging us both. Keiko went to the vet today. She was in heat recently only this time, there was still so...





Sometimes I don't know what to say

(surprising to hear, I'm sure) and 
sometimes I say too much 
(not surprising, I know!) but still, 
when I knew it was time to start blogging again, 
and the idea of revamping this blog with the first post 
became THE NOW, 


I was a bit struck dumb with What To Post.


I knew the timing was right. 
The dynamic in our lives has changed again.
The youngest of the four kids just graduated.
My "stay at home momma" status with school aged children is no longer really a label even if that child is still at home.

Technically, Cooper and Sydney are both still at home, but just last week, Sydney suddenly got a call for her dream job as a church camp counselor at the camp she used to spent a week attending in the summer when she was in high school. She said goodbye to Subway and headed west and the house is quieter with just Rick, Cooper and me in it.

And then today, Cooper was hired for his first job at DQ (just like his big sister, Carly!") And they've hired him for "fulltime". I don't know if that's true fulltime but he starts Monday and he's scheduled for 9-5 so...

That shrinks the sounds of this old house down even more.

So here I am ... 
looking for the new definition of me. 
Welcome to my midlife crisis.
Turn up the music.
I'm going to dance like no one is watching
but I know they probably are, 
and maybe even recording it too, 
and we're all laughing -- hard -- because 
we're so happy to be alive and 
moving in these moments and making
memories together.

Want to join me?
Are you ready?