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You believe you don’t deserve to be in a relationship with somebody who will treat you with dignity and respect... You believe you don’t deserve to be in a relationship with somebody who will treat you with honesty and integrity... You believe you don’t deserve to be in a relationship with somebody who will protect rather than attack you... and you don't believe you're entitled to peace instead of chaos and turmoil... so you settle...

Me: "I want to find him a shoe that fits like a sneaker but looks nicer, more trendy." Gap-dude looks at hubby. Gap-dude: "Well, then it all depends on what kind of look you're going for." Hubby looks blank. Me: "Errr, he doesn't have a 'look' ". Oy

The words that come to mind when I think of Grandma are: strength, character, stubbornness, crafty, frugal, chef, Christmas, family, home, comfort, funny... She taught me many things. She taught me how to choose a husband, how to be a wife, how to stretch a dollar, how to relax and enjoy life, and how to tell a dirty joke. She was the strongest woman I knew. She taught me how to be strong. But her body wasn't the strongest part of her. And in the end, it was her frail body that failed her. Her strength is still around me. I still feel her here. She gives me peace.

Severe weather season is just around the corner and the people of one Kansas town nearly wiped off the map last year are still putting their town back together. Now, storm chasers are using pictures and video from last year's storm season to spur the rebuilding process in Greensburg. It's a DVD with some of the biggest storms of 2007 on it, including the Greensburg tornado. Now the storm chasers who put it together are taking the money from the DVD sales and putting it towards Greensburg to help the town rebuild. "We're just interested in the power of the storm and how that formed," says Greensburg survivor Wilma McChristian. "It was so powerful." "Instantly we knew how bad it was and how badly they needed help. It has really become a mission for all of us to really give everything we have to help them out," said Darin Brunin, a storm chaser. It's two hours of the worst storms of 2007, just a fraction of what these ...

I haven't written about them yet, but for the past year I've been cultivating dreadlocks . They're finally "mature", but because my hair was very thin, my dreads are skinny and some are only 4-5 inches long. I can't wait until they grow long and I can pull them all back into a ponytail. While I'm waiting, I've been experimenting with braiding in different stuff. Right now, I have needlepoint thread braided in and I likey. I've extended some of the shorter dreads by braiding the threads out past the actual dread hair, and that gives the illusion of longer dreads. It also helps with the dreaded (pun intended!) "unicorn" dread. That's the short dread in the middle of my forehead that doesn't stay back on it's own and will occasionally stick out my forehead. Like a unicorn horn. So, I enjoy going around the house yelling... "UNICORN". The hubby yells back. "ASSHOLE". Oy.

I starting thinking the other night about how I've been influenced in my life when it comes to my love of dogs. I remember my grandparents always had dogs. Oddly, their dogs all looked the same (but they were mixed breeds) and they always named their dogs "Ginger". I guess they loved that name... a lot. Unfortunately, the "Ginger's" were never very well behaved. They looked cute, but I don't remember them being very obedient. Sorry Grandma. My mom and dad always had pets. We had a couple of dogs, some cats, a few hamsters and goldfish. I had a goldfish I fed baloney. He was huge and lived forever. Guess it was all those preservatives. The very first dog I could call my own was a puppy I got from a friend. I was about 16 and for some reason, my mom said I could keep him. I promised to look after him, feed, clean, housebreak... all that stuff. But I was 16. All I did was leave him on our back porch with some water and newspapers and then I went ou...

Recently, my brother and 5-year old niece came to visit us. One of the activities we did was geocaching . My bro' has the whole GPS thing and is really into it. I found that it's something I can do on my scooter as long as the cache isn't too far off the beaten track. The first cache we went to was in a public park not too far from home. As we were searching for the cache, suddenly my niece started screaming. My brother ran over and grabbed her. She had been leaning against a tree right next to a fire-ant hill. Nasty critters. Poor kid, she got her first fire-ant bite while out trying to have fun. Luckily, she only got one single bite on her hand. After seeing the seething ant hill she had been standing next to, she's one lucky kiddo. After calming her down, she rode with me on my scooter to get to the next geocache. As we're walking, my brother says that he thinks he should get himself bitten by a fire-ant so he can know what his daughter just had to go...

I should have put the show "Lost" in yesterday's post as my top fave TV show. God, I love that show! Did you watch yesterday's episode? If you didn't, don't read this until you do. Question : How many of us "crips" would love to live on that island for the rest of our lives? That choice isn't as easy to make as you think. Consider this : You're given a choice. You can either live as you are right now, handicapped in whatever way you are, getting possibly worse, dealing with meds and docs, dealing with pain and weakness, dealing with being ostracize and lonely.... OR, you can live on the "Lost" island and be perfectly "normal" in every way. Not only will all your disabilities be erased, but you won't get sick, you won't get cancer, and maybe you won't even age. BUT, you also won't see your family and friends ever again, and you'll only live with the people you crashed there with (ok, I'm clea...

While my niece was visiting, I showed her how the dogs can play Hide and Seek. I took the dogs into the bathroom and told her to tell them to "down". And then "stay". (Of course, I was in the background giving the hand-signals for these commands.) Then my niece and I went and hid in the living room. Then I yelled "OK" and the dogs came running. They found me first... and then the giggling led them straight to my niece. Then my niece said: "Now they should hide and we'll find them!" Bummer, it doesn't work that way.

STORY #1 My first service dog JoJo used to be addicted to licking. She would lick her lick. Seriously, she would lick the air, and then lick again. Hence, lick her lick. Weird. STORY #2 While my brother and niece were visiting, I took my bro to my herpetological society meeting. The hubby stayed home with my 4-and-3/4-year-old niece. They had a lot of fun. In fact, when we came home at 11pm, she was still up and full of energy. The hubby, on the other hand, was exhausted. At one point during the evening, my sister had called to talk to my niece. During the conversation, this is what the hubby heard: My Niece: "I'm staying here at Aunt Lisa's and.... and...." Then she looks up at the hubby and says: "What's your name?" WHAT!?! Kids. STORY #3 I give Willie his thyroid pill every morning. He has hypothyroidism. The pill is small enough to fit in the hole of a Cheerio. Frankie seems to know the timing of this pill and runs out to bark at Willie to...

Well, I'm not on vacation, but my family is and they're down here visiting us. My younger brother and my niece are here visiting from Oklahoma. It's been a lot of fun watching my 4-and-3-quarters-years-old niece (she makes sure I get that 3/4's in there!) play with the dogs. They're so gentle with her and follow her around like she's the Pied Piper. That's the great thing about having very well trained and behaved dogs. You don't have to segregate them when you have company and they can be a part of all the festivities. I feel sorry for folks who just don't get this and who have to put their dogs out in the backyard when company comes. All dogs have the potential to be "good dogs". But not all humans know how to be "good dog owners".

On Bravo's show "Inside the Actor's Studio", the host would always wrap up the interview with a list of questions (ie. what's your favorite curse word, favorite sound... etc.). The last question he'd ask was: "If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates"? I would want to hear God say: "Your grandpa is right over here."

"Hey, we still have that broken VCR you need to fix." "I hate fixing VCR's. VCR's and tape decks. Too many things that can go wrong inside." "Well, what do you like?" "I like you." "Me and pecan pie."