Sunday, December 29, 2019

Now What?

Now What?




I am posing the question of, "Now what?" because it is now too late to avoid the holiday weight gain for this year. Truly, for most of us, there is not a realistic way of avoiding holiday weight gain. What I do believe is that I can avoid a big gain and blowing what I have been working so hard on just by staying focused on what I was putting in my mouth.


This image is what came to my mind when I thought about overeating or eating too much of a good thing. For me, it would have been emotional eating. If I was able to see through why I was wanting to travel to the dark side of eating, that was half of the battle. Stress can be handled in other, more positive ways.


Each person has their own way to get through the holidays. Maybe you can eat anything you want and never gain a pound? There really are people like that. Hard for me to believe, but they walk among us. Then there are those who go on specific diets. Been there and done that. Only to then gain it back when off that 'said' diet.

What has been working for me is reading information about making healthy choices by watching the amount of carbohydrates, fats and proteins that I consume. I never thought that I could do without bread, without pizza, without potatoes, pasta. I now know too much these foods do not work well in my body. I feel so much healthier without them and the weight has really come off at a steady pace. Fifty pounds so far! There have been times when I hit  plateaus. Instead of getting frustrated and diving for ice cream or chips and dip, I have learned other ways to cope. Companies actually make low carb or zero carb ice cream, bagels, breads, pizza dough. Fast food chains are beginning to add to their menus items that work for low carb eaters. I never realized how much flavor the bun took away from a delicious grass - fed hamburger patty with onions, tomatoes, cheese, mayo, avocado, bacon, mustard all wrapped up with lettuce.

It gives me a chance to be creative in ways I never dreamed of. First of all, let's think about the holiday season. Actually it starts with all of the candy brought in for Halloween. Lucky for me, we do not have trick or treaters at our home. Most parents seem to opt for the trunk or treat parties these days instead of going door to door to strangers' homes. Wise in this day and age. So I only keep in a small amount of candy for special little granddaughters. This is usually the kind that I can resist easily. 

As soon as Halloween is over, there comes the Thanksgiving Feast. Food, food and more food. I don't know about others (well, yes I think that I do) but this always involves potatoes, gravy, dressing, corn pudding, cheese grits, yeast rolls, and several kinds of desserts.


People that I have watched eating in a low carb life style are the ones that have simply amazed me at how it is just the way they live now. Plus, there are so many healthy alternatives and great things out there to eat. I really did enjoy that whole holiday season and with a little planning I believe that I was about to avoid overeating. I chose quality foods if I was going have a slightly higher carb grams in my meals. One English roast potato instead of two and definitely instead of mashed potatoes. A tablespoon or two of cornbread dressing with turkey and ham - both definitely something that I can fill up on instead of eating too much of the dressing. Add fresh green beans wrapped in bacon and there was plenty to eat and truly enjoy both Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities.


All without feeling that I blew it and how will I ever get back on track. I did that last year and I believe that is what helped me not have a derailment this year. It was not a good feeling of beating myself up. My willpower is easy to lose if I don't stay ahead of it. And I am not easy on myself. I decided that I did not want to go through that again. My action plan had to be a strong one after my 2018 gluten and sugar fest. Why put myself through that again? There is a better way.

Doing a little research on holiday recipes that are lower in carbs and then testing them out was actually quite entertaining. My husband and I enjoyed trying Pecan Bars using almond flour. Delicious! So now, a new dessert added to the menu at our home, as well as other food stuffs. 

This season of holidays and our birthdays, I stayed with actually keeping track of what I was eating in my Carb Manager app. It held me accountable. To lose weight, I must be in a certain range, to maintain, another range and if I go over my range too often then I know that I am not a happy camper and I don't feel very good and that is inside and out.

It also means getting that recumbent bike going more and more. Some of the things that were on my wish list are helping me get it all together. Nutribullet! It is an amazing small blender that I can use to make delicious meal replacement shakes. My husband got it for me. It weighs out and calculates the protein, fat, calories for each one that I make. I made my first one today. It was positively delicious. It was so good that my husband wanted one for his meal, too. 

I am lucky in that he wants to make this his life style right along with me. We help keep each other in check without judging. We both love to cook so trying new things is a great creative outlet that we can share together. It has continued to improve our health and overall disposition. His doctor is overjoyed at his weight loss. 

Whatever happened over the holidays in your life, if you want to make your action plan, then go for it. The most important part is to make the plan realistic. It is never too late to set a new life/wellness goal and create a new you for the New Year. 

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Christmas Cheer

Spreading Christmas cheer is just a huge part of the month of December. For me, it really begins as soon as Thanksgiving is over. At least the decorating part does. My shopping started way before. I sort of keep my eyes and ears open all year for little gifts that may delight someone special. I know that the holidays should not be all about the presents, but I can't help it. I love seeing the faces of those opening something that I chose for them. Seeing their surprised faces is so rewarding. On top of that, I adore wrapping the presents. And, I developed my own plan so that I am not overwhelmed with wrapping our large family gifts all at once. I wrap as the gifts arrive or I go out to purchase them. 


I must admit that I am not one for going out to the big sales, hunting for a parking spot, going in and out of the cold or rain, dealing with crowds, etc. It is so much easier to shop on line and have it delivered. I know! This takes away from the brick and mortar businesses. We all must do what works for us and this is what works for me. Standing in long lines or trying to find a sales clerk to help me find what I need just is not my cup of tea. 


Christmas parties with friends is always a nice thing to do on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. It truly is a special feeling to be invited to a friend's home for the celebration of Christmas. Especially if it is not an ugly sweater get together. We would not be able to go to one of those. I have sworn to Santa and all of his elves and reindeer that I will never, ever wear one of those.


Even going to The Grand Peabody Hotel with the beautiful Christmas tree in the Lobby, as well as the ducks swimming in the fountain and the Gingerbread Village baked and decorated by their Award Winning Pastry Chef, Konrad Spitzbart, in Chez Phillippe Restaurant. Steve and I now have a tradition to go to The Peabody between our two December birthdays for their High Tea. Such a delightful way to get into the spirit of Christmas.
Peabody Lobby Tree


The pastry dessert course in three tiers at The Peabody High Tea.

Our own decorations are quite fun to get out and place around the house. I am always happy when a stored box of ornaments and decorations or the tree does not have a spider lurking around, much less something else. We tried so hard to get our goldendoodles to sit nicely in front of the tree but they would have no part of it. They did it their own way.



Okay, okay, so our lights are Christmasy and we love them. They actually make little moving green and red lights on our walls, ceilings and floors in the front rooms of our home. Below, is a neighbor's home! What can I say? They truly love to decorate and go for it. I believe that each year they add something else. Amazing!





There is one thing about Christmas that I for one must be aware of. NOT to overeat. Since going on my lifestyle plan of Keto, there are many ways that I can work on keeping the carbs low. I won't be in my 20 - 50 range, that is for sure. Nor should I! Yet, I will allow myself to try a little of this and that, just because Christmas comes but once a year. I always make sure that it is quality calories. Many of our traditional food is low carb. Lucky me! So I do not feel left out. I will splurge and have a small bit of jalapeno cheese grits and for sure a bite of cornbread dressing and one of Steve's roasted potatoes.



 I am making Keto pecan pie and will find out if anyone notices. I know it is not the 100,000 calories of the Nutella pie, but it is satisfying. I always have ice cream so that the little ones (and some big ones) can make their own sundae.



Whatever gets you into the spirit of your holidays, go for it. I love a little mistletoe somewhere in our home, not that we need that to steal a kiss, just keeping in the spirit. With that being said, there is probably not a chance that we will have a white Christmas here in Memphis. I have seen my share and they are magical, especially if you don't have to go anywhere. The very best one of all for me was when my family met up in Colorado with my brother's family and just as we were all finished with breakfast and ready to open gifts, snowflakes started falling in the Rockies. Of course, there was already very deep snow, but each flake was just so beautiful to see on this very special day. The Ski Resort was closed so we were not going out anywhere. That really made me feel calmer and at peace.

So go ahead and have yourself a Merry Little Christmas now!

Monday, December 16, 2019

Forgive


Maybe when you saw my title of this blog your mind went to another place. I needed to write this blog specifically for myself, which I suppose that is what I do each week. This was overwhelmingly what I had been feeling for about a week, maybe two. I needed to forgive myself for not accomplishing my to do list each day. Not only that, but to realize that I have that right and I need to exercise it when going through turbulent times.

My days and sometimes into the evenings have been jammed packed with 'stuff' to do. Add in there that  it is the holiday season and there is probably where the problem lies. This picture shows what I have been feeling like in my own mind:


Yes, usually you see a hamster or some other rodent riding in his little wheel within his cage. Because the fact that I can't stand hamsters, guinea pigs, mice or rats, I opted for a real human to represent me.

It seems that every event or circumstance the last few weeks have caused a series of more related events. I would have a planned out purpose of running errands and get in the car and, "Boom," the warning light of the car goes on and says a headlight is out. So add that on to the list of errands to stop by and sort out an appointment.(Let's not even get into the cost.) In other words, this is yet even another day to take care of an extra errand.

Insurance premium changes came in the mail which forces a long wait on the phone to speak to a human being, many times explaining it to one person and then being transferred to someone else to explain the situation all over again. Frustrating. It seemed to be something of this nature every single day. 

A policy that I started last year was to wrap presents as they were purchased. This is versus sitting down for part of several days to wrap forever...So, I have worked diligently on this and have kept up to speed with it all. I was not a happy camper if something had to be left to wrap for the next day. Why? It was on my to do list and by gosh, I wanted it done.

Two birthdays thrown in for good measure. And yes, fun, fun, fun! I would not change our plans for either one of our dinners out. Following that we were graciously invited to a Christmas soiree that we accepted. Would not have missed it for the world. The only other major thing to do that day was to get our youngest son to the airport for his American pilot training course. By the time I hold two bowls of dog food for our dogs to eat (and this is once in the morning and once at night), get them in and out for potty breaks, get dinner on in the crock pot, make a light brunch, take a moment to read the paper, check e mail, etc...the day is used up. Kaput!


Right here, right now, let me repeat. I have the right to forgive myself anytime I want. When I thought about what my Monday would bring, I had to remember this. YES, I do have the right to forgive myself for whatever I did not accomplish for the day. 

Monday and the start of a new week. I am going to slow it down. The weather brought a gray, gloomy and stormy day. It was time to forgive myself for not getting my Monday blog out earlier and probably cost me some readers. It is ok. I am so grateful that our two furbabies need us to help guide them to go out in the rainy weather, even when they really don't want to. This means it may take several times before they actual realize themselves that they had better go NOW. Neither one has had an accident and I know they do not want that to happen. I sure know that I don't want to return to those puppy days.

Also, on the to do list was to go back to the school where I taught and was the AP to read with my husband to two classrooms, the rooms where our granddaughter had been the year before and is in currently. What fun! Two fabulous teachers and two classrooms of amazing, polite students. As we walked the halls to the two rooms, we would get to see some of the staff that I worked with for all of those years. I am grateful to have the opportunity to take time out of my day (our day) to just enjoy and hopefully bring some joy and fun to those two rooms. 


All in all, things work out and if I can't cross off everything on my to do list, the world will not crumble. All is well!

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Becoming

BECOMING

Becoming can mean so many different things to people. Let me explain how this blog is going to address the word 'becoming.' In my own words, it is what you continually evolve into becoming. The key word is continually. 

It is so easy for me to get stuck in a one way only mindset. By this, I mean to say that my mind doesn't just jump out of the box to do something another way, if one other way is not working. There are times that I keep trying and keep trying and keep trying. There is a method of madness to that and sometimes it works. Thank goodness many of our inventors "kept trying." Edison comes to my mind immediately, but there are so many others.

In some matters there is a quote that made sense to me one day when I saw it. It is a W.C. Fields quote, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There is no point in being a damn fool about it."  Even though he was before my era, I can still see his image and hear him saying this very quote.



There are many reasons why there are times to just move on and go at something another way to help you become more knowledgeable at learning something. You become happier in doing so. If I go ahead after trying and just accept that one way is not working for me, it is a okay to have that little down and disappointment and then move on. It is a way that I practice happiness. Happiness is developed. It is a choice. For myself, if I allow a short time to feel saddened, the happiness and excitement returns as I come up with new ways to overcome. That is the key to it all.

I know plenty of people, as I am sure most of you do too, that can be placed in the category of "I'll be happy when..."  When what? I can name at least 100 things that maybe I would be happier if only...So my question to myself is what am I doing about it? 



To grow intelligently, emotionally and socially one must continue to go down the path that will lead you there; in other words becoming more of what you desire to become. 

There was a book that I read recently entitled Becoming by Michelle Obama. It was very powerful. From a child through her teens and now a very intelligent woman, she never lost sense of where she was going. Yes, of course, there were times she had to reset her sails. That is the whole idea of becoming, which is exactly where I got the idea of mentally incorporating this mindset for myself. 



Part of it was already there. I just needed to realize that accepting whatever I was experiencing, being grateful for what comes my way, whether it is all of my own doing (which is not always the case) or the urgency to tell someone else how grateful I am for how they guided me. (This way is the most fulfilling to me.)

Sometimes it just means taking a breather, not just daily, but several times within a day, to close your eyes, relax, imagine your happy place, take a nap or actually go for self-care in a big way and have a massage or facial. Playing with our puppies is another self-care strategy that I use. 




 “Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end.” ~ Michelle Obama


Until the day that I die, I NEVER want that to be the end. Keep on BECOMING. Sometimes things take longer for a reason. Keep at it and witness the beauty of becoming.


Sunday, December 1, 2019

My Strategies to Help Me Destress Over the Holidays

Yesterday, I was aware that I was putting a bit too much stress on myself to get all that needed done on time. When I felt like I failed miserably, I made a notation to start earlier the next day and make a list to complete the tasks and get it all sorted out. As this day progressed and we were heading into mid afternoon, I realized that I would be once again a failure. Day 3 now!

A simple little anonymous quote that I used the day before as my positive mantra for the day said it all, and I, of all people let it get by me and did not take it seriously enough. The quote was, "It is most definitely too early for anyone to get their tinsel in a tangle. Chill out and let it go." By the end of yesterday, my tinsel was so tangled, I just wanted to toss it all in the trash after I finished jumping on top of it tangled mess.


It was at this stage that I sort of knew that is where I was headed. I had not accomplished all that I had set out to do for the day. Mind you, I had, with the help of my husband, taken quite a few things for Christmas decorations downstairs, gone through boxes and tossed two bags of 'not worth hanging on to any longer stuff.' It no longer brought me joy. Some of the decorations were long past their expiration date. 

Of course, that took time. Then there was putting the Christmas tree up and decorating it, without knowing how our new puppy would react. Davis, our older pup never bothered it. Maggie Mae has her own way of doing things. So I kept ornaments up a bit higher until I was sure that she would leave them alone. I must say that except for a red and white tinsel fat candy cane, she did not bother anything else.

The Christmas tree skirt is all that was out around the tree. I had not started wrapping gifts yet. The two dogs decided that the skirt was for pulling around the house like a blanky. Steve just put it up on the table until we were able to put heavy gifts that were wrapped on top of it. 

Steve helped by getting the stockings hung and they looked fabulous. Thanks to Thomas, our son, for bringing all of the Christmas boxes down from the pull-down attic (YES, I did say all) this is what we needed, or let me say, I needed in order to go through them all and sort them out. For two years we had been missing our newer decorations. What gets tossed, what will we use to decorate this year and what will go back to be stored.

That is my dilemma. NOTHING is going back up in that pull-down attic. It is too hard to get to, even once a year to bring down and take back up again. So now it is a matter of clearing out the closet attic which is not very large and has junk in it that needs to go. Plus, it needs vacuumed out or swept out because of all of the insulation mess. The other storage closet is somewhat cleaned out. It could still stand a bit of decluttering and this is when my tinsel was starting to tangle. It seemed as if one job was accomplished but that in turn caused two more jobs. Stuff was piling up!



The good news is that I recognized my feelings. I lacked clarity, felt negative, felt rushed, and although I did not throw a hissy fit, I felt that I could have if I did not gain control and stop blaming myself for everything that I did not get done.




Just as the two bees above, it is okay. Pick one and start from there. That is what I needed to do. One task at a time. Taking small simple steps each day is the way that all will get taken care of in it's own sweet time and way. So make a list and what gets done is checked off. I needed to take ownership of just what was truly accomplished. To my surprise, it was quite a bit. What is not checked off will start the next day. No one is going to come in and give me any kind of evaluation on this unfinished mess. I am not on a deadline except what I had put on myself, which in turn made me feel less than capable. I needed time to reflect on what I had accomplished and just take in deep breaths just to know that I should pat myself on my back because the list of what was completed was truly inspirational. 

My six ways to relieve holiday stress boils down to:


  • recognize that overwhelming feeling
  • start making reasonable lists with no time frame
  • check off tasks completed with no judgment
  • reflect on exactly what was accomplished
  • pat yourself on your back
  • be grateful for all that you have
It does not have to be done in a day, not even two or three days. I love ending this blog with Daniell Koepke's quote:


Sunday, November 24, 2019

Doggy Communication

DOGGY COMMUNICATION



Exactly how do dogs communicate with humans? They actually do it quite well, it is the humans that need to learn the nuances of this communication. Most of us that have a dog or more than one, can relate to the door mat above. I think that when our door mat needs replaced that this is the one we will get. WHY? Because it is so true! 

Luckily, our dogs are not barking aggressively, they are simply giving us notice that someone is on the other side of the door. And so much more: the garbage truck is going down our road, a biker is cycling down the cove, someone is walking their dog or baby on "their" road. Squirrels could be taunting them or the neighbor's cat sitting on the other side of the porch swishing his fluffy tail at the two doodles barking furiously at his antics. It has gotten so bad, as a matter of fact, that our FedEx, UPS and Amazon delivery people know that they don't even need to ring the door bell. Our doodles will start singing if they hear the sound of a truck, especially if it stops at our home.

a dog's bark is a form of communication to receive attention, much to the dismay of their owners. We have had to learn what most of the different barks mean. It definitely is a way to get our attention, whether to tell us we have guests, or we need to put their food put down or some water in the water dish, we want to play, or go out for a chase with the reflections from the back door. One dog rings the tinkle/jingle bells to go out to take care of business. The other one prefers to go to the back door and issue one loud woof. If this woof is ignored, she will continue and may even come to seek you out. Just know that they are trying to tell you something - you just have to learn the different barks. 


My brother's dog, Piper, has this look on his face that seems to be saying, if he could talk, "I am trying to understand you, what is it you need me to do?" They actually do seem to grasp more of what we are saying to them faster than we are able to toward them. It is a matter of paying close attention to them and their needs.



I am lucky in that I am able to work from home. When I have been writing for too long without taking a break to pay attention to our furbabies, then Maggie Mae will be sure to stop the whole process to let me know. She takes over the keyboard and gives me those big puppy dog eyes that melt my heart. Score for Maggie Mae and Davis. (and me - they get their love and devotion and we all take a break together.

Playtime is playtime, whether with me, with Steve or with our granddaughters. Our 60 pounder does not understand that he is not a lap dog, however, he is so gentle. Even with our 7 year old granddaughter.



I will be the first to admit that I am NOT a morning person. At least, not 4 or 5 A.M. Let's take it to 6 and 7 would be even better. However, when our youngest puppy, who is getting older and better at making it till about 7, yet still has her early mornings, calls for us at 4 - 5, there is no way when I see her excitement on seeing me come to save the day by taking her out. She races to the back door, takes care of business and rushes in to jump up on the sofa, licking me wildly and also paws at me. Never have we tried to teach give me 5 or a handshake, but let me turn my back to her to get my coffee cup or phone and she uses her paw to try to take my hand and almost pull me in to her, as if to say, "Come on. I am here and I need some loving." It is ever so gentle and ever so sweet. As soon as I sit down she is in my lap, Davis it up on the back of the sofa curled around me and all is right with the world. 



Both of them love to give kisses, especially to my hands and ears. When we drive in the car, their seat belts allow them to come forward just enough to rest their chin on either one of our shoulders and just kiss our ears with so much trust, as if to say, "We are not sure exactly where we are going but we are with YOU." Their absolute favorite place to go is to WGAC Doggy Day Care. They have figured out the route by the smells and sights and start with little grunts and cries of delights until we are a block away and then they go into full stereo harmony of barking and howling. Otherwise, they are quite happy to just go to the pet store, the pharmacy drive thru where they always get a pet treat or the bank where they send over a pet treat to the car. Another favorite place is Starbucks, because they have learned they will receive a puppuccino. They LOVE them. I believe, the fact that they get to go out in the car with us is good with them, because wherever we go, they get complimented. Actually, I have had the windows down a bit and while at a red light had people honk their horns to tell us what beautiful dogs we had. Even the Kroger Click List employees know them by name and are quite upset if they are not with us because we dropped them off at DayCare first. 

If our dogs are doing something that they shouldn't or we find part of a paper chewed up and ask, "Who did this?" They both put their heads down in shame. They know. In fact, the older one puts himself in his crate to show us that he was not a super star and his little sister follows his lead. We actually took him to Puppy School. We did not take her. Why? Because her brother taught her everything she needs to know. He sits, she watches and follows suit. At dinner, he takes a down position and she looks at him and does the same. They both come when you call their names. UNLESS, there is water nearby. Then Davis may have second thoughts and selective hearing.

Another way that dogs communicate is by watching their tails. 


Davis has always had a question mark tail. Even as an 8 week old puppy. I always can spot him from far away with that tail. It is a rare thing to see it go down between his legs due to stress, anxiety over something not making his happy. Usually when we spot him doing that, it is when we take him out and he is not pleased with a smell or a sound that he hears in HIS yard. Otherwise, we have this regal, beautiful black goldendoodle with a question mark tail. His little sister had a stick straight tail when we got her. 


I suppose Davis taught her how to do that, also! They seem to share everything else. 


Always listen to your dog. They are speaking to you!


Saturday, November 16, 2019

What Constitutes an Irrational Fear?


What constitutes an irrational fear? Depends on who you ask, really. I am going to tell you what an irrational fear is to me. You may have a totally different opinion, and that is fine with me. We can agree to disagree. 

The picture above is just that; a picture. I am not terrified of dinosaurs simply because I do not live in  Jurassic Park. If you saw the movie, then I am sure it terrified many, if not you personally. From experience, I know that it frightened my daughter, even though she could rationally say to you that she knew it was just make-believe. That did not stop her imagination from working overtime.

There are several things that I know I have irrational fears about. Some, I am aware that there are some plans of action I could do in order to overcome them. Then there are others that I simply ask myself, "Why would I want to?"


Only once have I flown in what I considered to be a small plane. I had many wonderful experiences flying before going in this plane and had no fear whatsoever. Let's just say that my fear does have some rational reasoning to it. I boarded just fine. However, once we got in the air over the Rocky Mountains, the turbulence took over. We rocked back and forth and up and down the whole trip. People all around me were getting sick. This in turn affected me and I got sick. It was an hour of sheer misery. The pilot got on the speaker and informed us that this was one of the roughest flights he has ever flown in, BUT there was nothing to worry about. He and the crew had everything under control. For me? Nothing was going to be under control until we landed safely on the ground.

As we got off the plane, the friends and family waiting for passengers were all asking why was everyone so green looking? When I looked around me, everyone did look as if they were related to The Grinch. I just made a promise to myself then and there that I would not ever be on a small plane again. Knowing that I had to get back to Denver from Jackson Hole in order to fly the large aircraft back to Memphis, I had decided that I would be renting a car and driving to Denver. Problem solved. Friends and family that met me had other plans. They managed to get some Johnny Walker Scotch in my system and I was not able to drive. I ended up getting on the small plane and sleeping through the uneventful flight. At least, they told me that it was uneventful. Maybe so? To this day I still avoid getting on small planes.

I might add that I had a similar experience on a very large deep sea fishing boat. The captain said that the sea was as rough as he had ever seen. Good grief! Does Mother Nature follow me around on my excursions? I was laid out across the built-in ice chests where they kept the caught fish alive. 


In my usually logical mind, I know that a cruise liner is so much larger than this large deep sea fishing boat. However, that one experience has made me just a bit terrified of taking a cruise. 


Maybe one day. Maybe!

Now, let's go to another kind of irrational fear. These fears are for real and I really don't want to do anything about these fears except avoid these things:






Usually, I manage to do a rather good job at avoiding them. On those rare occasions that I don't, bedlam breaks out. This blog was on my mind to write this week because of one of our goldendoodles, Davis. 


Normally, he has always been a model of the perfect dog. However, this past week, our perfect dog went out with me for the last trip to take care of his business before bed. Leaves had been falling all day and I noticed on our way in he grabbed at something, which I naturally thought was a big leaf. He followed me in with it to the screened in porch. It was there that I told him to drop it and he did. He followed me to the back door, only to turn quickly and went back to grab it and flew in to his bed. He put it down and looked up at me with his adoringly big brown eyes. I looked down and became totally irrational and close to hysterics. Steve came running in and so did our little goldendoodle. I put out my arms, waving them away and screaming for Steve to call them to their crates, quickly. Of course, he had no idea what the fuss was all about. I then barked out (literally) for him to bring two plastic bags fast. 

You see, on the bed was a dead (thank goodness) mouse. I had no idea that dogs caught mice. As Steve came out, he saw the problem and put the dead critter in the bag and took it out to the trash. It was at that point that I needed a tall G & T with a twist of lemon. It helped me to stop hyperventilating and even considering changing our dog's name to Hunter or Killer. 


This picture is obviously is not Davis but this is exactly what he did. I did not stop to take pics. The next day, I looked up dogs catching mice. There were a few breeds of dogs listed who actually are known for this. Goldendoodles were not on the list, nor were poodles or English golden retrievers. However, he looked me as if he should be praised for bringing me such a gift. He was so proud. I was speechless. Steve and others let me know that I should have thanked him and praised him. hmmmm


This is what I would expect, even though I have never really had a cat. Never would I expect our dog to catch one, kill it and bring it to me. Even though I have had a couple of times, a field mouse coming in our house, I know that I managed to acquire this irrational fear of mice from my Mother. She came in from her bedroom with her handgun when I screamed about the mouse that I spotted in the kitchen. Truly, at that stage, I did not know which scenario that I should have been more afraid of: the mouse who ran off to who knows where or my Mother standing in the doorway pointing a handgun, as if she could really shoot a mouse!

Then, some rational thinking had to be mustered up by someone and to my amazement, it was mine. I had to take the phone from her hands when she told me that she was calling 9-1-1 for the mouse in our house! Ya'll, this is for real! I just can't make this up out of the blue. Quickly, I took the phone from her and tried to explain that she/we would be fined for calling over a mouse - not considered life threatening.

After buying out Lowe's of all of their glue traps, I managed to get our problem solved with the help of my daughter. You see, she also is not fond of mice. She had to help shovel up the trap that the mouse got stuck in and place him into the bag that I held out and we took the bag out to the trash bin. We also called in my dear, sweet Uncle to check out the garage door where he guessed the mouse came in from the field beside our house. He fixed the problem.

There were also times when I worked outside of the home, that it was known there was a mouse problem. I kept my feet up off the ground when I had to sit in a meeting or work at my computer until the problem had been solved.

While at work, our building was being renovated. The ceiling tiles had not been replaced just yet, so all of the piping and insulation was exposed above the long hallways. I was out in one hallway with the locksmiths that were sent to our building. We were going over the blueprints where they were marking the doors that needed to have locks with keys installed. I was pointing at the pictures they had on a rolling cart just as a rat from above fell down right in front of us. I can still hear the sound of that rat as it hit the floor. DEAD. "SPLAT!"

"Looks as if it broke its back," one locksmith calmly uttered to me and his buddy. 

At that stage, I grabbed my radio and managed to screech for a call of help from our building engineer. The call went into the office and to anyone else that carried a radio. People came out of everywhere to see what kind of commotion was going on. I was literally, helped into my office to a chair. No one could believe that my normally calm voice went into a wild banshee howling. That was the talk at work for over a month and still to this day, 17 years later, is still remembered.

There seems to be patterns to me encountering fears of rats. Just two days ago, Steve and I were leaving out of our garage to take our puppies to WGAC Doggie Daycare. With cold weather approaching, we have a few hidden places with sticky traps just in case one wants to come in from the cold. 

As I backed out of the garage and put the car in Drive, we headed down our cove at a slow speed and heard a thump, thump sound from the rear of the car. Steve got out to investigate. He discovered a dead rat attached to one of the sticky traps that was in turn stuck on the rear left tire. Clearly, my fear of rodents manifested itself one more time. Steve suggested, "Let's just drive and hope that it comes off." It did! It was all that I could do to guide the vehicle on the correct side of the road. I couldn't even talk at this point. I am really hoping my irrational fear of rodents does not come in 'threes!'

I am not apologizing for my irrational fear. To me it is very rational. To this day, I will not go in a cave where there could be bats, look and watch carefully when outside where snakes could be and will use a shoe to kill a spider or spray it to death with bug spray or hairspray, whichever is close at hand.


 What makes sense to you?