May 30, 2009

More Changes

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for the kind words. They really do help. :o)

As you can see, I have made some changes to the blog, I thought something cheery would be good right now. And what's cheerier than cupcakes and a smiling puggy?


I had a really positive job interview last Thursday afternoon. I would love some more positive thinking out there!


hugs to you all!
puglette
:o)

May 29, 2009

Changes

Hi everyone,

Well, I hear changes are good for you. I will let you know, but right now it does not feel very good. I got fired again, from the same job...that's twice in six months. :o(

This time it's permanent. I got the boot. I am really angry and hurt that after eight years of being there through the good and the bad that as soon as it gets good again, I am tossed out.

I am not sure what to do. I am in shock right now and frightened by the financial outlook. Hubby and I were relaxing and just bought a new to us car with part of the cost financed. I just made the first payment. I am not sure how we will pay our June mortgage. We had decided we could afford a vacation, the first in years. We used our airline miles to buy two tickets to Maui for September. I just can't believe it!

So I am out on the employment trail at 51. I will be competing with kids graduating from college and other young people. Who will want to hire a fat, old woman?

I am really sorry to share my pity party with you all. Your blogs are a solace for my soul. I look to you all for some sort of hope and positive influence. I know things will turn around for us. We have a loving family and friends for support. Today looks bleak but tomorrow will look better.

In an effort to make any additional money possible, I have decided to have advertisements on my blog. I will be working with Dogtime Media and will have only dog or pet related ads. The people at Dogtime are very friendly and helpful and I feel that I will be able to advertise in a tasteful manner. I hope you won't mind too much. I promise, no pop ups, nothing racy or crass.

I will be back on Monday with a better outlook. I need to work through my anger and grief before I can get on with looking for a new job and writing about happier subjects.

Thank you all for being the best cyber-pals a woman could have.
hugs,
puglette
:o)

May 22, 2009

May Flowers

Hi everyone!
Did you miss me?!?

I have just been hanging out with hubby and puppies. Work is getting quite busy and stressful so when I get home I just turn my brain off. I am really happy to have an extra day off this weekend. And a big plus is that we will have some lovely late spring weather in our neighborhood! Woo Hoo! The weatherman was reporting that this is the first Memorial Day weekend in 30 years where we should have 70 - 75 degree temperatures all weekend. Yay!

I have been enjoying all the flowers in bloom everywhere. I really love wandering around older neighborhoods and looking at all the lovely established gardens. I have two lovely plants in bloom in my yard right now.

This is my Bleeding Heart bush. Usually these are kind of small and low to the ground, but ours just loves it's spot in an over grown flowerbed.

We have had this plant for about twelve years. Every year in February it starts popping up and before long it just takes over the flower bed and grows and grows. This year it has tons of these beautiful stems of flowers.


We originally had this plant and a white Bleeding Heart plant in pots on our front porch. When we built the bed and moved the plants the white one did not survive. This beauty more than makes up for the loss.

This is our lilac tree. I am standing close to it for these pictures because it borders the neighbors that burned their house and the contractor has a lovely porta-potty right at the end of the driveway. I really did not want the blue sani-can in my flower post!


This lilac tree is huge!! It is really old too. I think it was planted by the original owners of our property about 65 years ago. It is just lovely and has an amazing fragrance. In the evening the breeze carries that scent across the yard. I am so happy the weather will be good so I can open the windows to this fragrant breeze.

This has been a fruitful spring. Our little cherry tree was covered in blooms this year. I hope we get some before the birds eat them all! Here is our driveway covered in pine cones. The birds love to sit in the tree and get the seeds out and knock the pine cones out.


And of course, here is the little puggy boy, Ollie. He doesn't look very happy about me being on the outside of the fence.



I wish you all a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Please say a prayer for all the men and women who gave themselves for our freedom. Hug your family!!
hugs,
puglette
:o)

May 13, 2009

Ollie Day!

Hi everyone!

Today is Ollie's Gotcha Day! We have decided to make this his birthday since we don't know his actual birthdate. We decided that Ollie has just turned three today.


We love this puggy boy so much. He is so sweet and special to our family. Ollie was a shelter rescue and we are so happy that we have him in our life.





Ollie loves to spend time riding around with Charlie and Dad in the big truck.



Ollie is very helpful, here he is helping Dad drive the car.




Ollie is quite the dancer, he loves to show off his skills.




This is a special day in our house, it's Ollie Day! We will be setting Ollie Day up as a National Holiday soon, so watch your calendars!
hug your family!
puglette
:o)

May 10, 2009

Pug Gala

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Mother's Day. We celebrated Mother's Day yesterday with hubby's mom at the Seattle Pug Gala.


We had a lot of fun and saw old friends and new ones. And of course, we saw lots of pugs!








There were little pugs, big pugs and brindle pugs.






Pugs had on sunglasses and some wore hats. We even saw the great pumpkin!







Joan from Peace Love and Pugs was there with her fabulous Linden Line Designs. I didn't get a picture of Joan...sorry Joan! But please check out her store, she makes all of the wonderful collars and harnesses herself.








And look who else was there...Melissa from Life is Art, Art is Life! She brought her sister Melanie too.







Melissa and Melanie are two of the nicest, sweetest women I have ever met. So kind and friendly. I wish we could have spent more time visiting but their booth was a busy place. Melissa had brought along a lot of her items from Pug Notes. I now have a large and small Emmitt pillow and will treasure them always. Melanie brought some of her adorable bears and animals from her Etsy Shop, ShopMoeMoe. I now have this cutie to remind me of meeting Melanie.





After our fun at the Pug Gala we went for lunch at a fish and chips place called Steamer's. This place has a spectacular view of the Puget Sound and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. I will try to get some photos from there to share because I forgot the camera this time.


We had a wonderful Mother's Day outing. I hope you have all been able to spend some time with your favorite Mom's.

Big hugs to everyone!
puglette
:o)

May 6, 2009

Funny Photos

Hi everyone!


I have been seeing these funny photos on lots of blogs lately and I thought we should join in the fun. Here are our three doggies in the Coneheads movie poster. I picked the Coneheads because hubby is always calling Honey Puppy pointy head. She has a pointy little snout.





This was a lot of fun to make! I will try to make more and share them with you. Thank you to Minnie Moo and everyone else who is playing. Face in the Hole is a silly website, it makes me think of egg in the hole, a yummy breakfast treat.

hugs to you all!
puglette
:o)

May 5, 2009

Velkommen 'til Poulsbo!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all doing well. We are experiencing a windy storm in our neighborhood. We have had some wild spring storms in the past few weeks. We have had wind, rain, lightning and thunder and I saw a wall cloud! This is a thunderstorm cloud that could turn into a tornado! That was really freaky, we do not have tornadoes in our area. I am very glad it dissipated instead of becoming a tornado.

I still have one more cute little town to share with you from our little vacation a few weeks ago. This is the town of Poulsbo. Poulsbo is a little slice of Norway right here in the Pacific Northwest. I really love Poulsbo as it makes me feel closer to my ancestors.




My family came from Denmark, Sweden and Finland. I am just a second generation American. Three of four of my grandparents came from these Scandinavian countries in the early 1900's. The fourth one was born in San Francisco from parents who came from Denmark. I was told that we are related to the Danish royalty and a pirate named Black Peter. The story in the family is that the pirate loot was donated to a church in San Francisco as my great grandmother did not want the "blood money". I have no idea if either story is true, but it's a fun bit of family trivia.


Poulsbo has a cute downtown area that is decorated in a Norwegian manner. Well, it's our version of Norway I am sure. ;o) The shops are very nice and sell all kinds of souvenirs.







This is a lovely old church on the outskirts of town. It overlooks the marina.





I really like this housing development. The developers made an effort to blend in with the look and feel of the town. These homes are about five years old but they resemble the old craftsman style of the original homes. I really like the paint colors too.





We will have to go on another little vacation soon so we can share more about our area!

Hubby and I are really looking forward to the Pug Gala this Saturday, May 9th in Seattle. We can't wait to meet Melissa from Life is Art, Art is Life. And we are excited to see Joan from Peace Love and Pugs again. I wonder if Melissa knows what's going on at her house while she is away... ;o)

I am sending out hugs for everyone! Please pass them on!
Hugs,
puglette
:o)