How and when do you reward yourself?
Submitted by Rainbird.I don't consciously do this. It feels too much like training myself via Pavlovian response.
We ended up enjoying fireworks on TV, watching the show in NY. Unfortunately, NM got his pinky toe hurt badly in the door. One of those things that dad had to deal with because mom couldn't handle it and dad was there. That's what Abba's for! He opted to stay home and since it was hurt pretty bad and there was a good chance we would have to walk a distance from parking to the lake, we opted to stay home. To console us all, I told them that what Austin put on couldn't possibly rival New York's since Macy made a huge deal about it being the biggest. It didn't disappoint! I do wish we recorded the one in DC, too.
You should see his toe...blisters on the toe pad and a blood blister under the nail. It's so sad!
Sprocket is cute, cute, cute. Good thing, because she cried most of last night. I mean most. I took her outside at midnight to go potty and she did. She fell asleep after crying just a little but a couple of hours later, she was crying again so I put her outside again. I'm not sure if she fell asleep after that time. I did manage to sleep a little. I hope it doesn't take more than a few days for a dog to learn the crate is a good thing!
The crying was all about her being put somewhere away from us. After I got her out this morning, she went (accident, my bad, didn't get her outside quickly enough) and then outside after finishing her business she just wanted to be with me, play with me, get hugs. I actually got to hear her little bark instead of crying. Her crying, by the way, can be eerily like a human baby's.
The boys adore her. NM got on the ground with her this morning, eye to eye, and told her, "Sprocket, I love you." J keeps picking her up and carrying her everywhere, then putting her down and telling her "Sit! Sit, Sparky. Oh, I mean Sprocket. Puppy." She's definitely got a submissive temperament and will just lay or sit or stand in the position that J puts her in. She's such a good puppy!
This is so sad. She's in her crate, crying, crying, crying. I feel like crying, crying and taking her to bed with me. But I am not giving in. Besides, she has fleas.
4th of July isn't the best night to bring home a new puppy and teach it to sleep in a crate.
She's good, though, she only had one accident today inside the house and I caught her in the act so we're working on it. Sprocket didn't whine that time, nor did she spin in circles but to be fair, she just got up from a long nap and I paused before taking her outside.
The person we bought her from said she and her litter mates got up at 7 am every day, so hopefully she won't be up much earlier than that.
We've had her one day and she's shown us her temperament very well. I was concerned that she was really sad and missing her siblings but after a few play times outside I realize she's just mellow indoors and seems to reserve being active for times she can play in grass. She's definitely got a more submissive temperament rather than dominant which makes for a great family dog. That's not to say that Sprocket won't have to be trained out of trying to herd the boys when they play by nipping at their ankles...we'll see if that's necessary.
NM likes her very much. He's still very ginger with her and not sure how to pick her up. He's nervous and we have to work on that because dogs can sense it. She doesn't treat him any differently than J, though, so it might not be an issue. J will pick her up and carry her for whatever reason. He's tried to play guns with her already and she just tried to eat his gun. She did sleep next to NM for a bit today and that made him very happy :)
To make sure she knows she's at the bottom of the totem pole of our pack, we will all take turns feeding her and taking her outside. I think she sleeps next to or nearest whoever fed her last. I was trying to keep track and it seems that way. I'm trying to make sure everything is predictable because puppies, just like babies, appreciate routine and need that security.
EDIT/UPDATE: I'm a girl. Ooops...I forgot to tell you and assumed that you would know that because I point my toes very daintily. But my new family decided on a name for me: SPROCKET. I like it and I'll come or look up right away when I hear it. Kinda fits, don't you think?
Hi, I'm a 7 week old pembroke welsh corgi. I just got adopted today by my new family. I miss my brothers and sister! But the boys in my new family really love me and are really good about being gentle.
I'm really little but I make sure to let my new family know when I have to go outside. I love to chase the boys around and I don't like being alone. They got me new toys to chew on and those are great! So are the pillows, but they are nice enough to explain to me that toys are better to chew on.
I love this house! It's big and full of soft things to lay on. I think I'll go to sleep while they watch the Olympics tryouts.
Only trouble is...they don't have a name for me yet! Do you have any ideas? I have a heart on my forehead. Does that help with ideas?
Okay, so in regards to the last post. I really feel like in this day and age that it is high time one reads again the declaration made by our founding fathers...not just the part about man being created equal, but the entire thing. I thought maybe by posting it someone would take the time to read it.
Don't get me wrong, I miss the days of holding sparklers and lighting picolo pete's and snakes. I love a good BBQ like the next person. Nothing like a good firework finale. But sometimes it's good to remember why all the block parties, what all the hulabaloo is about.
I am thankful that I live here...regardless of which party is controlling the oval office or the senate. I am thankful that I can worship where and as I please. That I can pray in public. That I can come and go as I please. That I am free.
Sometimes I worry about that freedom continuing in America...but that worry is short lived. Because thankfully, I'm free for two reasons...one can be taken away and one can not be removed. My freedom is from being an American, but even more so, I am free in Christ. It is because of Him that I am truly eternally free, and for that, I am eternally grateful.
I wonder what the fireworks will be like in heaven.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.
THE UNANIMOUS
DECLARATION
OF THE
THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
WHEN, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.
HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyranny only.
HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.
HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.
HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean Time, exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.
HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.
HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the Consent of our Legislatures.
HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:
FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:
FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:
FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:
FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection, and waging War against us.
HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
HE has constrained our Fellow-Citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas, to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes, and Conditions.
IN every Stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every Act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.
NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them, from Time to Time, of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our Connexions and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the Rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connexion between them and the State of Great-Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of Right do. And for the Support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour.
John Hancock.
GEORGIA, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr. Thomas Lynch, junr. Arthur Middleton.
MARYLAND, Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read.
NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, &c. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.
IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777.
ORDERED,
THAT an authenticated Copy of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCY, with the Names of the MEMBERS of CONGRESS, subscribing the same, be sent to each of the UNITED STATES, and that they be desired to have the same put on RECORD.
By Order of CONGRESS,
JOHN HANCOCK, President
In honor of Independence Day (and the fact that my right hand/arm is still not up to knitting*), I made a banner with some scrap fabric plus new fabric the kids helped to pick out.
Looks ok here. I really like it. In spite of the fact that the machine was totally misbehaving, it did get done and I kept my cool.
Happy 4th of July!
*I was almost all better when I bought and helped hubby lift and set up a rug for upstairs. This rug is the third (and hopefully) last one in our saga of rugs. The first wasn't working with the vacuum which has since been returned. The second was the no-end-to-shedding-ever rug so it went back. I like this one and I hope that it flattens out soon so we don't have to exchange that one either. But now my right arm needs to relax a while again.
I signed *both* boys up for Fall soccer season. I hope both boys get great coaches like Noah had last year.
We won't have any indoor soccer games until July 13, however. This is a good thing: that means other things can happen on Saturdays in the summer.
I am very much looking forward to buying their gear! I hope they let me take photos of them in their uniforms. NM already makes "shin guards" for his brother and they pretend they play on the same team. It's cuteness!
The boys and I made this for Father's Day only they were closed the first few times we went to pick it up (kinda helps if they are open on a Monday when they tell you that you have to pick it up the following Monday). Hehe.
Pics of the bottom and side here. They show a lot of the kids' input.
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