My child is a honor roll student at...

You've seen 'em.
They're on the bumper of the car in front of you.
The mini-van, suburban, or SUV.
If you're like me, you sort of roll your eyes and snort, "Huh. Honor student. Do you have to advertise it?! Geesh!" Cue another eye roll.
I think, "I'd never put that on my car!"






But you see...shhh...this is just a secret between me and you...I'm a bit jealous.
I know.
Cue the eye roll.
Annoying? Yes.
Bragging? Yes.
Proud? Yes.
Now I'm not jealous of the kid thing.
Not now. I see teens every... working... day.
If I was to think about having kids,
I need to teach 1st or 2nd grade where kids still love their teachers.
 Sure, some like me, (I'm sure) but I know how rough the parents have it.
If that's not birth control, I don't know what is!
www.cartoonstock.com
Any-hoo...
As I was saying...
I'm a bit jealous because I'd like to brag about my pup.
No, he's not my kid..but I did teach him everything that he knows (with a lot of help).
Doesn't that deserve a bumper sticker?! Heck yeah.
So here it is...
My dog is a high honor roll student.

Ah. I feel better now.

What does he know you ask?
Well shoot, let me tell ya.
Words and phrases.

1. While at the beach I had to explain to my nieces and nephew that you just can't say certain words around Murphy. Dumbfounding they asked why. I explained that once you say certain things he is relentless until you fulfill it.
Leanna- "Are you going to run fast outside?"
Murphy looking at her, head tilting at each word. 
I know he's thinking..."Yeah I am! We're going now? Right? Right? Right? Etc."
You can see where this is headed.
Yes, I know that Murphy can't actually speak.
But if you saw his face and actions, you'd know.





2. He knows the names of his toys...here is just a smattering.

Tug, Mr. Broccoli, Sheep, Oliver, Bolt, Mr. Carrot...


Yes, I like to name things by putting "Mr." or "Miss" in front of the object or name.
Some times they get in fights...Mr. Broccoli and Oliver don't always get along.

 Mr. Broccoli beat the stuffing out of Oliver this time...hehe.

Murphy has a basket of toys and he plays with every single one. 

3. People
He remembers everyone and everything that they made him feel.
This is good and very bad.
Since he's a rescue, Murphy has very strong feelings about people.
You might call it a vibe.
 He doesn't warm up to new people quickly.
He has to study your behavior for a while...months even to see if you're trustworthy.
I can't blame him.
Once you've been hurt, you're going to try to avoid that pain again at all costs.
The good side to his caution is that once you're in the circle of Murphy trust, you're in.
The benefits are well worth the wait.



Now this is just the start to my proud list of honor "student"qualities.







No, I'm not going to make a sticker and put it on my car. But if I did it would say...

"My honor student can out run, out maneuver, and out play your honor student any day. Bring it!"

But I'm not going to do that...
it would be silly and I'm a grown-up.
Plus, it would be bragging and boastful and...well...
Much too small of a scale.

I'm just going to write an entire blog post and send it out into the world!!!

HA! Take that! (Sticking out my tongue in a very immature and awesome way! Nah!)

Bring it honor students. Bring. It.

Adventures in Un-chaining

 

Stretching a length of I-5 from Silver Lake, Washington to Marion, Oregon,

I've enjoyed my last couple times unchaining sweet pups.

I'm sure the long drives turned some folks away...

I mean most people have busy schedules on the weekends,

but I like to keep mine fairly open.

Simon and Bow

Who could say "no" to these faces?!

 

In this case, my open schedule allowed me to meet Simon and Bow,

while helping an awesome group of people free them from a chained life.

Lucky, lucky me!

I'm not a huge fan of driving.

Yes, it gets me to where I need to go and accomplishes goals, but driving is boring.

Somehow driving to help free fidos from chains is easy and not boring at all.
The excitement of knowing that a dogs' life will be changed that day
motivates me the way other things don't.

If my other posts haven't convinced you to join me on a build, maybe this one will. 

Here is a photo gallery look at two freedom days for two deserving dogs.

Simon

Silver Lake, Washington

A small, but mighty crew!

This is Gabby, an amazing photographer who joined us that day.

Please check out her beautiful pictures of the build

and so much more at Blinker Photography.

Blinker Photography

Gabby's photos include this one of Simon helping me secure the ground wire. Love this boy!

Blinker Photography

And my gorgeous mud wear...

Yep, I gather a little more mud at each build and that makes me very happy.

Bow

Marion, Oregon

All hands on deck for this build!

Then, BOOM! Bow is freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

And man, he's thrilled to run and run and run!

He was a hard pup to slow down...so we didn't...well, just once.

 :0)

 

Bow was a born runner and now he'll be able to run as much as he wants!

Doesn't that make your heart happy?

Thank you Fences for Fido!

You make the world such a better place.



Super-Awesome and Silly

 

Supernatural on CW

I really don't know where this show has been. 

Or really how I hadn't heard about it until recently. 

Oh wait, I don't have cable.

I don't really know any current popular shows.

Cable...

 

That's probably an important component to knowing what is popular. 

Today, I mentioned to my teenage students that I don't have cable.

The main question was, "Wait, you don't have a TV, Ms. Chambers?"

"No, I have a TV, just not cable.
I can watch DVD's or Netflix."

"Why?"

"Well, I choose not to.  I found that it's too easy to get sucked into marathons of ridiculous TV shows and waste away days. (Hello Dance Moms...sigh.)

 

 Even though I don't have cable, I still seem to get sucked into shows on Netflix. 

It just takes me a bit longer with find them.

That's exactly what happened in this instance.

In this case, I'm really behind. 

Apparently, people love Supernatural and now I know why.

 

 

The Top 5 Reasons Why I Love Supernatural

5. Family

Everyone has family.  Some families are close, some are distant. Some times situations draw families back together even after long and strained absences.  Occasionally, even when they don't want to join forces...it's necessary.  Because if you can't trust family, who can you trust.  In Supernatural, family is the one thing that unites a family...at least that's the starting point.  Over time a relationship between brothers is renewed.  To me the lesson is that family endures and protects even in battles of evil creatures.

4. Conflict Resolution
They drive you crazy, but you gotta love 'em...or at least you try to though many times it's not easy. The main characters, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) Winchester drive each other crazy, but they're brothers.  They hit each other, ask for forgiveness and move on to solve problems.  Now, I don't suggest hitting as a conflict resolution

















3. Good vs. Evil
Good wins...most of the time.  I like that.  Though there are times where I wonder how the characters will get out of the crazy situations, they do.  No matter how bad things are, I like to think that things will get better and problems will be solved.  Life doesn't always wrap things up that nicely, but when you're watching a TV show you can almost guarantee that it will have an end.  I'm only on Season 5 out of 8 Seasons, and so far good is winning....I like that.


2. Clever Plots
Currently I'm watching an episode when the brothers are stuck in TV shows. Similarly to the old movie with John Ritter, The Dish...where the family gets stuck and they have to figure out a way to live.  This episode is like that, except that they are being tricked, by what is called a "Trickster."

What I love about these actors is that they can play serious,
but they are really good at silly.

1. Humor...Speaking of Silly. 





In my family we use humor to ease stressful situations. 
It may not be the best solution to elevate stress,
but it does help. 
Dean and Sam's characters also use humor to help them through stressful moments and so do the actors.





One of my favorite episodes was in Season 4: Yellow Fever (Episode 6). Dean, played by Jensen Ackles, is generally a no-nonsense, tough older brother.  But in this episode he's scared of everything and runs away from every "bad" situation.  The best part...I mean the best part was one of the outtakes at the end...and here it is. Enjoy!

 I love silly, don't you? 

Not all of life can be serious and I definitely need a giggle now and then. 

Actually, I need to laugh every single day.

Have you giggled today? 

Yes? No?  If not, go and find your funny. 

You'll feel better.  I'm sure of it.