I've just been wondering where the heck are ya?? Just joking. So today I spent the better part of the morning learning to text my children on my cell phone. I could not get the keys to print the letter I wanted, so my first attempt, though garbled and illiterate was sent for my youngest's entertainment. Then I hit some key that made all the right letters print just like I do when I save names. Yo ho, and off I send my perfect text. It was a pretty exciting moment!

Well, I carried that phone around in my hoodie for the rest of the morning and didn't get a response until lunchtime. Then I opened my phone and my message was still there and being pretty generic, I texted same to older daughter who was eating lunch in the kitchen with her friend. I listen from around the corner, knowing her phone is glued to her palm. I hear laughter, and she screams, "I love u too, Mom!" Ah, these modern days of thechnology...I think they are actually bridging the generation gap and bringing us closer...

Any how...I think I will get the hang of it sooner or later. Oops...
gotta go, another message is coming in, I'm getting popular. I promise to not let this go to my head.
n.

I know it seems like ages. How are you all??? I miss you all...you are my community beyond family.

We are all going on like the rest of you. I am writing you after a full day of good hard work and enjoying the brilliant quiet of no interruptions.

My horse, Rummy and I have re-invented ourselves after a very long winter. We still pull at each other for control, but we are slowly coming to an understanding that we are both in "absolute control" of each other and that is an amazing union. God bless all the souls out there vying for "control", it can only be had when we give.

I love the interaction between animal and human on a daily basis. I feel that when I go that little bit beyond,and I have not fallen or have not failed my beautiful creature, I have melted away just one more obstacle.

We have all gone on and shared and lived these two weeks and maybe learned a lesson since Taz. It has not stopped us from going out there and trying once again to share our life with one less fortunate. We would do it all over again. We open our hearts and will never stop this fountain of our hearts' longing.

With hope and longing, we appeal to all the souls out there just like Taz, and perhaps there is a perfect home, maybe if we all keep the home fires burning...

peace,
n.

Newly adopted black lab is back at the Humane Society. He had a food aggression problem and attacked three of my dogs. He was on a leash and could not connect the first time. The second attack was for Top Dog's food bowl. The third attack was when my Golden,Reilly was growling over his toys. We think he thought he had a bone and he tore into Reilly's ear and was going to kill him had I not broken them apart.

Long story short, Reilly was taken to the hospital and had to get stitches, a deep enough wound into the cartilage, the bite was a pull one, as well, like he was tearing into a steak. Reilly is home now and won't leave my sight.

We are sad. We wanted to give the black lab a good life. Life doesn't always work out the way you want it to. He was not at all aggressive with humans, I even petted him while he was eating his own bowl of food. This vicious behavior was not evident in his eyes.

n.

My husband, the enabler, is sleeping in a hotel room tonight in Minnesota with a beautiful black lab with hauntingly honest eyes. He flew there this morning to pick up "Tazmanian Devil" or "Taz" for short, because I found his eyes spoke to me from behind the Animal Humane Society's bars. Nothing separated us but time. My husband is a saint, or enabler, or just plain crazy like me. Gotta love him...I like his honest eyes too, maybe that's why I married him. I do remember one very romantic night at an outside cafe in Manhattan when we were first dating, many moons ago, and the sun, setting, was menacingly in his eyes, but I noticed them and how they were the color of the blue Pacific. Those eyes, they sent me to far away places. And, God bless him he was true to his eyes, true to his words.

I was thinking recently about this eye thing. If I were to look into the candidates that are wanting to be our next President, would I find that look in honesty or lies in their eyes? I have felt a very warm and fuzzy feeling about Barack Obama's eyes and maybe Edwards. Hilary, though I admire her and her intelligence, always has dancing eyes, they are always glancing up to the sky to the right and to the left. She makes me nervous to watch her eyes. President Bill Clinton's eyes melted many a hearts in his term, until he let us all down with Monica. So, with your own eyes, keep a watch of others eyes around and about your day, maybe you will find some truth to add to your own life, some hope, to perhaps see a sunnier day.

To end on a proper note, God blessed us all with a twinkle in our eyes and maybe that twinkle needs to beam a little more to reach the masses. Keep smiling, it helps the twinkle. Taz is coming home tomorrow to meet all his brothers and sister, and I cannot wait to see the twinkle in his eyes!

hugs,
n.

Returning to some of my favorite people in the world. I am returning home to MN. There is something ethereal, something that I needed to learn to be content there, it will remain with me, like the northern lights, or the sound of the wind in great towering pines.

The sound of thunder over Thunder Lake or the darkening skies to add just a hint of the dramatic, always will send a shiver up my spine. I imagine, living there full time, the beauty may escape you, but I was privileged to live it for a time.

The people, the landscape, the smells of the seasons all awakened my senses.

n.