Archive for August, 2009

Life is a funny thing. Just when you have it down you realize that the next generation is moving in to take over. Today I talked with my son on the phone. He is a “September” birthday and so he was telling me he was beginning to feel his age, at a mere 33 years old. That is when it came to me that the next generation is here. Taking care of our business, it seems like just the other day I was in my thirties.

But now I have shifted into the “older” generation. Still with energy, still with dreams, still with life left to live. But it is a different life than the thirties. That is when you are making your way in business, in relationship, education and raising children.

What I find is that now is the time for reflection, enjoyment and doing the things that I want along with the things I have to. Who has time for that when you have kids to get off to school, ballet or soccer? Let alone plan a date with your significant other? I find that my friends and family in the boomer stage are reinventing themselves. My younger sister who turned 50 this past year found her boomer muse in a newsletter she has created. In “Quotes and Wisdom” (http://www.quotesandwisdomnewsletter.com/) it offers her an opportunity to share with others how your life is evolving and she states on her website, “My newsletter is for those to enjoy so you can create a better life for yourself. I want to see some positive thoughts in the world! Join me on this trip to turn the world around to a place we all want to be living in instead of just merely existing and allowing things to happen to us.”

If that sounds like something you might enjoy just click on the link above and enjoy!

I have found another path. Education and well being, this means school and I eat the good stuff, walk two miles a day. What I like about walking is it gives me time to sort the day out that I have planned. Being a morning walker I get an opportunity to organize my world for the day before I get started. My husband walks in the afternoon. He finds that is the best time for him. Walking just helps on so many levels and years ago I would walk daily with my sister (the one doing Quotes and Wisdom) and it would avail us of the opportunity to gabbed about well, everything! We found we did better once we had a good gab about world politics, the state of the ozone, raising kids, raising husbands. Or just in need of a good bitch fest.

Needless to say I am an avid proponent of walking. It takes no special clothes, no special shoes, no gym fees and no set up time. Just walk out the front door and off you go. I walk two miles a day because I am not into doing more that will set me up for failure. I have time for two miles and it works. I am not a marathon type person. Just want to get the job done and move on for the day, you know?

I can still feel my biological clock ticking but now I have a place to be in life while my children and all the other thirty somethings can build their dreams.

I cannot believe I haven’t posted since August 4th. When I did my last post we had had the best vacation. Then all hell broke loose. My old dog “Pip” got sick for a week. He is 10 and a half and my boon companion so it was a week of worry. I wrote a story dedicated to my Pip for one of my college courses. He is one amazing dog.

Then no sooner did I get my dog on track my sister went down for the count. She developed what is called AVM in her lower intestine. After nine units of blood and surgery she is now recovering. Slowly and after a week she is still in ICU. Today I hear she is allowed clear liquids and may move out of ICU tomorrow. It has been a very long and drawn out process. I am beginning to miss her. I haven’t got to talk to her since she went in and I am missing her today. Just a good ole “girl chat” is all I am hoping for here.  

And while all this going on, I returned to fall term to work on my last math class. Which you know from previous posts is the worst nightmare of my entire flipping life!

So it was and has been a busy August. Isn’t it amazing how many things catch our attention and time races on?

But just to let you know I am still here I thought I would share my Story of Pip with you. If it moves you (and I hope it does) find your pet and just hug your pet for a very long time. Every time I reread this I do!

The Story of Pip

The Smartest Canine I Have Ever Had The Pleasure of Meeting

By

Amanda Edwards

I met Pip when he was four weeks of age; he wasn’t my puppy of choice. The “other” one, sitting over there in the corner was. I wanted that little puppy. But soon I learned the decision was not mine to make. It was Pip’s. So Pip came home with his brother, Ollie, forever to shape our lives, enriching it forever. Pip and Ollie have taught us to know unconditional love.

My husband and I went back to finalize bringing home our new puppy, Ollie, about a week later. To make sure the “other” one was the one we wanted to make our life friend. But Pip just crawled up in my husband’s lap, ready to snooze the day away. He let us know he wanted to come home with us so we did choose him and, we got the “other” one. Well the “other” one was going to be a lesson in love we would soon learn about. We never have regretted getting both puppies.

Pip and Ollie are littermates. Beautiful male English Springer Spaniels. Pip is a black/white and Ollie was liver/white Springer. Life went fairly normal for us for about three years. I have always loved the fact that Pip was obedient because, you see, Ollie certainly never was. And so I spent a ton of energy on Ollie while Pip quietly decided he would become my best friend.

Then three years into loving and living with these two great friends life decided to teach us how special Pip really is. Ollie was diagnosed with Epilepsy. This took us on a long three-year bout with seizures and medications. And there was Pip, steady Eddie all the way. Letting us know when Ollie was in trouble either with a seizure or catching birds and squirrels for a mid day snack. Still we were not amazed with Pip. In hindsight I think I should have been aware. I was so busy coping I wasn’t paying attention. It is amazing that he was letting us know about Ollie’s seizure. And, I remember times when I was very sick my husband could not get Pip to leave my side until Pip could tell I was on the mend. We have mused over how special he is because he could sense illness before we could but never did we know until we lost our Ollie dog this summer just how special Pip is. Pip stepped up to the plate to show us he was the caretaker.

Pip has always been a major caretaker. We did not know he had taken this “job” so seriously with Ollie until the job was not there anymore. For about six weeks this summer it was just Pip and us. We took some vacations, cried over Ollie and Pip just waited for us to get over it. He was just faithful, steady, smart Pip. Knowing his job was to silently be a caretaker.

Then one day he let us know he needed a new companion, that it was time to move on. So we got busy finding him a friend. Lizzie. She is a rescue Springer. Fully she is a puppy at one and half years and no health issues. And! We found out Pip is playful. Pip likes to run and bark and jump after squirrels and birds! Pip that was so involved with caretaking has shown us how amazing he really is.  He runs all over with Lizzie yapping and playing all the time.

Pip loves his new companion, Lizzie. Which, you see is another amazing thing. Lizzie is a rescue with all that implies. Issues, yes, issues. Pip is helping her through them, teaching her the ropes. Showing her how we want her to come to dinner, come when called, come let us be a part of your life. Lizzie was closed up, afraid of people. Pip has been teaching her how to trust. Pip is amazing. Pip is seven years old on October 7th. Pip deserves to be spoiled this year. I am taking him by his little ole self to Petsmart to get a favorite toy.

A special thank you for being the best friend, companion a person could have.

(This was written in 2005 as a way to process the loss of our dear “Ollie”dog.

Thanks to Pip and now Lizzie we have moved on.)

This last week we bought a new energy efficient vehicle. We decided it would be a great time for a day trip. Our destination would lead us into places all over Georgia we had no idea existed! My goal was to go to Juliette (where Fried Green Tomatoes was filmed) but when I mentioned to my neighbors, whom are long term Alabamian residents our goal they mentioned a few other places we could travel through. Let me share this journey with you.

As we headed out of Alabama across the border there is a small town called Warm Springs. This cute little place is put on the map because of one of our most famous president’s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who made his vacation home here. There are pools here that are supplied by warm springs which, he believed would aid his polio.So sure was he that the springs were medicinal that he had a vacation home there called “The Little White House”. Of course today it is set up in the Pine Mountain area as a museum. We stopped here and took a trip down historical lane.

Once I got my fill of the pools and his home we moved on to Juliette.  Juliette locals have kept the town set up the same as when the movie was filmed.   According to local information in the early 1900s it “was a booming community along the railroad tracks and the Omulgee River”. It soon became a “ghost town” then producers discovered it in 1991 putting it back on the map. “The river, the railroad and the quaint old buildings provided just the right ingredients for the movie”. And so this was our next stop! I have wanted to go there for a long time.  If you would like to check out more information you can at www.forsyth-monroechamber.com.

That was about as much as we could handle for the first day so we stopped at La Quinta Inn in Warner Robbins. Which is great because we brought our dogs along and La Quinta Inn allows dogs, just an FYI if is important to you.  After a restful night and an early morning walk we decided it was time to travel down to Andersonville where Union soldiers are famed for being prisoners of war during the Civil War. But! What we didn’t know is we would pass through Americus, the home of Habitat for Humanity. (I guess it needed to get its start somewhere.)

I have to say though, as a history student, my goal was going to Andersonville.   My great-great- grandfather spent Fall and Winter of 1864-65 there as a POW. He survived when the war ended in 1865. Andersonville housed 45,000 prisoners-12,920 are buried in there. It was a somber experience.  When my great-great-grandfather was eighty years old his local newspaper wrote an article about his experience whereby he said he “enlisted the 22nd day of July, 1862, at Columbus City, Ohio in the 95th Ohio Infantry. He was in W. T. Sherman’s command”. While his most famed Civil War experience was Andersonville as a POW he also was present at Vicksburg, MS. I was so stoked to be there and experience this family memory.  http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/ms011.htm

And just when I thought I had seen it all we rounded down the road to Plains. Plains is the home of former 39th President of the United States and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Jimmy Carter. We didn’t get to spend too much time here but it was obvious from the huge fence surrounding his home where he lived. The locals say he is often seen in the local church giving the Sunday sermon. Plains will require a second visit as it has the church, the business where is brother, Billy Carter, had his business, the downtown area, Mr. Carter’s boyhood home, farm and the cemetery where Mr. Carter’s parents are buried. Needless to say it was a great experience.

This was just such a moving experience I couldn’t wait to share it with you. What was really exciting is how close all these sites were to each other. They were all one half hour to and hour to each destination. We spent more time stopped than driving! Great day trip!

Pools of FDR's Warm Springs

Whistle Stop Cafe, Juliette, Ga

Whistle Stop Barbeque pit, Juliette, Ga

Andersonville GA



Andersonville GA



Andersonville GA



Jimmy Carter Visiter Center, Plains GA