Archive for the ‘Announcements’ Category

In Memory of the Sweetest Dog in the World

In Loving Memory of Ruthie Mae

I knew every day for almost ten years that I was lucky to have Ruthie Mae as my friend, and to be loved dearly and tenderly by the sweetest dog in the world.  We were the very best of friends.

Ruthie Mae passed on the first day of Spring 2015.

A Dog Smile

I’m Ruthie! A Beautiful Dog! I’m Nine Years Old!

Farewell my beautiful friend!  I shall forever be the incredibly lucky person who was loved by you!

Ruthie’s Human Mom,

Michelle.

 

Post Script:

Ruthie had a type of vascular cancer that commonly doesn’t present symptoms until the disease has progressed.  She became severely weak and shortly afterward, at the veterinary hospital, she passed peacefully.

Thank you for visiting this blog, dogkisses, named after Ms. Ruthie Mae.

 

Versatile Blogger Award ~ A call to write

From Michelle's Dogkisses's Blog, Thank You!

Thank you my fellow bloggers, Lynda R. CookSue Dreamwalker from Dreamwalker’s Sanctuary and Paul Handover at Learning from Dogs, for nominating Dogkisses’s blog for the Versatile Blogger Award.

An Update on 12/29/11:  My genuine thanks goes to Deb, from Dorky Deb’s Blog, for also having nominated me for this blog.

I love awards!  I haven’t been the most attentive blogger over the past six months, so I really appreciate that folks remembered my blog.  With that said, I felt a call to write this post.  Thanks for the inspiration!

Now.  The Rules as listed on the recently created VBA blog.

  • Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.
  •  Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it.
  •  Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly.
  •  Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.
  •  Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

The blogs I am nominating for The Versatile Blogging Award are as follows:

Ash, from her blog, Wolfdreams (http://wolfdreams.wordpress.com/)  A true mountain woman, terrific writer and, strong survivor!

John Hayden at Dispatches from Consternation (http://lifeaftersixty.wordpress.com/)  John is a former newsman, blogging about politics, living simple and frugality.  I love his blog!

Leslie Sigal Javorek from IconDoIt  (http://icondoit.wordpress.com/)  If you’ve ever visited my blog before, then you may know that I absolutely love Leslie’s icons.  Much more than her awesome icons and art, Leslie is a survivor, determined not until she is ready and, a talented writer.  Go see!

Planet Jan (http://planetjan.wordpress.com/)   A blog by a witty and predictably funny teacher.

Barbara from My life, His Addiction (http://parentofheroinaddict.blogspot.com/)  A strong woman and Mother writing about the experience of her son’s addiction to heroin.  Moving and real.

Holistic Recovery from Schizophrenia by Rossa Forbes (http://holisticschizophrenia.blogspot.com/)  This blog speaks for itself, but is very well written and resourceful. 

Dorky Deb who is not dorky at all, but a true blogger with 100% of heart and soul! (I’m pretty sure Deb has received this award, which exempts her from another round of acceptance, but wanted to nominate her anyway, because I enjoy her blog and photography).

Pamela Spiro Wagner from Wagblog, (http://wagblog.wordpress.com/)  Pam is an author, artist and survivor.  She writes an amazing blog about life with schizophrenia/bipolar illness.  Take a tour “through Vision Therapy and narcolepsy, Global Warming and just about anything else that interests me as well!”

Rosemary from Seeking Equilibrium (http://rosemaryl.blogspot.com/)  A professional well researched and written blog about living with pain from fibromyalgia.  A long-standing favorite blog of mine!

Dominique at 4Walls and AView  An Airforce Vet, author and “prolific blogger” writing about living with ME and FMS.  Dominique has a strong spirit and clear writing voice.  Her blog inspires me for several reasons, but you’ll have to visit to see why.

Amanda McMillen at (Insert Something Witty) (http://mcmillenwrites.wordpress.com/)  I recently discovered this blog via a comment.  In her words, “Schizophrenic, writer, mother, and sometimes inspired to greatness,” I look forward to reading more of Amanda’s posts.

Forgive me for only nominating 11 bloggers for this award, but I promise, the ones I chose are interesting and definitely worth your time to visit. 

More Rules ;)…  I’m required to tell you seven things about myself.

1.  I love fine chocolate.

2.  I’m a country girl in my heart.

3.  Clogging was a required class for fifth graders where I went to middle school.

4.  I take on the burdens of the world, but I don’t like being blamed for what is either not my  fault or out of my control.

5.  I love blogging and when I can’t, it makes me a little sad.

6.  If I am ever a bride again, I want a wedding dress very much like this one! (The bride in red. Open photo to view larger image and see how pretty!)

7.  I love dogs as much as I do people.

In Gratitude, with wishes that everyone is blessed with love, peace and joy!

Michelle, keeper of Dogkisses’s blog.

A Prayer Request…

loving from the whole heart

He hugs "Bo" for taking him on a ride...

I have an important request.

People say prayer works.

I am asking for prayers and healing energy.

Please pray for my son.  He is a young man who is sadly, very lost and having a most difficult time.

Please see him receiving kindness and good care from the nurses and doctors.

Please ask that he be Well.

And, Please ask that I can carry on.

Thank you from all of my heart.

A Mother who loves her son, Michelle.


note: update on 8/27/11, Re: Defining Sick.

Memetastic True Story Revealed

I wrote five stories about myself in an earlier post, MEMETASTIC BLOG AWARD. Only one of the stories is completely truthful.

I confess –this does feel like a confession and one which I hadn’t expected — Story number THREE is the whole truth.

I have an authentic Mile High Club button.  I earned it in college.flying free a mile high, image of mile high pin, nightlights on a plane

I couldn’t believe I found the button, or pin rather, when I looked for it yesterday.  It’s a shiny little pin that one would wear on a shirt, but I don’t think I’ve ever worn it.

It’s as shiny as it was when it was given to me by the professor, who eventually became my long time friend and mentor.  We went on several flights together, but that was the only time we did anything like we did the day we earned our pins.

The only bold-face lie out of the five stories I wrote is number four“I love Comic Sans, Oprah, and Dr. Phil.”

I didn’t know what Comic Sans was until several days ago when I received the Memetasic award from Deb, at DorkyDeb.com.

I’ve never watched a daytime television talk show, unless it’s a PBS special or something of that nature.  I read an article in Oprah’s magazine a couple of years ago, which I enjoyed, but I never watched her show.

I didn’t know who Dr. Phil was until I saw his face on a magazine, while standing in line at the grocery store, which was around about 2004.  I asked my friend who was with me to tell me a little about him.  She was altogether shocked.

The other stories are mostly true.  I’ll likely write about the truth in those in a follow-up post.

About my little wheel-chair in story # 1.  I actually loved the chair because it was the only way I could get around.  And the day I could walk again, which I remember vividly, I was a very very happy little girl!

I have a history with pilots and airplanes.  I don’t know why.  As a result, I’ve flown in old planes, small planes, huge planes and a few in the middle.  A few times, I’ve flown the planes myself, but have never attempted to land one.

My dad took me on my first plane ride when I was about eight years old.  He and his buddy, Carly, who had a plane, but I’m not sure about a license, were quite the pair together.  We lived in the country and Carly had a landing strip on his land.  One time they took one of my sisters and me on what my dad’s friend called the, “roller-coaster in the air.”  We did, “donuts.”

I had great fun, but my older sister has since told me that she was scared.  I was surprised.  She says she didn’t want me to know when we were flying. She was always doing what she could to make me feel safe.

The best times I ever had in airplanes was with a man, Rick, whom I once loved very much.  Flying was a hobby for him.  Sadly, he died in a motorcycle accident not that long ago.  As you may have realized if you’ve read parts of my blog, there is usually an element of something hard in my stories.

The funnest flight I ever took with Rick was when he rented a Cherokee plane for my son’s eighth birthday.  My son is part Cherokee, so this was very special.

Shortly after we were in the air, we looked back to see my son sleeping in the backseat of the plane.  At first, I was afraid that Rick would be offended, but then, he was never offended.  He was the most peaceful human being I’ve ever known.  He laughed.  He knew my son fell asleep whenever he felt safe and relaxed.

“I guess he’s really enjoying himself,” my friend said chuckling.  We had a peaceful quiet trip.  We landed at a great little place where we walked across the road to a country southern home-style restaurant.  My son got to fly the plane for a bit on the way back home.  My friend laughed about my son sleeping on his birthday flight from then on.  He said it was the greatest compliment a pilot could ever receive.

I guess, looking back, I’ve had lots of fun in the air!

Thanks for reading my stories.  As always, thanks for visiting Dogkisses’s blog!


MEMETASTIC BLOG AWARD

I was recently given the MeMetastic blog award!  This award is a fun guessing game for my readers.  Read on…

A fun guessing game for readers!

The award was given to me from Deb, at DorkyDeb.com.

THANKS DEB!  I think 🙂

Once you receive the award you must do a few things:

  • You must proudly display the award in a post.
  • You must list 5 things about yourself and 4 of the 5 must be BOLD FACE LIES.
    (your readers must guess which one is the truth)
  • And you must then pass this prestigious award on, to 5 deserving bloggers.

Below are my five stories.  The five blogs I chose are listed at the bottom of the page.

Remember, only one story is the whole truth!

1) I was confined to a wheel chair, as a result of a childhood bone disease when I was a toddler.  The doctors told my mother I might never walk again.  I hated that chair!  My brother, who is ten years older than I am, used to take me and my little chair on wheels to the top of our steep road, which was deep in the mountains.   My two older sisters would stand at the top of the road, holding my chair, with me in it of course, until my brother made it to the bottom.  He would count to some number, which was their clue to let me go.  I would fly down that mountain in my little chair!  It was great fun!  The best I can remember, my brother always caught me.  My mother didn’t mind this game.  I wasn’t happy the day I put my foot on the floor and was able to walk again because I had to give up my little flying chair.

2) When I was fifteen I skipped school one day.  It was the first time I had ever done anything like that.  In fact, I never broke rules.  I was always trying to be the perfect student.  Anyway, it was raining that day.  I was driving my boyfriend’s truck.  My brother saw the truck.  He began chasing it because he didn’t like my boyfriend.  The road was curvy, but lucky for us, I had learned to drive several years earlier.  I was wearing a pair of, “Candies,” which was a style of high heel shoes popular in the ’70’s.  The heel got caught under the gas pedal.  We both wrecked.  I drove straight into a brick building at 80 mph.  My brother’s car slid into the building too.  The truck I was driving only had a small dent in the corner and I didn’t have a scratch on me.  My boyfriend had serious cuts and bruises.  My brother had to have nine stitches and it totaled his car.   I realized my brother must have done that out of love, so I stopped dating the guy and never saw him again.

3) I have an authentic Mile High Club button, which I had a great time earning.  A professor at a college I attended was also a pilot and ask me if I wanted to go flying.  Sure I told him.   He told me how he had always wanted the button, but never knew a woman brave enough to help him earn it.  I was young and daring!  In order to get the button and become a member of this club, we had to put the airplane in the hanger a mile high in the air, which we did, but not without turbulence.  The plane nose-dived.  I wasn’t the least bit afraid.  I thought it was great fun!  Shortly afterward we were flying normally again.  The professor, whom I obviously had great confidence in, couldn’t believe I didn’t get scared.  “I trusted you knew what you were doing,” I told him.  “I do, but I lost control of the plane.  We nosed-dived!”  he exclaimed.  “We did what?” I asked him.  “We are very lucky,” he added.

4) I love Comic Sans, Oprah and Dr. Phil!

5) I got caught speeding when I was 20 years old.  I had driven my dad’s car to a city an hour away.  It was raining hard and I had decided to see how fast I could make it back home.  I pulled over when I saw the blue lights, rolled down the window about two inches, just enough so I could talk to the officer without getting wet.  The officer asked if I’d been drinking.  I told him all about the wonderful drinks I’d enjoyed earlier.  He said he clocked me at 124 mph.  He and four other officers had chased me for five miles.  I laughed and told him that wasn’t a very long time at that speed.  I went to jail, lost my license and my father didn’t speak to me for a several months.  I learned some important lessons and never drove like that again.

Which story do you think is entirely true?

The Five blogs I chose as recipients!

Seeking Equilibrium

Jessie causing a calamity

Autoimmunemaven’s blog

planetjan

licoriceroot

You can visit the MeMetastic Hop to add your name to the list of recipients of this fantastic award.

I’ve heard that I’ll be hunted down by the creator of this award, pronounced meem-tastic, if I do not correctly follow the instructions.  I’m scared!

I hope you enjoyed my stories.  I also hope you will leave a guess in the comments, as to which one you believe is the whole truth!

Thanks for visiting Dogkisses’s blog!

Michelle.