Paw Prints on our hearts

Our pets are like our children and they certainly entertain us, provide us with love and  from time to time, frustrate us as well.  Our four footed furry children need us to provide, and keep them safe.  We lost Hans this past year. He lived nearly 15 years with us!  Our first pup and our old man of a dog!  As much as  he fussed with the cat, he played with them too.  He was Arrick's companion and sleeping buddy. Eva came along, our pampered princess!! She is a Golden Retriever and isn't a fan of water, unless there is bubbles and someone is going to do her nails!  When Hans became too elderly to play about, we rescued Sandy, our yellow lab.  She and Eva are the same age and play together. Frisbee is her favorite fetch toy and she loves the pool!!!  Ellie came along...she was a rescue of sorts. No one wanted this cute puppy and she pulled our heartstrings and stayed.  She became John's constant companion.  Unfortunate events took Ellie from us this past spring.  To say our  hearts were broken wouldn't even begin to describe the pain.  We focused on the fun times she was with us and how she was the pool queen!  She had quite the personality, ten times bigger than one could imagine  her little stature and 35 lbs could contain!!  John went to sea with a heavy heart.

Ellie....chillin in her spot

Hans, the Elder.  He was a great pup and kept our family safe from large bumble bees, that he chased with vigor even until the end!

I friended rescues on Facebook to help raise awareness and find homes for pups and cats
If only we could find  homes for all of the unwanted animals out there...if only we could give them that furever home!   We needed to heal from our loss of Hans and Ellie.  Time would help and so would finding homes for those pups who needed the same love we provided our pups.


One day, I found a picture of Lucy.  She had been rescued at just 4 weeks.  She was almost 6 mos old and no one was interested in giving her a furever home.  She was the runt of her litter...and still on the small size.  What the heck.  Ian and I went to meet Lucy.  She took to us right away!  She's an old soul but still playful and so cuddly.  We were in love with her from the start!  After an application submission and a home visit, she came to live with us!

She has wonderful manners and her foster parents taught her to sit and to walk on a leash.  She is still learning to nuances of our older girls.  Eva and Sandy  have pretty much accepted her.  Eva tried to play with Lucy and Sandy has given her a sniff over!  Pickles, Arrick's Pitbull,  is still leery.  It'll take some time but soon they will be best buddies as Pickles and Ellie were.

I sent a few pictures to John and put one of his shirts on his pillow so she will know he's part of our pack!
Welcome home, Lucy!!!  You're fitting in already, and leaving paw prints on our hearts!

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport in Chantilly, VA

Since John is deploying soon and won't get to see Ian until August, we went up to spend the day with him and hang out.  After we took care of a few errands, we tried to find something to do!  One would think, hey, there is quite a bit to do in the Washington DC area and you would be correct!!  However, the DC area had a snow storm a few days prior and they still had about 8 to 12 inches of snow on the ground!  We opted for a place we hadn't been before and where it was warm and we weren't traversing in the cold frozen stuff. Go ahead, call us wimps!  

As we walked in we saw this!!  One of my sorority sister's hubby's said he personally bled on one of these planes.... ;) 

 Straight ahead was the space portion of the displays, it was a cool view, so I snapped a pic!

 This was directly in front of us, and was pretty awesome!  Can you tell I'm not well versed in the aircraft! My husband will probably cringe as he reads this!! hahahaha

                                                             This one was pretty cool.

                  See, I was smart enough to take a picture of the info in case you were wondering!!

                                   This was a snubby nosed plane that the Nazi's used....

                                    really, I took a picture of this plane because it was shiny!! lol

 This plane was pretty cool for two reasons.  Love the cat and bomb character and it was aboard the USS Lincoln.  We have the Lincoln here in the yards and I've been aboard and have worked with their SAPR Program!

                                          John told me this is one of his favorite planes!

                                                                     another view

 This was in the air and space part of the museum.  I thought it was cool because of the wood fins on it.

                                      Check it out!!! Satellites and probes!!  They are too cool!!!

                                      More of these, They really look like pieces of art!

            And here we have the Space shuttle!!  It was HUGE and pretty cool as well!!

 These things are joints and rooms in the space station!!  I thought this was pretty cool as well.

                               Another view of the Space shuttle!!  It was Ginormous!!!

                                      John checking out the space food and personal care products.

 I got his attention. :)  Just over his shoulder, there are some pressuerized "depends"

                        This was the commercial side of the museum!!  Much more color on this side!!!

 I looked for the 'Coke" plane but only found the "pepsi" and "Budweiser" planes! HAHA

                          I really liked this one too...probably because it's shiny!!  I'm not gonna lie!

 Isn't this plane adorable??? It's the world's smallest plane.  It was so cute!!  It looked like a child's toy!

                            Of course, I had to include this family plane in the pictures!!

                   I took this one for George, I thought this eagle on the plane was awesome!!

                     This little plane is one that was attached to Airships!!  how cool is that!!

                                                  Here is a picture of the Enola Gay.

 Dust off your history books and read up!! The Enola Gay dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

 It's big and I was in awe!  such history and emotion must have filled the skin of this aircraft.  This aircraft alone changed the course of the war, people's lives and our world.

I hope you enjoyed my little tour!  I really hope you have the chance to visit our Nation's treasures!!

SNOWMAGEDDON 2014

We don't get a lot of snow here in Virginia near the beach.  We live in Tidewater and we will get flurries and a good snow fall of a few inches, then it will melt in a few days.  This year, we got quite a bit more.  We had about 9 inches at our house!

 It started as tiny flakes. We were sent home from work at 2pm on Tuesday, and the snow started in the evening.

                                 The flakes got a bit bigger.....an  hour later than the previous picture

                                      An hour later than the last picture, the grass is covered....

                                          this is Ellie's first major snow fall and shew as out exploring

 Arrick got home about 30 min before this picture.  We were glad he got home before the roads were really bad.  The green tarp to the right is our firewood!!  We stayed nice and toasty warm!

                                                                  an hour later....

                                               Ellie prints....she hopped around in the yard...

 You can hardly tell where the bricks line the flowerbeds!!  It was very pretty out there...and cold!

                                  The next morning!!  The pups were reluctant to go outside!!

                                          Eventually, mother nature calls and it must be answered!!

 The snow was deep and Eva just wanted to find a low spot to "go", she didn't find one,sadly.

                                                    I bought this flag in hopes of snow!!!

 The other pups out in the snow. These three loved playing in the snow and wore themselves out playing chase!

                                                     The front of our house.....

 John got Mongo out.  He packed down our drive way and the neighbors to make it easier to get out.  our driveways are gravel and is a little difficult to shovel. Besides, John likes to get Mongo out and play in the snow!

 He worked on our driveway first before he went across the street to help the neighbor!

                                                 Our snowy street!! It was quite slippery

 I went in to work on Friday even though the base was closed.  Had too much to do that was time sensitive.  This is a picture of the runway next to my office building that evening. These are E2C2's.

 One of the buildings on base...it was so quiet on base with all of the snow...kind of pretty!

                                           Heading out the back gate near the runway...

                                               Such a pretty sunset on the runway!!!

 After an afternoon of in and out playing in the snow, two of the four puppies have had enough fun and have crashed!!!  Eva and Ellie...tuckered out!!

 Arrick got a beer making kit for Christmas.  Today was the day to bottle it!!  Here he is bottling his creation!  He said it turned out rather well!!