Category: My Family

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A Month of Me: Day 12 – Cookie Monster For A Day

When I am out and about in the world, people always mistake me for some monster named Cookie Monster.  When I tell them that I am not Cookie Monster, I am Blueper B, they always seem a little disappointed.  I finally had to figure out who this Cookie Monster monster is. 

Mr. Guy helped me find a picture of the Cookie Monster on the Internet.  He and I have the same color of fur and sort of the same eyes, but Cookie Monster does not have orange horns, or claws, or orange fur on his belly, or orange stripes on his arms.  In fact, Mr. Cookie Monster doesn’t have anything orange on him.  Why do people get us confused?

Mr. Guy said that sometimes people will lump all monsters with one similar characteristic into a big group even though they may be very different in lots of other ways.  He said that this happens with humans too.  I don’t think that this is a good thing.  Every monster and every person is unique and special.  Just because we may look like or be like another person on the outside doesn’t mean that we are like them on the inside too.  We probably don’t like the same things, feel the same things, want the same things, or need the same things.  I think people and monsters need to look more than fur-deep before they come to conclusions about others.  I don’t look like Mr. Guy or The Lady, be we are all alike in lots of ways that others can’t see.

So, since i am always mistaken for this Cookie Monster monster, I decided to try to learn a little about him.  

Wow!  This Cookie Monster monster is famous!  He has been on television for almost fifty years.  And, he likes to eat, especially cookies.  Cookie Monster is a lot older than me.  I am only three.  Yet, we still look a like.  Does that mean that monsters don’t get gray fur or that their fur doesn’t fall out when they get older?  Mr. Guy’s hair used to be brown and now it is gray.  I have wondered what color my fur will be when I get as old as Mr. Guy.  Will it be gray?  Or purple? Or a darker or lighter blue?  I don’t know.  Now that I see Mr. Cookie Monster monster, I think that maybe my fur will stay blue and orange for ever and ever.  That sounds good to me.

I told The Lady that I wanted to eat cookies so that I would know what it feels like to be Mr. Cookie Monster.  She said that we could work on that because she had to make cookies today for her food blog, Sifted Together, that she writes with her friend Ms. Tracey.  Ms. Tracey and The Lady send messages to each other about food all the time.  They make the food, take pictures of it, eat it, and write about it on their blog.  They are kind of like Mr. Cookie Monster, especially today since they were making cookies.

The Lady told me that we were going to make Animal Cookies.  I wondered why we were making animal cookies.  Why weren’t we making monster cookies or human cookies?  The animals at our house did not ask for cookies.  The Lady explained that animal cookies have nothing to do with who is going to eat them.  They are called animal cookies because they are shaped like animals.  Okay..I wondered how that was going to happen.  We are going to make cookies shaped like animals?  This could be interesting.

We began by gathering all of the ingredients.


We put them all together in the big blue mixing machine.


When we did that, the eight ingredients mushed together and became one big blob of ingredient.  The Lady called it dough.  When we got it all mixed up, we had to put it in the refrigerator to chill before we could make the animals.  This was strange to me because we took the butter, one of the ingredients, out of the refrigerator first and we had to put it in the melting machine even though we didn’t want to melt it; we just wanted to make it a little soft.  Then after we made our blob dough, we put it back in the refrigerator to make it cold.  I did what The Lady told me to do, but it all didn’t make much sense to me.

After the dough got cold again, we took it out of the refrigerator and rolled it so it was one great big cookie.  I bet Cookie Monster would really like our great big cookie!  Then The Lady told me that we had to cut all of the little animal cookies out of our great big cookie using special plastic pieces with a button.


They worked like magic!  I pushed it in the dough, pressed the button, and out feel a dough animal.  We put them in the oven and they turned into animal cookies.  We made lions,  zebras, giraffes, and elephants!


Then we ate them!

I liked being Cookie Monster for a day, but I am most happy as me, Blueper B, a little furry blue and orange monster who is not on TV.

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A Month of Me: Day 8 – A Quiet Happy

Today was a quiet day…well, for me.  Mr. Guy did not feel well because of his allergies.  He said that stuff from the plants got in his nose and made his head all clogged up.  Maybe that stuff from the plants in his nose was zucchini seeds and his head is all stuffed up because there are more zucchini growing in there.  Zucchini seem to grow everywhere!

This is The Lady’s last week of school so she is very busy giving exams and grading papers.  She did not have any time to help me write today.  I told her that she should just not give her students all of these tests and then she wouldn’t have to grade them.  I think her students would be happy too if they did not have to take them!

Anyway, with all of that, we just went for a short walk together when everyone got home.  I was a quiet happy little blue and orange furry monster!

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A Month of Me: May 1 – It’s Me!

Wow!  It has been a long time since I have shared any of my adventures with my friends.  Well, the truth is, I haven’t had many adventures lately.  The Lady and Mr. Guy have been very busy with things and we have not  traveled anywhere near or far.  The Lady has been working hard at school and Mr. Guy spent most of the spring taking care of one of the other furry monsters at our house.  One of our dog monsters was old and sick.  Mr. Guy spent all day every day making sure that he was safe and comfortable.  Then it was sad at our house because the big black furry monster crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  Mr. Guy and The Lady told me that even though we were all very sad, that losing furry monster family members and people that we love is a real part of life.  I asked if it was like when we lost The Captain.  Yep.  It was exactly like that.

Even though I haven’t been writing much, I have been thinking a lot, about all kinds of things.  I have used my crayons and written monster words on little pieces of paper so that I wouldn’t forget all of the things that I have been thinking about.  Since The Lady only has one more week of school, she promised me that we would get all of my thoughts out of my furry blue and orange head and off of all my little pieces of paper and make them into real words and sentences so that I can share them here on my blog.  I am excited about that!  I like thinking and writing, especially when Mr. Guy and The Lady help me!

You all know that The Lady likes to take pictures.  This month, she promised me that I will be in her pictures every single day!!  That is exciting!  I may need to get a new shirt or two if I am going to have my picture taken that many times.  And certainly if The Lady is going to take thirty-one pictures of me, I will get to go on some adventures somewhere!

I don’t know if any of you have missed me, but I can say with all of my monster heart that I have missed all of my friends.  I hope that you will follow me during my My Month of Me!


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Seeing Seattle

It is trip time again!  I never even finished sharing all of my adventures from our trip to England and now I have another adventure to write about!  We just got home at 10 o’clock tonight, but The Lady said we should stay up and write about our trip to Seattle now.  She said something about it really doesn’t seem so late since we are still on Seattle time and that is different from Dallas time.  I don’t quite know how that works.  All I know is that I am a sleepy blue and orange monster. but I want to tell you all about our trip, so here goes…

We left on Thursday after The Lady taught her classes.  Mr. Guy helped me pack my things while she was at school.  He told me that we were going to Seattle so that The Lady could learn new stuff about picture taking.  I thought she knew about picture taking, but apparently there is lots more stuff that she needs to learn.  Mr. Guy and I picked The Lady up at school and we went to the airport.  After we got checked in, we had some lunch.


We don’t eat the “M” meals very often.  It is special airport food.  I sure do like those french fries!  While we were eating our lunch, Mr. Guy got a message saying that they had changed the gate for our airplane.  We had to go to a whole different terminal.  I was afraid that we would have to walk, but Mr. Guy said that there was a thing called SkyLink that would take us.  He said it was kind of like a train.  A train at an airport seemed a little strange to me, but as long as I didn’t have to walk, I was okay with strange.


We didn’t have to wait too long for the train.


I was happy to see Seattle on the sign when we got to our new gate.  I didn’t want to have to move again.  Really, I didn’t have to walk at all.  Mr. Guy is always a good sport and carries me.  Oh!  I got a new shirt for this trip!


It’s perfect, don’t you think?

When we finally got on the plane, I put my little monster head down and went to sleep.  I don’t remember any of the trip.  I didn’t even have a snack.  I guess all of that moving from terminal to terminal tired me out!  Next thing I knew we were picking up our luggage and getting in a fancy black car to go to our hotel in Seattle.  I went right back to sleep.  The Lady said that it wasn’t as late in Seattle as it was in Dallas because we gained two hours.  Here’s that time thing again!  I just wanted to go to bed.  So, I did!

I was nice and rested when I woke up on Friday.  Friday was the day that The Lady’s picture taking classes started.  The event was called Click Away.  I like that name.  It makes sense to me since I always hear The Lady’s camera go click, click, click when Mr. Guy and I are around.


Mr. Guy and I looked around while The Lady was in her morning class.  When she was done, I asked what her class was about.  She said, “Boudoir photography.”  I said, “Boo what?”  She explained that it was a special kind of picture taking where ladies wear the kind of clothes that people don’t see them in most of the time.  I asked her if she meant pajamas.  She told me that that wasn’t it.  I must have looked confused because she finally explained that the ladies wore fancy underwear.  I don’t know why anyone would want their picture taken in their underwear!  The Lady explained that this kind of picture taking helps ladies feel pretty and helps them to accept how they look even if they may not always feel pretty.  I thought about that and wondered if anyone wanted to take a picture of a blue and orange furry monster in his underwear.  Then I changed my mind.  I think I’ll stick to just letting The Lady take pictures of me in my t-shirts!

The Lady also took some classes in taking wedding pictures.  I guess I won’t be in any of those pictures either.  I am too young to get married.  But even when I’m older, I don’t want to get married.  I don’t think that there is a girl monster out there who would love me as much or take care of me as well as Mr. Guy and The Lady.  I think that I will live with them forever.  Besides, the closet with all of my t-shirts is at their house.  

This was The Lady’s favorite place at the conference.


The Lady got a new camera there.  I asked her if you had to have a special camera to take pictures of people in their underwear and wedding people.  She said, “No.”  She told me that she could use her new camera to take pictures of me and Mr. Guy too.  So far, she hasn’t taken any pictures with it yet.  She said that she wanted it to stay packed in its box so it could travel home safely.  I bet she will take some pictures of me this week…I will be wearing a t-shirt, not just my underwear!

On Saturday night, Mr. Guy, The Lady, and I went to The Seattle Space Needle.  We had to walk almost a mile from our hotel to get there.  That wasn’t so bad, but it was raining.  The Lady said that it rains a lot in Seattle and that she likes the rainy weather.  I don’t mind the rain, but I sure wish I had had a raincoat!  Mr. Guy did his best to keep my warm and dry.


When we got to the Space Needle to buy our tickets, they said it would be two hours before we could ride up the elevator.  That is how you get up high so you can see the city.  While we waited, Mr. Guy and The Lady took me to the Chihuly Gardens.  I asked them what  grew in the Chihuly garden.  The Lady said it was a glass garden.  They grow glass?, I thought.  That sounded a little strange to me.   The Lady told me that it is a glass sculpture garden.  Dale Chihuly, the glass artist, makes all kinds of beautiful shapes with colored glass.  I was a little nervous to go to a place where everything is glass.  I am a careful monster, but I was still worried that I might break something.  Mr. Guy said that it would be fine as long as I didn’t touch anything. He held me very close so that I wouldn’t trip and fall and break something accidentally.


Some of the glass looked like Christmas trees.  They were brightly colored and had lights shining through them  They were beautiful!

The light bouncing all around through the glass was really neat looking.  I liked the place where the glass was on the ceiling.  I knew that I could not break anything if the sculptures were up high!


While we were looking at the glass on the ceiling, I met a really nice girl named Lindsay.  She was from California and she wanted to be my friend.  Though I have done a terrible job with my Hundred People Project, Lindsay made me want to get back to it because she asked to have her picture taken with me.  That made me a happy little monster.  Her mister friend took a picture of us and The Lady took one too.  Now I have twenty-five people!  I will make it to a hundred.  I will.

After I had my picture taken with Lindsay, I saw something that looked like a big glass bowl.  Mr. Guy said that they should put Chex Mix in it.  I don’t think that is what it was for!


It was a very pretty blue bowl!  I liked Mr. Chihuly’s glass because he used a lot of blue and orange, the best colors for almost anything!  I was nervous being this close to Mr. Chihuly’s big blue bowl.  I didn’t want to stay in this spot for very long!

Next we saw more glass sculptures up on the ceiling. More orange glass!


This part was in a great big glass building, but it was just plain building glass not the cool kind of glass used for the sculptures. 

There were also lots more glass sculptures outside.  I don’t understand how they don’t get broken.


Mr. Guy got mad at The Lady because she let me sit on the wet rain covered bench.  I didn’t mind, but  my monster underwear did get a little wet.  That was OK because nobody was going to take pictures of my underwear!   I do definitely need a raincoat before we again visit any place with lots of rain.

After we finished touring the garden, we still had an hour before our elevator time.  We went and had a snack, fried cheese curds.


The words “curds” is kind of an ugly sounding word.  I was pretty sure that I didn’t want to eat anything called “curds.”  Mr. Guy said that they were good and that I should try them.  I did and they were, but the word curds still does not sound appetizing!

Finally it was time to get in the elevator line to ride to the top of the Space Needle.  The Space Needle is 605 feet tall.  That is like 600 hundred of me standing on top of each other!


I was a little scared, but not too much so.  We got in line with lots of other people.

The elevator ride to the top was super quick!  It took us longer to ride the hotel elevator to the twelfth floor where our room was than it did to ride all the way to the top of the Space Needle.  When we got off of the elevator, I felt like I was in a giant spaceship.
We then went outside to walk around the outside of the spaceship Space Needle.  It was rainy and cold and SO WINDY!  I was a frigid little monster.  Not only did I need that raincoat, I also needed my orange sweater that Ms. Joni made for me. 
I didn’t even think about bringing my sweater because when I was packing in Dallas, it was almost too hot for a t-shirt, forget a sweater!  If I had my own cellphone with all of those fancy app things, I could have checked the weather in Seattle while I was packing.  I mentioned this to Mr. Guy.  He said no phone for me.
Back inside, there was a great big map that showed all of the places where people have traveled from that have visited the Space Needle.
Mr. Guy added our names to the map.
One of those yellow dots is me!

After Mr. Guy signed our names, we walked back to our hotel.  It was still raining, but it was not nearly as cold and windy on the ground as it was 605 feet up in the air!  We needed to get back and pack.  The Lady got lots of new picture taking stuff and Mr. Guy was not sure where it was all going to go.  I got a new t-shirt and the Space Needle, but it did not take up much room in our suitcase.

When we got up on Sunday morning, it wasn’t raining anymore.  We took a short walk around our hotel.  There were lots of pretty orange flowers, and the leaves on the trees were also turning orange.  The trees in Texas do not have orange leaves.

We took a few pictures and then it was time to leave for the airport and our trip home.

When we got to the airport, I was hungry.  Mr. Guy bought me a sandwich on funny a bread.  It had a hole in the middle of it.  That seemed strange.  I was worried that Mr. Guy got defective bread.  He told me that it was supposed to be that way.  The bread was called a beagle, or a bugle, or something like that.  


It tasted good, but I still don’t know why all of the sandwich insides didn’t fall out of the hole in the middle of my bread.  I like un-holy bread better.  Is that right?  Well, you know what I mean.

When we finally got on the airplane, I fell asleep in Mr. Guy’s lap.  I didn’t wake up until we were almost back in Dallas and the flight attendant starting talking to me.  

She wanted to know my name and where I had been.  I got excited because I thought that maybe I could have my picture taken with her and I would be up to person #26, but nope.  She said that she was not allowed to have her picture taken while in her working clothes, something about 7-eleven, or costing nine dollars and eleven cents, or something.  I didn’t want to get her in trouble, so I will have to find another person #26.

Finally we were back in Dallas.  We waited for our suitcase to come around the racetrack.


Once we had our bag, we headed home and I started writing.  And that is my story about Seattle.

THE END!



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My B-Day

A few days ago I celebrated my b-day!  It wasn’t really my birthday since is was not the day that I was born (or made); it was the day that Mr. Guy and The Lady brought me home to live with them.  So, it is still my “b-day” but the “b” stands for “brought home” day rather than birthday.  I don’t know when I was born, but I do know that I was a very young and lonely little blue and orange furry monster when The Lady and Mr. Guy found me.  Now I am a grown up and loved very big blue and orange furry monster!


Because it was my b-day, we celebrated with lots of things that began with the letter “b”…

Like bubbles…

Mr. Guy blew the water from a magic jar and the bubbles floated all around me!  It was fun to look through them.  It made the world look all crazy and then they were gone!  Some floated way up in the sky.  I don’t know where they landed.  And some of them just disappeared.  The bubbles made me smile even though they didn’t stay close for very long.
The Lady also gave me a bag, another “b” word.  She said that the bag had a present for me because of this being my brought home day.  I hoped that it would be a new t-shirt,  but I didn’t say that out loud in case that there wasn’t a new shirt in the bag.  I didn’t want to hurt The Lady’s feelings.  I knew that even if it wasn’t a shirt, it would be something nice because The Lady knows what kinds of things I like and what kinds of things that I don’t like!
She told me to go ahead and open my present.
I was a little confused when I pulled my present from the bag.  It sort of looked like a t-shirt, but not quite.  Then I remembered that we were celebrating my b-day with things that began with the letter “b.”    That’s why I did not get a t-shirt.  T-shirt starts with “t.”  My new shirt had no sleeves.  It was a broken shirt.  Broken starts with “b!”  I thanked Mr. Guy and The Lady for the broken shirt.  They smiled and told me that it is not a broken shirt; it is a tank top.  It is not supposed to have sleeves.  I thought shirts without sleeves were called vests.  This clothing thing is getting very complicated!  The Lady explained that tank tops really are just t-shirts without sleeves.  She thought it might not be quite as hot for me to wear in the Texas summer since I have all this fur.  She also told me that she thought the words on the front were perfect for my b-day.  It says, “Have fun all day.”  I like to have fun all day every day!
And, my new not broken shirt has blue and orange on it!  I think maybe I might learn to like this shirt with no sleeves.  It shows my pretty orange arm stripes!
After I opened my present, we went inside for more fun.  I got balloons…blue and orange ones…and a brought home cake!
We had my brought home cake inside because there were bugs outside.  And even though bugs start with “b,” they were not a good thing that starts with “b.”
My cake had a “2” on it because of the two years that I have lived with Mr. Guy and The Lady.  I guess the longer you live with somebody, the bigger your cake gets.   It will take a big cake to hold F-O-R-E-V-E-R and that’s how long I am going to live with Mr. Guy and The Lady!
Mr. Guy told me that he would light the candle and I should make a wish and then blow it out.
I wanted to tell him that I wished that we would all live together forever and ever, but before I could say all the words, he told me that my wish had to be a secret or it won’t come true.  I hope he knows that I want to live with him and The Lady forever and ever!
I cut my cake into four pieces – one for me, one for The Lady, one for Mr. Guy, and one for me.  Did I say me twice?  It was too hard to cut the cake into three pieces.  Four was much easier because all I had to do was bisect the cake twice.  Bisect??  Why does that big book, that dictionary, keep coming back to haunt my words?
I cut my cake all by myself because Mr. Guy said that The Lady was not allowed to use knives because she used one to cut her finger.  That sounded to me like it would hurt!  I was very careful not to cut my claws.
I was glad to share my cake.  I don’t think The Lady and Mr. Guy noticed that I had two pieces!
My brought home day with bubbles and bags and balloons and broken shirts and bisected cake was a lot of fun and made me a happy monster.  Mr. Guy and The Lady told me that we are going on lots of trips in July and that would be part of my brought home celebration too.  We are going to Pittsburgh where I will get to see some old friends and meet some new ones and we are going to England.  I am excited about the adventures that I am going to have during my third year with Mr. Guy and The Lady.

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My Trip to Virginia!

Friday was the day!  Mr. Guy is not tired anymore.  He is officially retired!  To celebrate, we went on a trip Norfolk, Virginia to meet some of The Lady’s picture taking friends.  Well, I’m not sure that Mr. Guy thought of it that way, but I was excited to get to go on a trip and I think that Mr. Guy had fun once we got there.  He met The Lady’s picture taking friends and their Guys.  

When we fly on trips, we usually leave very early in the morning.  This time, because Mr. Guy had to go to school one more time, we left at night.  When we got to the airport, they were glad to see me. The computer told me that!


This is where we got our tickets.  There was one for Mr. Guy and one for The Lady.  They called me a lap baby so I didn’t get my own ticket.  I guess they know that I prefer to sit in Mr. Guy’s lap when I’m on the airplane.

Everything went smoothly until it didn’t!  Our plane was delayed because there was lots of rain.


We waited.  


And then we waited some more.  Then they changed our gate so we moved.  Then we waited some more.  


I’m glad that Mr. Guy always carries me in the airport.  There are lots of things with wheels in the airport and they don’t always watch out for people, let alone little blue and orange furry monsters.   It is kind of scary.  People pull and push and roll boxes with their clothes in them and they don’t watch where they are going.  Then there are these wagons that drive inside, right down the middle of the sidewalk; there isn’t a street.  They make lots of noise.  “Beep,  Beep,  BEEP.  BEEP!!!’  They always seem to be in a hurry but they are full of only empty seats.  They never seem to stop to let poeple on.  They just beep their way through the airport nearly running over people and their boxes of clothes!

I was getting to be a hungry and tired little monster.  The good thing about the new gate was that it was right next to a pretzel store.  The Lady went and got me a cinnamon sugar pretzel, but just as she got back with it, they called us to board the plane.  FINALLY!  But then I had to wait to eat my pretzel.


Just as we were about to step on the plane, we had to wait again because something spilled on the airplane and they had to bring a special truck and a special person to come suck it up.  While we waited, I got more hungry and more tired.

Then finally we got on the plane!


And I ate my (cold) pretzel.

The good thing about being an hour late leaving Dallas was that the storms all passed and it was time for sunset.  Sunset above the clouds is so pretty!!!  The Lady let me borrow her phone so that I could take some pictures.


Look at all that beautiful blue and orange!!!  My monster belly was full and my monster eyes were full of pretty sky.  In the end, everything was good!  Then I went to sleep and slept through the rest of our flight.

We got to our hotel very late and all of us went to bed because The Lady told me we had a very exciting day the next day.  Well actually, it was that day because it was 1:30 in the morning!!!

We met The Lady’s picture taking friends at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.  I remebered The Lady telling me last week that I was going to have a chance to see lots more pretty flowers. I could tell exactly who the picture taking ladies were because they all had cameras around their necks and carried boxes of stuff, but not like the boxes with wheels that people pulled around in the airport.  They carried them on their shoulders.

The Picture Taking Ladies were full of smiles and laughter and headed off together to take pictures.  Fortunately, one of The Picture Taking Ladies, Ms. Sherri, brought her Mr. Guy with her.  So, my Mr. Guy, Ms. Sherri’s Mr. Guy, and I spent a lot of time sitting on benches talking and watching The Picture Taking Ladies run around pointing their cameras at anything and everything…including us!  At least they didn’t forget we were there!



The Lady thought the flower was prettier than us, but there we are in that blurred background!


We were happy on our bench talking to Mr. Ray  Well, really we sat on lots of benches; this is just one of them.

We also walked around and saw lots of green stuff.

The Picture Taking Ladies saw lots of things.  The Mr. Guys and I sat on our benches and enjoyed fresh air, the fragrant flowers, and conversation with each other.


I did see a funny looking water monster!


We had lunch under a tree.  We got our lunch from a truck.  The food guy piled a bunch of ingredients on a long paddle and stuck it in a big box on wheels.  This box on wheels was much bigger than the boxes on wheels that people had in the airport.  It would not fit in the airplane’s overhead bin and it wasn’t full of peoples’ dirty clothes.  It was a magic box!  


The food guy put the pile of ingredients in it and when he pulled it out, it was pizza!!  He cut his pizza into nice even pieces.  I liked that.

After we ate our magically made pizza, we went to look at the roses.  These are the flowers like we have in the gardens in our town.  The Norfolk Botanical Garden had rose rows of rowses roses.  That was hard to write!  I don’t like all of these phonehomes or homephones or whatever these words are called!  


I saw pretty colors that weren’t roses, too!


And I found this funny dead flower.

Mr. Guy said it was a pine comb.  A pine comb??  I asked Mr. Guy how I was supposed to use this to comb my fur.  It didn’t look to me like it would work very well.  

“Pine CONE!”, he said, “Not comb.”

I was so glad that I didn’t have to use it to brush my fur, but I still didn’t know what it was for.

The Lady told me that is the female, or seed bearing part, of a pine tree and…

I told her to stop.  This seemed like more information that I really needed.  The most important thing is that I don’t have to use this female seed thing to comb my blue boy fur!

I had a super fun day at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens and I think all of The Picture Taking Ladies did too!

Ms. Sherri, the lady that goes with the guy, Mr. Ray, asked to have her picture taken with me.  That reminded me that I have not done well with my 100 People Project.  Almost a year ago, on my “birthday” I decided that I would try to have my picture taken with one hundred people before my next birthday, which is next week.  That isn’t going to happen.  I got sad and disappointed about that.  Mr. Guy and The Lady said that it was okay and reminded me about our conversation about disappoinment a few months ago.  They said that we could just continue from where we are and eventually we will get to a hundred people.  That made me smile!

So, Ms. Sherri is #24 in my 100 People Project and I am on a roll again!  Thank you Ms. Sherri for helping me get back on track!


Sunday morning while we were at the hotel, someone knoecked on our door and gave us food, already cooked!  It was another magic food moment.  


I wish the mailman in Dallas would bring our food to the door already cooked!  Then The Lady would not have to make meals when she is tired.  Oh wait…Mr. Guy is not tired anymore so he can fix the meals and the mailman doesn’t have to bring them.  

Another thing that was not a disappointment on this trip was that Starbucks in the Norfolk airport is open 24 hours, unlike the one in the Dallas airport.  When we got to the airport at 4:40 in the morning to come home, Mr. Guy got us all a cup of coffee!


Oh, and if you want to see more of The Lady’s photos from her visit to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, check out her blog!  Give her a day or two, though.  She has been busy sorting through her photos and she is not retired and had to go back to work this week.


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A Month of Me – Day 31

I did it!  I did it!  I did it!  

Back on the first of May I set a goal to write a post every day.  I wasn’t sure that I could do it, but The Lady told me that it was important to have goals.  She said that sometimes you achieve your goals and sometimes you don’t, but you can’t achieve them if you don’t have them.  I am a very lucky little monster because Mr. Guy and The Lady will do all that they can to help me.

We had lots of little adventures and lots of quiet time together at home.   It makes me happy to be able to go back and look at the stories I wrote and all of our pictures from A Month of Me so I can remember these times.  I don’t know that I can continue to write every single day, but having done so for a whole month makes me realize how much I enjoy sharing my life with all of you.

Lots of people are graduating from school right now.  They are celebrating years and years of studying and working hard to earn diplomas and degrees.  I am not graduating because I don’t go to school, but Mr. Guy and The Lady told me that they are just as proud of my writing accomplishments, that I worked hard for a whole month.  They said that we should take a special picture of me in honor of me reaching my goal.  I don’t have special rigamarole like The Lady and those people who are graduating from school,  but I did put on my fancy clothes!


I have a bow tie.  I like it better than Mr. Guy’s big fat red string that he wore around his neck!  And I have a vest, which is really just a shirt with no arms.  I wouldn’t want to wear these fancy clothes all the time, but I suppose they are OK when it is a special occasion.

Mr. Guy had one last surprise May surprise for me.  He has been full of surprises this month.  Most of them are good!  He found a hat for me, one that is just the right size for my head!


He said that it is a hat sort of like one that he has.  It’s not a yellow rain hat and it’s not a hat to keep my head warm in the winter.  It is a fancy hat to go with my fancy clothes.  This hat does not have holes for my horns so I wasn’t sure exactly how I should wear it.

Should I wear it over just one horn?


Or should I wear it over both of them?


I think that wearing it over both of my horns makes me look too serious and grown up. I am not a serious and grown up monster.  I am just a fun-loving happy-go-lucky little blue and orange furry monster who enjoys life!  

Which style do you prefer?

Thank you again for following me during the month of May.  June and July are going to be busy months for me and my family.  I am going on a trip this weekend to meet some of The Lady’s picture taking friends. Then it is Mr. Guy’s birthday, and my adoption day, and our trip to Pittsburgh, and our trip to England.  I am going to have a lot to tell you about!  I hope you will check back here every now and then and see what I am up to!

Farewell Month of Me!  I will miss you.

Welcome June!  Let’s have some fun!

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A Month of Me Day 30

Most of the time I like holidays when Mr. Guy and The Lady get to stay home.  I’m happy that we were all at home today, but the reason that we have the Memorial Day holiday is sad.

Tonight Mr. Guy built a fire in his fire bowl.  I liked all of the orange colors in the fire, but it was a little scary at first.  Those orange flames jumped way high and it got really hot.  I was afraid my fur might melt!  Mr. Guy said that everything would be fine and that my fur would not melt.  He is very careful when he makes the fires.

We sat outside on the patio and watched the sun set and the fire burn.  It was nice and relaxing.  Even the four-legged monsters seemed relaxed.

My Month of Me is almost over.  I only have one more day.  It sure has been fun writing something every single day.  I hope I can keep writing when it’s not the Month of Me anymore and becomes the month of June.
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A Month of Me – Day 29

Mr. Guy is home again tomorrow! Yay! He tells me that it is a holiday called Memorial Day. It is the day we remember all the people who have died in wars fighting to protect our country and our freedom. 
I don’t like the idea of fighting and dying. But Mr Guy says sometimes bad people attack people and the people attacked have to fight to defend themselves. And sometimes people die fighting. I think it would be better if we all just lived peacefully. But I understand what Mr Guy means. I know I would fight if someone attacked The Lady, Mr Guy, Offspring 1 or Offspring 2. 
The Lady and Mr Guy took me to Liberty Plaza today. Liberty Plaza is a big park that is near where we live. 
It is a place to created especially to remember all those people who died, or who fought and did not die, protecting our country’s freedom. Mr Guy told me there are people still serving and fighting in places all over the world. We should always remember them too and keep them in our prayers. 
Liberty Plaza is a pretty  place. There is a big American flag… 


…and a couple of special statues. 
One of the statues made me a little sad.  My eyes got blurry because of the rain on the outside and maybe a little because of rain that was coming from my eyes.
The statue was of a little boy holding and American flag perfectly folded in a triangle with the stars on the outside.  I recognized that flag.  When The Captain died, The Lady got a flag just like that so I knew that it meant that that little boy’s father or mother was killed in a war.  
We have two folded flags at our house – The Captain’s and Mr. Guy’s father’s.  I’m glad that we have them.  They remind me every day to say a special prayer for all of our armed services men and women.
The other statue is of a veteran from World War I.
He has poppies in his hand.   These help him to remember all of his comrades with whom he served, but did not come home.  When we got home, The Lady and Mr. Guy read this poem to me; it tells the story of the poppies.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly.
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

– Colonel John McCrae

That is a lot for a little blue and orange furry monster to think about.

Mostly Liberty Plaza is a quiet place where we can go to think about and say “thank you” to all those people who have given  their lives in the service of our country. 

It was raining today, so we did not get to spend much time just sitting, but I’m glad that we went.


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A Month of Me – Day 27

Mr. Guy did not have school today because it was a bad weather day.  It sure was!  It was pouring rain this morning.  It was raining so hard that it stayed dark until almost lunchtime. With no sun, we didn’t know what time it was so we all slept late.  Oh, that is not the right kind of bad weather day.  Well, it did rain all morning!  Today was an extra school day in case Mr. Guy missed school for snow back in the winter.  Since he didn’t, today was a free day.  Yay!

The Lady and Mr. Guy wanted to take me to the Dallas Arboretum, but we had to use a bad weather day and stay home because of the rain.  I didn’t know what the arboretum was, but I always have fun when The Lady and Mr. Guy take me places so it was OK that I didn’t know what it was.  I was disappointed that we didn’t get to go.  The Lady told me that I shouldn’t be too upset because we would have chances to go,  And, she also told me that next weekend we are going on a trip, and airplane trip to meet some of her picture taking friends and we are going to a place that is like the arboretum here.  I am excited!  I need to think about packing my shirts!  An airplane, new friends, and new places!  This trip will also help us celebrate Mr. Guy’s retirement!  We are leaving on his last day of school forever.

This afternoon all of the rain went away at our house.  It turned out to be a beautiful evening.  Since we didn’t get to have our whole day adventure, Mr. Guy and The Lady decided we could have a mini adventure tonight.  We went to the rose garden that our city has.  The Lady explained that this is like a little tiny arboretum, a place where there are pretty plants and flowers in lots of different colors.  I like colors!  This sounded like fun to me.

I wore my new peace sign t-shirt that came yesterday.  On our way to the garden, I decided that I was going to look for a flower to match every color of peace sign on my shirt.  That would make our adventure even more fun!

The weather was perfect to be outside – not too hot and not too cold for this blue and orange furry monster.




I decided that I would search for the colors in the order of the colors in the rainbow.

Red was first.




Then pink…


There were some flowers that were sort of pink and sort of orange, but not really either.  The Lady called them a salmon color.  Salmon?  That is a strange name for a color.  I thought salmon was a fish.   The Lady said that it is the name of a fish too, a fish whose insides are this color.  It is a pretty color, but I don’t want to think about fish insides every time a see a salmon colored flower!


The Lady said that if I don’t want to call this color “salmon, ” I can call it coral.  I think I like that better.

Then ORANGE! I love ORANGE! The orange flower looked and smelled pretty!


Even though orange is a color and a fruit, Id’ rather think about fruit when I see a color than the insides of that fish!

Next was yellow, the color of sunshine…and lots of flowers.


I wasn’t so sure about yellow a few weeks ago, but I have decided that yellow is a happy color.  It makes me smile.  I would have been very happy to have had a yellow hat and raincoat this morning!!!

There was green everywhere!


I pretended that I was a blue and orange flower.

The next color that I looked for was violet.


Then indigo.  The Lady said that indigo is kind of like salmon coral because it is in between two colors.  It is between the violet and blue.


This in between color didn’t bother me like the other one did.  In fact, I hardly noticed the color because there was bumblebee on the flower.  It wasn’t scared of me and I didn’t know until after we left those flowers that maybe I should have been scared of it because it could sting me and that might hurt.  I thought it was a kind of cute tiny little black and yellow furry monster.

The last, but certainly not least, color that I had to find was blue!


There was a big patch of blue flowers right behind the fountain.  And, Mr. Guy and I both had on blue shirts.  I can always find lots of blue.  I think my monster eyes see blue best!

I did it!  I found all of the colors in my shirt.  When you put them all together, they sure are beautiful!  It is like looking at my big box of crayons!


I had a happy day after all!  And, I am looking forward to my trip next week when I get to see more beautiful flowers!