Our 8th Annivesary

Eight years ago, at this very moment, I was a newly wed woman. I remember standing in the foyer of the church, crying because I was now married to the man I had loved for the last nine years, never imagining that we would be able to spend the rest of our lives together. Donald and I were married on the 9th anniversary of the day we met and today we celebrate 8 years of marriage.

Everyone hopes when they get married that the world will be brighter, the days will be filled with nothing but flowers & sunshine, and life will be perfect. As much as we all wish it, that's just not the way real life is. Every marriage has its ups and downs, its good days and bad, its passion and apathy. Our is no different; although I'm certain that Donald would say he's always had the 'passion' and not the 'apathy' toward me. He is, after all, enamored with me and will readily admit so.

Throughout the years, I have learned that it's okay to love someone even when there are times you might not particularly like them. We all have our stories of things our husbands do to irritate us, drive us mad, and make us feel like wielding a frying pan. But true to the old saying, I try not to go to bed angry.

I hope this entry doesn't come across as a message against marriage or my husband; it truly is not. It's simply a statement that a real marriage is just that: REAL. And I wouldn't want to experience it with anyone other than my wonderful, handsome, romantic, sexy husband - Donald Hamilton White, Jr.

I love you, sweetheart, forever and always. Melissa

A Favorite Photograph (left) & Our First Dance

My Decluttered Library

Finally finished - Our Library! I forgot to take "before" pictures but here are the "after" pictures. It is relaxing, intimate, and inviting; all things it wasn't before I cleared out all the clutter that was useless! Of course, amongst all the books I got rid of, there's one in particular that my husband was looking for...sorry about that, Donald. :-)

Paul Newman and My Dad

Paul Newman (left, of course) and My Dad

Paul Leonard Newman (1925-2008), one of the great silver screen legends, passed away on Friday, September 26, 2008. Over the years, my father, Robert DeWitt Morse, was constantly asked "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Paul Newman?" He was even asked this by a nurse while he was in the hospital for chest pains. We joked that the local newspaper would get word and soon news would spread that Paul Newman was in the Cortland Hospital! He does, indeed, look a lot like Paul Newman. Here are some other eerie similarities they shared:

Paul Newman and his wife (Joanne Woodward) were married for 50 years; My parents (Robert & Mary Morse) celebrated their 50th Anniversary in 2004. Paul had a son named Scott (deceased) from a previous marriage; My parents have a son named Scott, although he's not deceased. Paul Newman was in the Navy, as was my dad. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward have several children, one of which is a daughter named Melissa; my name, as you know, is Melissa. Paul Newman was born in January (the 26th) and my dad was born in January (the 21st) although several years after Paul. Paul Newman had those striking blue eyes, as does my dad.

My Parents (2004) and Paul Newman

It's strange to have someone who's always been so closely associated with my dad pass away. Not quite like losing my own dad, but like losing a piece of my dad. Even though my dad has never been famous or won any Oscars, he's a star to me. I love him and I'm glad he's my dad.

What Kind of Person Reads Blogs?

What kind of person reads blogs? And what kind of person has a blog? I didn't used to be one of "those people" who had a blog, but recently decided that it might be kind of fun. I have read blogs in the past - mostly blogs about my favorite TV shows, written by TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, or People correspondents. Now I read other people's blogs - both friends and strangers. Some blogs are interesting, some blogs are weird, and some blogs I'd rather never come across again. But that's what blogging is all about, right? If you surf the blogs like I do (click on the Next Blog link at the top of this page) then you might come across a blog that you'd like to follow. I have a friend who says that she doesn't read blogs, she doesn't have a blog, and she isn't interested in reading about my experience with mice & bird seed or about my new microwave. She said if it was family, she might read the blog to keep up on things, but I'm not family. That hurt my feelings. I have lots of friends, some of which I consider family. In fact, I'd probably rather read their blogs than those of my family....if anyone in my family had a blog. So, what kind of "blog" person are you? Are you a regular blog reader? Do you read blogs for entertainment? Do you read blogs written by celebs?

Bird Seed & The Critters Who Have Been Relocated

It appears that we may have rid the garage of critters. Keeping our fingers crossed, my car is finally back from Walser and the sunroof people actually did their job of cleaning out all the bird seed. I am parking in the driveway until I'm fairly sure that the critters have all been caught. Tally so far: Six critters caught in the garbage bin/trap by accident (may they rest in peace); two critters caught in the garbage bin/trap and then relocated to their new home at my husband's workplace; two critters caught in the new "live" trap and then relocated about a mile away to a very nice park with a playground and plenty of trees for them to frolic in. Donald has not caught any critters for the last two nights, so maybe we're in the clear.

Sunflowers and Roses

I have been very lazy at finishing my garden this summer and now we have a garden full of sunflowers. Aren't they pretty? Maybe they are sunflower seeds planted by the birds as we have several bird feeders around the yard. But wasn't it nice that the sunflowers were planted at an evenly spaced distance from one another? We also have some "mini" sunflowers under our tree in the front. I think I will keep them there for now; they look so nice.

Here are some roses in the same garden area that I planted this summer; they are so gorgeous, I just had to take a picture. Isn't this the most perfect rose you could imagine? My favorite color rose is pink, but this yellow one could be a close 2nd!

It's the perfect day in Minnesota today; low 80's, light breeze, clear skies. I wish every day could be like this one!

A New Microwave - How Exciting!

I have been decluttering my house and selling or donating (mostly donating) all the stuff I've accumulated throughout the years. I have recently finished decluttering my kitchen and library; "before" and "after" pictures will follow at a later date. But right now I just had to share my new microwave. I have been wanting an over-the-range microwave since we moved into this house four years ago and, this past weekend, I finally bought one. It's a Whirlpool from Lowe's and they had an outside contractor install it today. How exciting is that?! Can you tell we don't get out much? Below is a photo of the new GE electric glass-top stove I bought a few months ago (to replace the gas stove that was at least 15 years old) and the new Whirlpool microwave.

I highly recommend the book by Peter Walsh "It's All Too Much." It was our book club pick for January 2008 and it really got us on the path to "living a richer life with less stuff." I have one more room to go: My Office.

Bird Seed & The Woman Who's Going Insane

Picked up my car today from Walser and headed down the road; sunroof open a crack. I hear bird seed rattling around up there and some falls down on the seat. Not much, but enough to tick me off. So, I call Walser and talk to the Service specialist, Jeremy. I knew that Walser wasn't going to clean out the bird seed; they were sending it over to the company who installed the sunroof. And Walser had made it clear to the sunroof company that the "headliner" had to be dropped down and the bird seed cleaned out. Well, apparently, EXTREME SUNROOFS didn't do their job because you can see the bird seed, you can hear the bird seed, and you can feel the bird seed when it lands on you! I turned the car around and drove back to Walser, they called the sunroof people and told them the problem, Walser gave me a loaner vehicle, and tomorrow my car should be good to go....if the sunroof people actually GET RID of the bird seed. If I end up in the loony bin, please come visit me and don't bring any sharp objects (they search you when you come in).

Who Are We Gonna Vote For?

The answer to that question is: Guess! We are going to put two political signs in our front yard. One will read "McCain/Palin" and the other "Obama/Biden." I really want to mess with our neighbors, don't I? Neither one of us will say who we're voting for (at least not in public) so the neighbors won't know what we're thinking. On election day, I'm seriously considering writing in Jon Stewart's name....anyone want to join me?

Bird Seed & The Critters Who Love It

This afternoon, I left my shiny, red 2009 Toyota Corolla at Walser Toyota to have them clean my car of bird seed. My car has become a nesting place or something for some sort of critter - most likely mice. I must have sounded like a loony person when I called yesterday to schedule service and the lady asked what I needed service on. The last straw was yesterday when, while driving down the road with Gracie in the front seat and Nicholas in the back seat, I look over at Gracie and she's covered in bird seed! Then I find that I am getting covered in bird seed, my travel mug is getting sprayed with bird seed. Basically, it was raining bird seed.

Let's start at the beginning of this Seinfeld episode, shall we? (Not really a Seinfeld episode, but it would have been a good one, I think):

For the last several months, I've been involved in a war against bird seed (mice, actually). Bird seed in my car, bird seed in my pet sitting bag, bird seed falling from the sky when I have the sunroof open! I love animals and I agree they all have a right to life, but NOT in my car!!

We've had these furry, little visitors living in our garage, apparently. They had gotten into the dog food bags, the bird food bags, and then into the dog food bin which I think is what made poor little Bailey sick this past summer. Donald found a live mole in the bottom of the dog food bin and then - as my husband wouldn't hurt a fly to say nothing of hurting a mole - he scooped him up and took him out onto the driveway and let him free. "In the driveway?" I asked. "Do you really think that kept him from coming back?" Well, Don said, "Moles can't see and I aimed him away from the driveway."

Shortly after that (and this is where the "Ewww" factor comes in) I smelled something odd in Nicholas' playroom downstairs. Mind you, we live in a split level home and the playroom is pretty much on the other side of the wall to the garage. Having grown up in a very old house, with lots of critters taking up residence in the walls and then...shall we say...going to the mole/mouse heaven in the sky, I know dead-animal smell when I smell it! We searched that room over and found nothing. Then we smelled it in the garage.

Well, a few days later I didn't smell anything bad. Good news. I figured the critter had reached it's point of non-stink and we were in the clear. Donald made the mistake of asking me if I'd noticed that the smell was gone. "Yes" I said, "Did you find something?" (Ewww factor #2 - Why do I ask these questions??!!) Donald is the master at quibbling and, after I insisted on getting the full story, he finally told me: Something had gotten into an empty garbage bin that he uses to carry bird seed around the yard as he fills the feeders, and they died because they couldn't get back out. "Oh, poor little guy" I said. Donald muttered something along the lines of "them" which made me ask further questions. My bad. Not only were there two little critters in there, there were at least six! They had gotten in and couldn't get out and then starved. I felt so bad and so did Donald.

It was the next day, when at a pet sit, that I reached in my pet sitting bag and pulled out the leashes to walk the dogs....out spilled some bird seed. Upon further inspection, there was a pretty nice pile of bird seed in the bottom of bag. I'm over letting the critters live freely; Now I just want them GONE.

After the sun-roof incident yesterday, I called Donald at work and left him a message: "Get something to rid the garage of these critters. Either they're gone or YOU'RE gone, mister!" He could hear the seriousness in my voice, so he stopped at Home Depot on the way home and got one of those "live" traps.

This is Donald's plan: Capture the mice and take them up to work where he can release them into the wild and they can live happily ever after. So far, so good. He said he found two in the trap this morning and drove them up to work; let them out of the trap by the tree-covered area "I think they'll be happy there," he said. I asked him what food he used in the trap. "A cracker with peanut butter on it." "Did you keep the cracker to use again?" I asked. "No, I left it with them. They're in a new place now and I wanted them to have something good to eat. They don't know their way around there..." OMG! My husband is insane!

I don't want to hurt anything and I certainly don't want to destroy an entire family of mice; I just want them to find a new place to live. Walser estimates that it is going to cost at least $200 to get the bird seed out from between the sunroof and the roof of the car. If that ain't reason to want those suckers gone, I don't know what is!

The Gracie Challenge - Update

Things are going very well with Gracie. She hasn't barked at anything since the neighbor took their toddler toy inside last week. She doesn't bark unless she's afraid of something or thinks there is danger lurking. So, apparently, our neighborhood has been free of any threats from plastic bags, balloons, or odd toys!

If she does bark at something, which she was doing over the weekend when she thought a stuffed animal on the bed was out to get her, I acknowledged her barking, calming told her to "hush" and treated her for her calm, hushed behavior - all the while getting her to keep her focus on me. It worked well. We'll see how it works when there's a real threat in the yard; toddler toys beware!

The Gracie Challenge

Well, Gracie, our puppy, has gotten us in trouble with the neighbors for her constant barking. She is afraid of everything! The problem is, that if she's outside and is barking at something in the neighbor's yard (the neighbor, a loose balloon, an empty grocery bag fluttering in the wind, a toddler's toy "walk-behind") she has to alert the entire neighborhood of the danger.

To her, it is a threat to us and those she's protecting and, if in the process of her barking, the dangerous thing - be it a bag, a balloon, or a person - ends up leaving, she feels she has done her job.

After looking into citronella spray collars, sonic noise collars/devices, muzzles, and old-fashioned training, I'm going to go with the old-fashioned training. It's more time-consuming, and we cannot have her outside by herself until we get the barking under control, but it's best for her and us in the long run. We will use the clicker-treat method and only reward the behavior we want (being quiet) while at the same time NOT giving her a lot of attention when she's barking - which is something we've been doing (like picking her up, talking to her, petting her, making her confront the "dangerous" thing she's barking at, etc.) This will be a work in progress and we'll see how it goes. I'm going to print out a flyer to give to all the neighbors so they know we're working on this and maybe they'll be a patient with us (and her)!

Gracie is such a smart little dog, I think she'll learn fast. Now, Donald, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about....

Weird Dream

Last night, I had a very strange dream. I've had plenty of strange dreams, but this was very stressful. It started with me realizing that the house was getting very warm inside. I checked the thermostat and found that the heat was up to about 90 degrees, but the heat wasn't in the "On" position! I looked at the thermostat and it had a big light that looked like a flame, which I knew meant that the furnace was on fire. In reality, our thermostat does not have a light like that!

I was going to head downstairs to check on the furnace, but thought it best that I get out of the house right away. After all, we have a gas furnace. I gathered up the dogs - Asher, Bailey, and Gracie - yes, Asher is alive and well in my dream. I put them all in my car and then drove off, trying to call 911 on my cell phone. Well, I could not get through. I kept getting local residents instead of the 911 call center. Why couldn't I get through?! I was in a panic.

I drove around town and stopped at our local bank - which wasn't actually our local bank but some other bank that was "our bank" in my dream. I went inside, with the dogs following along, and kept asking people to help me "My house is on fire and I need help!" I checked with a loan officer of some sort to see if he could help me and his response was "Sorry, I have my agents here and they're watching everything I do." "What in the name of Gavin DeGraw is he talking about?!" I wondered. Agents? What bank loan officer has agents? Does he mean movie agent? Literary agent? FBI agent?

I went to the next desk over and ask someone else if she could help me. She listened to me as I frantically told her that my house was on fire and I needed to reach the fire department. "Go to the police station and have them contact the fire station," she said. "Can I can try to call 911 from your desk phone? I can't get through with my cell phone - it keeps connecting me with regular people!" She said that she was sorry, but they weren't allowed to let customers use their bank phones for personal use!

Meanwhile, all three dogs are chilling out on the lobby sofas. And I'm hysterially trying to call 911....

The bank was getting ready to close and I'd been there 11 hours. I don't know why I'd stuck around that long, and I don't know of any bank that's open 11 hours, but this is a dream after all. So, I checked my phone and discovered the numbers I'd been calling all day long weren't 911 but other numbers such as 991, 919, 119, etc. I tried 911 again, properly dialing it this time, and was finally connected!

I told the 911 operator where I lived and that I thought my house was on fire. He paused a moment and then said, "Oh, yes...well...I'm sorry to say...actually, let me get my supervisor." Well, the 911 supervisor got on the line and informed me that my house had burned to the ground.

Then I woke up.

Does anyone have an interpretation of this dream? I think I'm angst-ridden over the country's current financial upheavals and I'm worried we're going to lose everything. What do you think?

And one more thing - I knew in my dream that Nicholas was safe at school and Donald was working...although after 11 hours, I'm not sure where they ended up.

I'm obsessed with my blog!

I am totally obsessed with my blog. I have rearranged things, found different backgrounds, added pictures, subtracted pictures, created my own heading picture. I have created my own background and heading picture using Scrapbook Max! and ShabbyPrincess. I'm sure I'll find something else to change in my background, layout, and such, but I love doing this sort of stuff. I changed my business website (www.whitepawspetsitting.com) numerous times before I was finally happy with it; now I'm doing the same thing with this. If my pet sitting business doesn't work out, maybe I can design websites and blogs for people! But it would take me three months to complete because I'd never satisfied with the results.

What do you all think? Like the latest version of my blog? Is it too "busy"? Is it perfect? Is there some sort of Widget (the stuff in the side columns) you'd like to see?

Don't forget to take my Poll: Who Are You Going to Vote For? Thanks!

Glad to be in Minnesota?

When I first moved to Minnesota from Georgia, I figured God had a great sense of humor. I had moved from Cortland, New York to Ocala, Florida in 2000 and thought "This is great! No more snow, no more shoveling snow, no more winter boots & coats & mittens! Life is good!" Well, the joke was on me when, four years later (and a short stint in Georgia) we ended up in Minnesota. NOT on my list of places to move to, that's for sure! Now, after living here four years, I've decided that Minnesota isn't so bad after all.

As I look around the country - and the world - and see all the weather-related events causing so much destruction, suffering, and loss of life, winter blizzards don't, for the most part, seem that bad. We don't (usually) have mud-slides, earthquakes, or deadly fires (the worst in Minnesota history having been the 1918 Cloquet Fire). We have had deadly tornadoes (1998 Tornado & Dericho) and flooding (2007 Flooding); however, they are very few and far between. Hurricanes have never caused our state to evacuate to Canada; although their remnants sometimes cause the tornadoes and flooding that hit our state!

Now that I've mentioned all the instances that our great state of Minnesota hasn't had to contend with, I knock on wood & cross my fingers...

Our boy is growing up too fast

Waiting for the school bus: Nicholas and Gracie
on the 1st day of Kindergarten

Our son, Nicholas, started Kindergarten on Sept. 5th. Where did the time go? People always tell you that the years will fly by and you won't believe how fast children grow up. Now I understand. My husband and I put him on the school bus Friday morning, one week ago, and it brought a tear to my eye. Even though Nicholas is such a "big boy" he'll always be my baby. That's something that every mom will understand.

Remembering 9/11

This day cannot go by without remembering the terrible events of 9/11/01. We all remember where we were and what we were doing when news hit of the attack on our country.

I was working in Ocala, Florida as a legal secretary. We all watched in amazement online from our desks as we saw the events unfold. First, thinking it was just a horrible accident that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers. Then, realizing something more sinister was going on once we found out another plane had crashed into the other Tower. When Donald picked me up for lunch, we sat in the parking lot of the Mexican restaurant and listened as President Bush spoke to the country about the horrendous acts of terrorism against us. We had never been attacked so viciously before in the history of the country; what could we do to protect ourselves from people who have no desire to negotiate? The terrorists aren't in it for anything other than to destroy what this country stands for.

I'm proud to be an American and I'm proud that our country has stood up to the terrorists whose only purpose in life is to destroy that which we hold so dear - our freedom, our love for country, and our hope for a better future. Regardless of whether you agree with how our government has handled the last seven years, we must take a moment to remember those who died on 9/11, whether on the ground, in the air, or as one of the many who ran into burning buildings knowing they may never come out; and we must thank all the women and men in the military who fight for our country every single day. God be with them and bring them home safe!

My first blog entry!

Okay, I've finally joined the land of bloggers. I've been saying that the end of the world is near. Now there's proof. Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays are in 1st place and the Yankees are in 4th (as of today, anyway), my husband may vote Democratic this year (which is something he's never done), and now I've created a Blog.