First Harvest Party

                   

It was a the warm summer feeling that had me up at 7am with the dog I am still caring Jackie-Jack barking to go potty (she helps me stay on a daily schedule, unlike my dogs who sleep till 9 or 10am with no concerns of what to do next)

These summer mornings are my most favorite time in my life!

I am in awe over all of these days of June, I am having one adventure right after another and I am feeling healthy and happy...it's truly wonderful!

My life is pure joy and gift to me over all, but for some reason June has my heart completely!

I have so much to celebrate with all the good weather, flowers growing, the good times in socializing, all the activities held outside....AND this year we are living with AC is a wonderful life! I am doing really good in getting a great night's sleep every night too!

(How did we ever live this long without it???)

                     It is the ending of June so I drove out to the Winery meeting up with my father-in-law Kelly and his wife Teresa who was busy serving tastings and talking to the many customers about their amazing wines!
If you have time next June then don't miss this magical festival!
Williamson's winery will have a new location closer to the highway soon, check out the winery from this link.
.....of course I like the historic location where I went as a kid to pick up boxes of fresh fruit with my mom.

I love taking the long country roads out from my home in Boise Idaho to the now called "Snake River Wine Region." listening to my audio book, drinking ice coffee and enjoying this beautiful perfect summer weather!

My heart is bursting forth such joy and gratefulness to a car that works, to the long wide open roads in such bright morning sunshine and most importantly to the live music while tasting wine with the people I love so much!

CHEERS to this summer time and to a new season of Harvesting in great memories like this!

Ex's and Oh's

The song is totally kick-ass AWESOME and super FUN to dance along to, I was singing the song to myself when my husband looked at me asking bewildered "What are you saying? Where did you get an idea like that for a song?"
I burst out laughing because he assumed I made it up, how clever would I be??? I explained "It's all over the radio right now, surely you have heard it SOMEWHERE....?"
He frowned "Never heard it, don't even know the tune just heard you say "They always want to come but they never want leave." which seems like a racy song for you."
I paused to think about it, yes racy and sexy I like this song because of both topics are perfect as I dance away to it :-)
Then at a wedding celebration this month the dance floor was full of beautiful confident happy women dancing away in full motion of delight and magic!
This song came on over head as I caught my husband's eye and he smiled knowingly that I will be out there on the dance floor very soon he asked "Is THIS that song you were singing the other day?" I squealed happily as we ladies all headed back to the wide open floor and I danced my way back to Tony who watched on with such laughter!
It's in the song, that fun confident joy in being alive!
Women who know that they are not afraid to dance are some of the most amazing women in the world, and I am proud to dance right beside them all the way!

Whooooa oh oh Ex's and Oh's!

Sacred Summer Solstice

It is the longest day of the year and I am going to get out into it! It's magical to see so many things growing in my garden and to have a house full of dogs!

I have been busy dog sitting and house cleaning, I have been busy celebrating the birthdays of my wonderful amazing ladies in my life!

I have been busy trying NOT to be busy hahahahahahaha

I love all the BBQing evenings and catching up with friends!

I love my cuddling cats, my playful pups and ALL the lavender in full bloom! 

For this is my sacred time of celebrating summer! 

 I am in the earth and I am in the sun shine and I am grateful to God, grateful to breath and grateful to live each day to the very best strength that I can for Glory to Gaia!

To the stars I see my past and I can sense my future, I can enjoy and delight in all the little things in my gardens! 

This is a holy day, this is a time of pure joy!

My Sacred Summer Solstice is here! My beauty of the earth is embraced and honored! I celebrate today with such magic and such love for every little thing in this earth, I am the sun and I am the water this is the gift in being alive!

My Flower baskets

                In 2011 on this blog I wrote quite a bit about my new home, that cute cottage with a huge backyard. 
It was a fun place to live, a good year of being outside and making a home. It was also a refuge place for me during those difficult days at the hospital in caring for my mother after her massive stroke. So that cottage has memories of the past that whenever I stay there again I am reminded of those walls and that landscape. I stayed friends with my first landlords as they had to move back into the cottage while we moved next door for 3 more years in the neighborhood. This home looks different 5 years later but the location, the fun in being with their dogs makes me grateful to return once again. 
How wonderful it is remember that place as it will always be in my memory. I made the flower baskets under the outside windows from a local garden shop around the corner, which is no longer in business. I would water the flower every morning after my first cup of coffee. My 2 small dogs Oscar and Sidda would run through the huge backyard and play in the fresh irrigation water with me! Those were some of the most magical moments of my life! Nothing can last forever but our minds can still remember those moments of pure delight and perfection!
I know that right now I live in a great place with more pets then back at this cottage. That my mother is doing much better these days then in 2011. My husband is now done with law school so all those crazy stressful difficult days are behind me too. yet I enjoyed sleeping over in watching over and caring for the dogs, then I walked among the pear tree, the fence line waving at my elderly friend Bernice as she sat on her back patio I smiled at her saying "It's like we are neighbors again! Like old times!" She laughed and waved back for we had never stopped being friends, just like in caring for these dogs I love staying connected to my past for all the important life lessons they still hold for me to learn.

And most importantly I simply enjoy watching the flowers grow!

My dog days of Summer

When I say that dog-sitting is my most favorite job ever I mean it, I love watching over and talking to dogs who are missing their owners. I like keeping the dogs in their own home and in their own routine to help lessen the stress on them when their family goes away without them.

The first weekend of June every year now for 4 or 5 years has me staying at a friend's home with their hunting dogs who love playing in the backyard with me in the early mornings, or I take them on a walk in the neighborhood before the summer heat comes in. I takes naps with them or soak in the hot tub as they have something to chew on. I enjoy these dogs, Gus and Sophie. Sometimes they wake up in the middle of the night barking or dreaming but for the most part they love to cuddle with me on the couch over our movie time. 
     It's so much fun to have so many dogs that I know so well and get to be around. June is a fun month to go on vacation, to get out of town for a bit in such nice weather before the strong heat of July kicks in. The days of caring for other people's dogs has me very busy to swing back into my own home and care for my own 3 dogs and 3 cats. I enjoy homemaking where ever that home is for me. The dogs I watch over like having someone home too, so in order to have relaxing lazy evenings I spend my days focused on cleaning, cooking and walking the dogs. Being outside with them, watering the gardens and brushing out each dog for personal time. The calm quiet nap time, the fresh flowers on the table and the bright summer sunshine has my days full of activities before it ever get to 10am! I am grateful for these jobs, for being around so many different dogs this month.

My Oscar looks for me when I am not home at night, he watches over everything and warns my husband if anything is not "right"....I couldn't dog-sit without my husband's help in staying home and being there for our pets. He has a client who needed a dog-sitter for the month of June so Jack a brown lab came to live in my home and my Oscar wasn't sure about this at first. I was glad to be home after my weekend with Gus and Sophie in order to watch how Jack behaves towards my cats and pups. 
Oscar and Jack have become playful friends, if they get tired of each other I put Jack in the office on the guest bed with her own food and water to nap, sometimes I go in and nap with her. This often helps all dogs calm down having someone just be home.

 Like in how I have a new job in feeding 2 dogs for a friend twice a day while she is out of town. I love taking my coloring book with me after I feed and rub down these dogs, give them attention and reassurance  I sit and color so they have some time to calm down and enjoy having a person in their home for awhile or take a nap with them which usually works for them to relax. I feel bad when I have to get back to my own dogs and home. Staying the night is so important for all dogs in feeling safer and in being able to relax when their family is gone. I am grateful for this understanding in how to be the best dog person I can be!
Over this last weekend I stayed in my old cute cottage, the wonderful home I had in 2011. Because I stayed friends and neighbors with my first landlords, they have asked me to care for their 3 dogs often. I love those pups so much! They aren't cat friendly or new dog friendly, they are getting old but they love to have someone simply be home with them. I love seeing them, talking and brushing them out. When they were neighbors barking all the time I would walk over and hug them, then they would stop barking....or I would say "Go lay down." and they did! I was impress that they are such smart dogs who liked me. 

When I added up all the dogs I was responsible for this past Saturday, I counted 9! The 3 I was staying with, the 4 dogs in my own home and the 2 who waited for their food from me.  
It's a wonderful job, back in 2011 in that cute cottage and huge backyard I had my doggie daycare growing while still being a homemaker and now I am doing that kind of work again!
 I am truly grateful, and I am enjoying all these dog adventures, I am cover in hair and slopper!HA!
and I'm truly loving it! I love these Dog days of summer!!!     

My gardening days of Summer

The Public Restroom Problem Resolved

                                              It's the most annoying news topic to me, for when it's being reported and debated I glaze over my attention and sing to myself instead, yes I like singing to myself when I am annoyed.

It helps me not get all up into people's faces about the way I see it, because we all come from different backgrounds and life experiences, "How to go potty as a transgender." isn't a hard question for me because I am not trans, because I go potty when I have to go and yes there are times I don't care about the sign on the door as I go...especially if I really HAVE to GO!

The line for the women's public restrooms are often out the door for most events I attend so I have no problem and no fear darting into the mens to pee like a race horse and get back to my regularly schedule life time. In some coffee shops they have one restroom with both men and women on the sign, what a concept! Sharing a pleasant pooping/peeing place no matter the gender makes complete and totally sense to me for it's like being home away from home, I don't have a woman's only bathroom in my house (although I like that idea) I think being in public is tricky just in general so I never stay along in any restroom boys or girls, trying to stay away from some of the scary germs is also on my mind. It's interesting to wonder how some bathrooms can be so disgusting and others can be a palace!

I think these discussions should be about important issues like never running out of toilet paper or hand towels, reducing loud noises of high pressure water flushing or air vents all sounding like an airplane just took off from the annoying automatic sink spitting hot water or cold water for less then 2 seconds or no water then never shutting off again! Life in a public restroom be you a man or a woman, a woman dressed as a man, a man dressed as a woman or you dressed as YOU, it's more then what you are born as and what you identify as....it all comes down to should you soap up your hands and take a chance the water won't come on while going deaf as others use the blow drying machine sucking in and blowing out fecal matter particles! 

Like I said I could care less who pees beside me, for I am not hanging around that long to ever find out!

                             I have a brown lab staying with me this month who could shed some light on this issue too! Hahahaha "Shed"  I love it! Hahahahahaha

      

This 7 year old brown Labrador named Jack was born a girl, her owners named her Jack and raised her as the male dog they thought that she was. So by the time they discovered him to be a HER, the name Jack was already established, therefore they didn't change "her name" from "his name". 

I asked Jack how she felt about this mistake through out her life time, she gave me a "What are you going to do? Live and let live" look from her sweet big brown eyes, her strong tail wagged on as I rubbed her belly. 
I asked more questions in hopes to understand these things better... "Do you find it scary or alarming when going potty on whether you should squat or lift your leg?" She looked over at all my napping pets as if I should be asking them these same questions so I stopped treating her differently out of respect towards her own personal life story. No doubt she had noticed My own Minnie Girl occasionally lifting her leg to pee as well, so I guess it's all in how one feels!  
Jack is going to have a fun summer with us, she loves water, taking long lazy naps and being together! I am amazed at how well she walks with me too (Which is more then Minnie would do) I asked her again "So Jack, I know you are a really good girl who loves life and loves to cuddle, I can see you have no problem with public potty breaks.....will it be okay if I call ya Jackie-Jack while you are vacationing here? For you are the first transgender dog I have ever met!" she gave me a "What are you going to do? Live and let live." look again :-)

My Love Letter

Dear June

            Welcome to the Earth again! I have missed you for the last 11 months!

I woke up excitedly as if I were expecting company today! For as the morning air and sunshine greeted my grateful self I smiled with happiness, this fresh air proves that You are really HERE!

How magical are the lavender blossoms bursting forth their sweet fragrance while the honey bees come to dance through the gardens, this is you, this is June!

Thank you for all your hard work in growing gracefully across my life! I will cherish it all  for the sacred strength that you give me to face the shorter colder days of time.

And if I lived in place where you were there every single day I would still be this overwhelmingly grateful, 

I would still be in awe of you!

I walk among the trees and the river, I swing on the playground and I hike up the hillside with my arms wide open to embrace these amazing days of your fresh summer seasonal power!

Every where I look I see your life force, I see your promise that summer will arrive in true style and you will leave me in memories and in peace.

Thank you for being one of the most important months of the whole year in my life and in my heart!

Now let's go have an adventure while you are here!

Sincerely in love with you all the rest of my days,

Debby R. Shively