God Made dogs

Very cute.

My Lollipot

As a teacher, you need incentives.  Treats.  In a special needs room, there are lots of dietary things to consider-gluten free, non-chewy, chewy, salty, etc.  One thing my class loves are dum-dums.  I hand them out as we check behavior charts, or when there is extra amazing work going on.  The Kindergarten teacher had a lollipop tree, and my friend and I loved it.  So we made one for ourselves! Here is how mine turned out:

I think it is precious! I can't wait for my class to see it.  They will love it.  I will have to teach them not to help themselves either.  The first thing we did was paint our pots.  We used acrylic paint and then mod podge to seal it after we decorated them.

I painted mine basic black, and I cut out some flowers and dots that match my curtains and such in my classroom.  I used the mod podge to adhere them to it.  (Mod Podge is the best stuff ever.  Just Sayin'.)

We then added some of those floral rocks that you can get at the dollar store to the inside to give it some weight at the bottom.  Then it was time for the ball.  That was a dilemma.  How do we attach it?  We decided to just use good ol' hot glue.  We set the ball in the pot and made a continuous stream of glue all the way around.  Worked well!

At last, it was time to add the lollipops.  My friend bought two huge bags of them (one for each of us), and we began to put them in.  We thought we'd start at the bottom since it was a straight line to follow.  We put them right next to each other as close as we could.

Man, it took a lot of dum-dums to get that thing filled!  It took almost the entire bag to fill one-over 300 lollipops!  There were less than twenty left.  It was crazy.  Crazy cool!  They turned out even better than we thought they would.  I love the lollipot.  I can't wait to use it.

Amos and Andy

I have a wonderful family.  Since I was little, I have been surrounded by people who love me just how I am.  My aunts and uncles are very special to me.  They have always been a phone call away if I needed them, and their love is always apparent.  When I was three or four, my uncles Mike and Ron, got together one Christmas and surprised me with a Cocker Spaniel puppy.  I don't know how they did it, but they kept him quiet all weekend without me knowing he was even there!  They named him Amos.

 

Oh my goodness I loved that dog! He was my best pal.  He loved being with me and playing. 

They told me eventually they were going to get another Cocker and name him Andy, like the TV show.  I thought that was a grand idea.  The years went by, and Amos and I got older.  He loved to play with my slinky and to knock down the Lincoln Log cabins my Dad and I would build.  He just wanted to be with us.  When my dad was transferred to Oklahoma, we had to say goodbye to Amos because where we were living wouldn't take pets. That was a sad day.  From then on I've always loved Cocker Spaniels and wanted more.  We had a few others while I was growing up, but none compared to Amos.

Fast forward a few years ( I will not say how many!) to now.  A few months ago I got the idea to rescue a Cocker.  My sweet Allen said get after it, and I did.  I contacted Okie Dokie Cocker Rescue here in Oklahoma, and they had a few available.  I filled out the application, was approved, and she brought two dogs for us to choose from.  We chose one named Butchie.  I wanted to name him something meaningful and fun.  Then I remembered my uncles.  They never did get Andy.  So I did.  Here is my Andy.

Andy is a puppy mill rescue.  He is five years old and sweet as can be.  He is skittish and has a messed up tongue.  You can kinda see it in the picture above.  My vet said it was probably from licking the cage so much.  My heart broke a little when I heard that. He follows me around everywhere and loves to cuddle.  Andy is precious when he runs with those big ears!  He is getting along with the pugs pretty well.  He'll curl up with Penny and he plays with Hagrid.  It's fun watching them together.  Now we are again a family and three dogs.