"Stray Affections" ~ A Book Review and Giveaway!

In Stray Affections, the last thing that Cassandra expects out of her Sunday is to be mesmerized at a collectors’ convention by a snowglobe. She’s enjoying some shopping time, with husband Ken at home tending their brood of four young boys, when she’s utterly charmed by the one-of-a kind globe containing figures of three dogs and a little girl with hair the color of her own. She can’t resist taking the unique globe home—even if means wrestling another shopper for it!

The beautiful snowglobe sparks long-dormant memories for Cassie, of her beloved Grandpa Wonky, the stray she rescued as a child and the painful roots of her combative relationship with her mother, “Bad Betty” Kamrowski. Life in Wanonishaw, Minnesota is never dull, though, and Cassie keeps the recollections at bay, busy balancing her boys, her home daycare operation, and being a good friend to best pal Margret. But after a strange—flurrious, as Cassie deems it—moment happens with the remarkable snowglobe, Cassie and the people she loves are swirled into a tumultuous, yet grace-filled, and life-changing journey.
“As a believer, I know the power of forgiveness and new beginnings, and of a God, and family and friends, who love me the way I am,” Charlene Ann Baumbich says. “The heartbeat of change flows through those wonderful gifts.”

With the quirky, close-knit Midwestern small-town feel that made Charlene Ann Baumbich’s acclaimed Dearest Dorothy novels so popular, Stray Affections invites readers to experience the laughter and the healing of second chances.

About the author:

Charlene Ann Baumbich is a popular author and speaker and an award-winning journalist. In addition to her Dearest Dorothy series of novels, she has written seven nonfiction books of humor and inspiration. A bungee-jumping, once motorcycle-owning grandma and unabashed dog lover, Charlene lives with her husband and rescued dog Kornflake in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She loves telling stories, laughing whenever possible, and considers herself a Wild Child of God.

Click HERE to watch a video clip of the author reading her book!

If you'd like to learn more about "Stray Affections" or to purchase this book, go to Random House.com.

WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN!

I have also been given an extra copy of "Stray Affections" to give away to one of my lucky readers! All you need to do, to be entered in the drawing for this captivating book, is to leave me a comment. I will do a random drawing for it on my wedding anniversary, September 30th. You must live in the continental US, and may leave one comment per day for more chances to win. Good Luck!

Wordless Wednesday #32 ~ Dogz In The Hood-ie

Finn, rockin' his new hoodie!
"What up, Dawg?"
"Punk Barker"

Fun With Finn!

After the tragic loss of my grandson CJ's dog "Bart", all he could talk about was getting a NEW dog. His mother, Jessica searched on Craig's list for one that would be a good fit for our family. She wanted one that was not too big, not too small, one that loved children and was okay with not being the only dog in the house...and one that wasn't going to cost a whole lot of money. At last, the search is over. She and CJ and I went to go pick up "Finn" yesterday, while Molly was gone to Valley Fair with her youth group.

We surprised Molly with him last night when we went to pick her up at church. He's about 2 1/2 years old, and is a purebred Papillon. "Papillon" is the French word for butterfly, and these dogs are so named because with their ears erect, their faces have the look of one. They told us that he's actually on the large side of the scale for the breed, but that's okay. He's about the same size as Bart was...which makes him quite huggable for a 4 year old boy.

Jessica was able to adopt him for FREE and his previous owners even threw in his bed, crate, toys...and a "Coach" collar. The couple that had him had two little girls, ages 5 and 3 and had just added a baby boy to the mix 4 weeks ago. They decided that with the new baby and all, they just didn't have time for Finn anymore, and they were pretty excited that his new owner was a rough and tumble 4 year old boy that would love to play and wrestle with him.

So far, Finn seems to be a pretty good dog, and I have heard that as a breed they are very smart, good with children and are known to be "eager to please." We shall see. The thing that I do not like, is that he seems to have taken a liking to my bed. I am NOT really a dog person, I mean, I can tolerate them living in my house, I just don't want them in my bed! The worst thing was, he decided to jump up there right after his bath last night! Eeewwww, wet dog smell, not my favorite "oderant". I stripped the bed and washed everything. He's going to have to learn not to do that again, if him and I are going to get along. I'd just close my bedroom door...but it's hard to lock a curtain.

(Finn, laying at his master's feet)

Bart The Wonder Dog just ran out of Lives

Back in January, I posted about my daughter's Corgi, Bart, miraculously surviving being hit by a car on the road. After that accident, we had kept him tied up in the yard for quite some time. But after it got nice out, and people were going in and out of the back door quite frequently, Bart would sneak out from time to time. It seemed like he had learned his lesson about chasing cars...so we kind of let him run around the yard with his buddy, our Chocolate lab/Springer mix, Jake.

That was all well and good for a while, with just one problem. You see, Welsh Corgis were originally bred to herd cows. Bart was a bit confused, and had recently taken to herding CARS instead. It was like he never wanted anyone to leave, and instead of just barking when someone came, he would bark when anyone left as well. And if he was outside when anyone was coming or going, he would run as fast as he could in circles around their vehicle. Well, on Tuesday, Ray had just come home from town, and Bart was running around the truck, as usual...but this time, unfortunately, he didn't get out of the way of the wheel. Ray felt sickened as he realized he'd just run over our grandson's dog, but Bart was still very much alive. He was limping, and not moving very well, but he wasn't bleeding or anything. We were hoping it was just the one paw. Later on that night though, he started looking worse and worse, and his breathing became very labored. Jessica gave him some pain meds that he had left over from his other accident, and sat with him in her lap. Bart's injuries were apparently much more serious than any of us realized, because within an hour or so, Bart breathed his last breath...right there on Jessica's lap.

In all honesty, I can't say as I've always been fond of Bart. Yes, he was a cute little thing, but he could be rather annoying at times. When they arrived in December, he wasn't completely house trained. And then, he was just getting pretty good at that when the first accident happened. Either it was brain damage, or the drugs he was on, but we basically had to start all over in that department, and he was once again, pottty trained. He also had some other weird little quirks...he hated the vacuum cleaner and would attack it whenever we used it, not just that, but pretty much anything used for cleaning, the broom, spray bottles, mops whatever. Anyway, he was finally starting to be a pretty good dog again, just a short time ago. My grandson CJ and my daughters, Jessica and Molly loved him very much, and Ray and I were just beginning to at least tolerate him living with us.

We had a "funeral" for Bart after Molly got home from school on Wednesday. Molly dressed in a black dress and read the eulogy she had prepared. Everyone said their goodbyes to him, including his 4 year old master, CJ. He seems to be taking it very well, even though he didn't believe that Bart was dead at first. Can you blame him? He'd been told just a few months ago that his dog was dead, (we all thought he was until Ray went out to get him), and then he was all of a sudden NOT dead again. Yesterday, CJ told me that maybe he would name his next dog "SpongeBob". We'll see. RIP Bart.

Memorial Weekend Happenings

Our Holiday weekend started out nice. Sarah called on Saturday morning, to ask if it was alright for them to come down for a visit for the weekend. They had planned on camping in Northern Minnesota, but the weather up there was not cooperating. We told her that would be just fine, we had planned on grilling and having our first campfire of the season that night anyway, so it would be great to have company for it. We invited my son Joel and Ray's other daughter, Ruth and her husband too, but unfortunately, Joel had to work and we never heard back from Ruth.

Meanwhile, while Sarah and Brad were on their way, I got Ray working on my "Honey-do" list. They were just minor little things that I wanted done, like hanging the American flag out on the front porch, putting a lock on the bathroom door, fixing my chair and attaching our bed to the headboard, so it wasn't always trying to fall on us in our sleep. He did end up getting most of that accomplished. I have one more project for him to do, but he said that one was a little more "involved" than he thought it would be. Of course, this is the same project that was left over from th last time I gave him a list of things I wanted done.

After Sarah and Brad arrived, we took them with us to the first grad party of the season. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor party, and CJ had lots of fun playing with his friends, Caleb, DJ and Charlie, who all happened to be there at the same time we were. When we got home, we made brats and hot dogs on the grill and got ready for our campfire.

Here are Jake, Molly (with Bart in her lap), Sarah, Brad, Buster, and Jess with CJ in her lap.

Here we are, enjoying the fire and roasting marshmallows for S'mores. You gotta have S'mores to make it an official holiday weekend, don't ya think?

Here is Molly, posing with Jake, Bart and Buster. We had ourselves a real "Three Dog Night"

On Sunday afternoon, we all headed out to my mom and dad's house for another "work day". Most of my siblings were there, and some of the grandkids. They were all doing odd jobs around the place that needed doing. Some of us were painting Mom and Dad's bedroom, while others were doing some painting outside. They even painted the basketball/flag pole! That's my brother Bob in the orange shirt, and the other one is my BIL, Steve. I believe my brother Mike is operating the equipment here:

While they were doing that, my sister Kathy was busy painting the old basketball backboard, too. She did a very nice job on it, but we were thinking it needed the script, "Don't even think about parking here", along with a painting of Felix the Cat playing basketball...or something like that. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if actually did that. She's one talented lady.

Monday morning, we all got up and Ray made his famous omelets for everyone. Sarah and Brad packed up and headed North around noon or so. Ray, CJ and I took a ride out to the campground that our church is going to for a weekend in July. It looks like a nice place, and is only about 20 miles from town, so even if some people didn't want to stay, they could still come out to visit for a day. The lady from the campground told Ray that he had to show me the "outhouses". I thought that was interesting. I'll post more about the campground later.

Update on Bart, the WonderDog

(Bart and CJ last Halloween)

Actually, we're all kind of wondering why he's alive. But he is. After having been hit by a car on Sunday night. The only thing I can think of is that being a Corgi, he is so low to the ground that the only thing that probably hit him was the tire. That may have helped.

We took him to the vet yesterday, and since we didn't call first, they said they could see him at that time, but it would be on an "emergency basis". I asked what that meant, and was told it was an extra $50. Or, we could schedule an appointment for later on that day, and save $50. We chose to do that, so we didn't get the little guy in until 3:40 in the afternoon. I called Molly's school and told them to have her ready at about 3:10 so we could pick her up on the way...otherwise she'd get home on the bus while we were in town. The only thing I didn't think about, was that we'd told her we'd come and get her if it came to having to put him to sleep. Ooops. For a few minutes, she was pretty sure she was being picked up to say goodbye to Bart.

Anyway, they checked him over and said he seemed okay, just by their exam, and the fact that his bodily functions were in tact but they don't have an x-ray machine at that office, so we had to take him to their other facility, which is in a larger city to the south of us. The office visit would be continued over there, (so we wouldn't have to pay that again), if we took him directly over there. So that's what we did.

By the time he got there, he'd been in pain for quite some time, and was absolutely physically exhausted. They stood him up on the exam table, and he was falling asleep standing there. Seriously, he slowly lowered his head until his nose was resting on the table, (which isn't all that far when your legs are only 2 inches long), if it wasn't so sad, it would have been quite comical.
They took the X-rays and determined that everything looked fine for the most part. The vet said his inability to move at first was probably from spinal cord shock. Earlier yesterday, he was actually walking pretty well, but leaned a little to one side and seemed dizzy. The doc said he had most likely hit his head, and had a concussion too, which would cause that. It does make sense, and we had already diagnosed him with cord shock and concussion...but not being veterinarians...we couldn't have known we were right. We also didn't have an X-ray machine to rule out anything worse. They gave him a shot of pain medicine, and also sent home some oral pain meds and some antibiotics.

The grand total for the exam, the x-rays and the drugs was almost $300. But what do you do? He is a purebred Corgi, and Jess paid $500 for him originally. So far, we haven't heard a sound out of him since the accident, which is an improvement.

Today, he seems much better, if a bit dazed and confused from his pain medication. He goes out to the kitchen, takes a drink...and then wanders into the bathroom and stares at the wall, like he's lost. Nothing like having a dog on drugs. Oh well, this too shall pass. Thanks for the prayers!

I Walked TWO MILES Today!

Well, not all at once, but I did. I decided to take the dog for a walk this morning, just around the neighborhood. He's gotten kinda fat over the winter months too, so I figured we could keep each other company. Besides, tomorrow is pet day at Molly's school, and I thought I'd try to teach him a few manners before then. Our little development is kind of in the shape of a capital E. There are 3 roads coming into it that meet another road, if that makes any sense. If I completely trace the "E", from my house and back to it, it is exactly 1 mile. Jake and I did that this morning, and decided to do it again tonight.

Believe it or not, I can feel it in my shins already. I have been walking on the treadmill a mile at a time, 2 or 3 time a week lately, but that's about it. My doctor told me I should work up to walking 3 miles at a time. Maybe. I don't mind walking outside, but I don't like the other dogs that come out to defend their territory, (which to them is the entire street in front of their houses). I've figured out though, that if we walk on the opposite side of the street, they think they scared us away, and leave us alone. That's okay, they can be the alpha dog...we'll let them.

The good thing about walking outside this time of year, is that almost every yard around here has got some kind of lilacs or other flowering shrubs. Beautiful to look at and even more pleasant to inhale the sweet fragrance of. Tonight's walk had the extra added aroma of freshly mown grass. It was almost worth the effort of the walk right there. I'm bound and determined to have at least my first 20 pounds off by next Monday's weigh-in. Maybe I'll even venture out of the neighborhood one of these days. Who knows? What?? It could happen.