Tuesday with Harley: Arch Nemesis

So, you are all familiar with sweet little Harley. My beloved, albeit a bit over sized, Yorkie. He brings so much joy to my family. Everyone from my grandmother to my 1 year old cousin love for him to be around. I actually do not think there is anyone that doesn't fully embrace Harley. He just loves with his entire heart.

However, do not be fooled by this. He does have an Arch Nemesis, if you will. Harley carries nothing but hatred in his heart for this nasty beast. Harley and this, thing, even have to coexist in the same home, but they do not see each other on a daily basis. Oh, but when they do meet it is a bitter battle until Harley has seen to it that his arch nemesis turns and heads back to the closet it came from.

You may be asking yourself, What could it be? This monster must be hideous, scary or even witch like. Is it a cat? Must be. Dogs hate cats? No, my friends, Harley does not mind for a cat to be in his presence.

Harley's arch nemesis is none of the above. Not a monster. Not witch. Not even a cat. Harley's eternal enemy, the one he despises most, is none other than the *pause for effect* vacuum cleaner. It makes no difference the size or shape. Harley is bringing the same heat to the battle. The only person he truly effects with his antic is the person attempting to clean the house up a little bit. It doesn't even have to plugged up to solicit a response from Harley. He will just bark at it for being propped up somewhere. So to all you evil vacuum cleaners out there, watch your back. Harley will find you and he may even bite... see pictures below.

It starts out innocent enough, but Harley is at attention.

Then he gets closer to check it out. Hey Mr. Vacuum. Where you been hiding?

Then when the vacuum least expects it...BOOM. ATTACK!!

FYI: Great Blog

The image above is straight from the PW's Blog.

I just wanted to spread the good word about an amazing blog. I stumbled upon it last Thursday and have since been obsessed. If you ever have any time in which you need to kill... (I seem to have a lot) Go over and check it out.

This blog is about a girl that falls in love with a cowboy, then marries, and has four kids. They live in Oklahoma on a ranch. It's absolutely beautiful. I have added the link on the right hand side of my blog if you would like to check it out.

It has a section entirely devoted to amazing recipes, and I have already tried two that were so good. The best thing about this blog is the section entitled "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels." It is the story of how she met/fell in love with her cowboy whom she refers to as "Marlboro Man."

If you get the chance, check it out. Amazing pictures and great stories.

Lying in a Field of Clovers

Pictured above: Tuesday's with Harley the Irish Yorkie and an old picture of a St. Patrick's Days gone by.

Today, as most of you are well aware, is St. Patrick's Day. Today is a celebration of my heritage. That's right. I am the off spring, of off spring, of off spring of an Irish family. Now I can't say that I know my full family history and for the longest time, as a child I had a real misconstrued version- You see, I had this uncle that told me (when i was like 5) that reason our last name was "Toland" was because when the boat came over from Ireland my great, great, great, great grandad longed to make history by being the first Irishman to touch American soil. So, he cut his toe off and threw it to the land... hence the name Toland-pronounced toeland. Kind of crazy that I believed him, but I was five.

Needless to say, I love St. Patrick's day and I try to wear green, so as not to be pinched. I also head out to the nearest pub to migle with fellow irishmen and women.

On another note, as an update to Friday's post, my cattle rustling was unsuccessful. Dad and I were able to get the baby calf into a "catch pin" however that's about the extent of it. Long story, short we tried to get a rope around him so that we could make him drink out of the bottle, but the calf got scared, started acting crazy and running head first into the fence (I was scared) and then he got his head stuck in the gate, which was not latched good, which subsequently flew open and the baby calf made a run for it. At that point, my dad drew the line. So the baby calf is on his on. My dad has gone to the farm several times to check on him and he has bonded with another baby calf- I think they are best friends. He has also been attempting to eat the sweet feed my dad bought for him. So I think he is going to be just fine.

Katie Beth- I sent your regards to the calf. He was extremely grateful for you kindness during his difficult times. He wanted to send a card, but he can't write-he's just a baby.

And one more thing... With it being St. Patrick's day I have the urge to watch the movie, Boondock Saints. It's about these two Irish brothers that decide to rid their hometown of Boston, Massachusetts of the crime, which is taking over. If you aren't going out tonight to celebrate then you should at least go by the local video store and rent Boondock Saints, in honor of the day.

Cattle Rustling

Okay, so you all know about our family farm... if not, then you haven't been following the blog too closely-just refer back to Feb. posts. Well, sadly we had a cow pass away this week- she came down with pneumonia or so that's what our vet said. I don't even know which cow it was but I do know that she had a small calf who happens to be only a few weeks old.

Needless to say, the baby calf is too young to eat hay just yet, and he's just not eating the stuff the local feed & seed store suggested for him. So I suggested (because I am an expert in raising farm animals of all kinds) that Dad buy a bottle and some milk and feed the baby calf that way. He politely suggested that I find the time to help with that.

Last night when I talked to Dad he told me that he had purchased the milk and he would be needing my help. So... this afternoon I will find myself in a pasture attempting to assist in lassoing a baby calf and then feeding him from a bottle.

It should be an experience. I will have my camera on hand and will be sure to let you all know how it goes!!

Please note that is not the baby calf or me pictured above... just a random picture from google. I felt like you all would need a visual.

Auburn is where my heart is...

Ryan and I had a great weekend! As planned, we went to Auburn for a day filled with fun. We got into Auburn around 11:30 and had lunch at Momma G's first. Then we decided to walk around campus. I am going to be honest here, I am super jealous that we didn't have the new Foy when we were there. It is so nice. I loved it. I have seen it from the outside and lord knows I watched it being built, but I had not toured it until this weekend. It's really nice.

As we were walking around campus we got hot (it was like 80 degrees and we had on long sleeves- huge mistake), so I insisted that we head over to Ander's for a T-shirt. Ryan and I both got new Auburn T-shirts that we sported for the remainder of the day. In case you are wondering, and I know you are, he got a navy two button, auburn, collared shirt (that he swears he will just give to his dad- "b/c he would love it") and my new auburn tee is kind of random. It has the old-school aubie on it... but it's an "XL" b/c it's a Girls shirt. The lady at the check out told me that it was not a ladies shirt... and I told her that was just fine- Everyone knows I'm petite.

After shopping, we headed on over to the Coliseum for the game. According to all accounts the game was sold out, but if I am honest here... there were still a few empty seats. The game was so fun!! And in case you missed it- WE WON!! My favorite part of the game, other than Aubie's antics, was the "Kiss Cam." During half-time, the kiss cam would spotlight a couple and they were supposed to kiss, which was displayed on the jumbo screen for all to see. All the couples that were highlighted were in their 60's and 70's... One couple actually hard core made out and then another couple refused to do it- blatantly shaking their head in disgrace at the camera. It really had me tickled. Ryan said he might kiss me if the kiss cam ever spotlighted us. I told him he better or the guy next to me might!

After the exciting game, we finished our day off at Mellow Mushroom, which was delicious and then headed home.

It was a fun-filled weekend!

Oh- and quick correction to Friday's post... I stated that Auburn would get to go to the NCAA playoffs if we beat LSU, however, that was not exactly true. We would have to beat LSU-which we did- then we would have to have a few things happen in the the SEC tournament for Auburn to get into the playoffs. I am sure no one really cared about that error, but I know when Ryan sees it he will want to correct me... and I will be able to tell him to refer to the next post, for the "correction."

On the agenda for the WEEKEND!

Well, folks... it's FRIDAY and Ryan and I have some great things lined up for the weekend. We are going to ride down to Auburn. I find myself, from time to time, just needing to head to the plains. We are actually going to the Auburn/LSU basketball game. You see, Ryan loves Auburn with his whole heart, but admitted that he has NEVER been to an Auburn basketball game. I was all... WHAT? WHY? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Given- we haven't had the best teams in the past decade, but it is still fun to go and cheer them on.


We are going to go down early Saturday morning and do some shopping downtown. (this portion of our day was my idea) Then we are going to go to Momma Goldberg's for lunch outside and off to the game we will go!!

If Auburn wins this game we will be eligible for the NCAA playoffs!! I will have a full report on Monday!!

In the meantime.... WAR EAGLE!

In case you were hiding in a cave somewhere...

It snowed yesterday. Which basically means that everyone in the Southeastern United States freaked out!! If you happened to check your facebook yesterday, you would have noticed that every other person took time to make an album to show off what their yard looked like with 1/2 inch of snow or they updated their "status" to something like this... "Name here is watching TV and it's snowing" or "Name here is I can't believe it's snowing" or, my personal favorite... "Name here is IT*IS* S*N*O*W*I*N*G!!!" Are you kidding me? We all know that it is snowing.

I am not sure why, but that aggravated me yesterday. I love that it snowed because little kids love it. It is a huge event in any CHILD's life to experience a snow day. However, for all the people in college it should not be a life altering moment. I mean students at Auburn attempted to have school cancelled for today- which is sunny and beautiful. Props for trying to miss a day of school... but in the real world that won't fly.

Don't get me wrong I think it is beautiful when it snows and I do wish that it would snow once a year. But there is no reason to freak out about it. I live in a small town and every time there is a chance of snow, the local newspaper runs the story on the front page! Now is that necessary? I think not.

I guess what I am trying to say is let's all learn to enjoy the snow on a more mature level. Take time to enjoy how beautiful it is and even build a snowman with a young child... but please don't completely lose it!

That's my soapbox for today. Thanks for letting me vent!