Saving Teddy

One morning a couple of weeks ago, I headed out for a morning run through the neighborhood as I often do. I didn't bring Franklin with me, as the weather in MS in July is not too friendly to a dog with thick, curly hair. He's ok with this arrangement. When he does go outside, he looks at me after about 10 minutes, tongue hanging out bright red, with a look that says, "why did you think this was a good idea?'

About 2.5 miles into my run, 2 little dogs started barking ferociously at me. However, I noticed they weren't exactly looking at me, but rather behind me. I turned around, and there was a dog following me! Just trotting along, happy as can be to be out on a morning run. I stopped to say hi and pet him, then kept running. He loved being petted, then also kept running behind me--for 3.5 more miles. When a car came, he ran into the bushes to hide. When the car was gone, he sprinted to catch up with me. I gave him some water when I got home because the poor guy had earned a drink.

I knew he couldn't come in the house, so I sat outside with him a lot of the day. He had no leash, quite a few ticks, fleas, and was pretty skinny. When we tried to tie him up, he just lunged trying to follow me, got himself all tangled up, and I felt terrible for him. We ended up untying him to ease my guilt. This little guy thought he had found his new home- he stayed on our porch all night. I had called the humane society earlier in the day and they said no one had reported a missing dog. I called the closest vet, and they took my name and number and told me they would call if anyone was looking for him. One of our friends posted on the neighborhood facebook page about him, with no response. We drove around and looked for posters. We walked around the area he started following and talked to a few neighbors. But no one seemed to recognize or claim our new friend!

The next morning, when Josh went out for an 8 mile run, our new friend left with him and followed him all 8 miles, with no leash. At this point, I started to fret because I did not know what to do with him. I called my mother and father in tears (not the first tears I had shed for him), knowing they had thought about getting a dog. Miracle of miracles, they agreed to take him! The next question was how to get him from MS to NE...after looking into a few options, we decided it would be fastest to meet halfway in AL for the drop-off.

We took our new friend to the vet the next day to have him examined, look for a microchip, and see what he needed done. Since we needed a name for him to make all of this happen, we decided to go with Theodore, or Teddy for short (sticking with the Roosevelt theme we started with Franklin). The vet gave him all of his shots, and we boarded him there for the weekend while Josh and I went on a previously planned weekend getaway.

Monday, we picked him up and headed to meet his new family. He rode in the car like a champ! He also thoroughly enjoyed his night of luxury in a hotel...the first thing he did was jump up on the bed, which did not last long.

Since starting his new life in NE, he is happily adjusting to life on the farm--riding in the truck, going for long runs on the dirt roads, and best of all, smelling and chasing the chickens!

I instantly fell in love with Teddy because he loved me! He is the happiest dog and soaks up every ounce of attention you can give him. He loves belly rubs, any type of food, cold floors, and running. He worked his way into my heart, and he found himself a home because of it :)

While this little guy caused me a great deal of anxiety and a few sleepless nights worrying about his safety and belonging, I am beyond thrilled that he has found a home, and a home that gives me updates about him anytime I ask!

9 months

As we head into my favorite holiday weekend (fireworks! hot dogs! ice cream! America!), there is an important day that will come first. Tomorrow will be 9 months since saying goodbye to our little Sloane. While each month has seemed important for various reasons, 9 months is significant, for after this, she will be apart from me longer than she was with me. This feels terrible, because it feels like she is becoming more distant. But in some ways there is freedom and peace the farther out we get, as I know she is still with me and I feel stronger physically, mentally, and emotionally. I have felt the burden of grief lifted at times. 9 months is a momentous marker in time, for good and for bad.

I have been in MS for about 2 weeks now, and while it is the 3rd summer we have been here, this summer has posed some unique challenges. Sloane is always on my mind, and I always want to talk about her and share her, but I do not always trust strangers or even acquaintances with this special and sacred piece of my life. The question becomes, how do I honor her while still protecting my heart? I don't have the answer to this yet. Typically, if people ask, I have no problem saying I have a daughter who died. The following awkward and uncomfortable conversation that follows is something I have become accustomed to. The problem comes when people don't ask. Because truthfully, looking at Josh and I, you would make the assumption that we don't have kids, so how would this even come up? But that aspect of our lives has played such a critical role in who I am, in everything I do, that it feels wrong to not share that part of my life.  The difficulties of losing Sloane change and transform in their shape and magnitude, but I do not think they will ever go away. It will always be hard.

Something I have been focusing on lately that is motivating for me is training for the Ragnar race in October. It feels so good to be getting stronger physically, and as I have been increasing my mileage, I have also been reminded of the mental effort required in running. Mentally, I feel like nothing can beat me now. Running up a long, steep hill when it is hot and humid--yes, it sucks, but it doesn't compare to losing your baby. I know now that I can do hard, even impossible, things.

Choctaw Indian Fair

We are always on the lookout for fun/unusual/novel things to do while in the south. Partly because it is fun to do fun/unusual/novel things, partly because it tends to happen naturally that most of the events that take place here are unusual and novel for us, and {generally} fun.

While googling one day, I stumbled upon the Choctaw Indian Fair. Choctaw is about 2 hours away from us, so at first I was a bit skeptical, but knowing that if we didn't go, we would just be watching The West Wing and sitting on the couch {again}, we decided who cares about driving 4 hours to go to an INDIAN FAIR? C'mon, let's be real, that's a no-brainer.

We made our way over to Choctaw and were pleasantly surprised with a fabulous evening. First, we got to see THE world champion of hoop dancing and his cute little son practicing on the side.

The biggest reason we went though, was because country star Josh Turner was performing. This was great for many reasons: Josh has always been a big Josh Turner fan (maybe it's the name), it was super cheap, and the venue was super small with a crowd that was 80% over the age of 60, which made it easy to get close to the stage.  Josh Turner's voice was smooth, deep, and beautiful, and his wifey played the keyboard and sang backup with him! Super adorable. There also aren't many concerts that stumble through Mississippi, so to find someone we had actually heard of and really liked was all but a miracle. 

 Mandolin shout-out for Lucy

We made new friends who came with us! Yay! 

(apologies for the quality of the photo taken by random teenage girl)

We didn't get to go to any of the other Indian Fair events, because we had to get back to our dear doggie, but it was super fun and I'll definitely go back!

Miss Mississippi

One of the perks of living in Vicksburg is that the Miss Mississippi pageant takes place right down the street from where we are living! Some of you may ask, "But Sarah, I didn't know you were so into pageants?" Well friends, I'm not. But I don't mind a good ol' fashioned parade, and that is exactly what the Miss Mississippi pageant provided me with last night.

While there was no candy throwing and no elaborate floats in this parade, it was complete with convertibles, police cars and fire trucks (with accompanying sirens), dancers, and young women beautifully adorned in feathers, sequins, and satin. What's not to love?

All set up and ready for it to start! 

(it's a little hot here)

Yes, they are pointing and smiling at Franklin. 

I forgot to mention the zombies!

THE Miss Mississippi, also pointing and smiling at Franklin. He's basically famous. 

In all seriousness though, it was fun, and, as Mississippi has proven to be very good for, something I have never done before, but probably something that I will do again (this is an annual event, after all). Who knows? Some day, we may even scrap together the $50/ticket and actually go to the pageant itself.

I've always been a bit perplexed by pageantry, seeing as I often go day-to-day with no makeup (during summers at least) and without brushing my hair (a year-round occurrence). I'm not much for dressing up all that often, either. However, skeptic though I was, I read some of the bio's of the contestants in the pageant and was thoroughly impressed. One of the girls holds District, Regional, and State titles in high school track, got 11th in the 400m at Nationals, and was even on the front of a Wheaties box! If you're not impressed by that, you should go run a 400m sprint and then talk to me. So alas, my initial skepticism was met with proof that there is more than feathers, sequins, and satin involved in pageants, for which I was quite relieved.

The Great Race!

Yesterday was a momentous day. To start, I got some screaming deals at the Gap Outlet (we're talking a shirt and 2 sweaters for under $20!). That wasn't the big event of the day, though.
In little Vicksburg, the Great Race came through! What is the Great Race, you may ask?

The Great Race is an antique, vintage, and collector car competitive controlled-speed endurance road rally on public highways. It is not a test of top speed. It is a test of a driver/navigator team’s ability to follow precise course instructions and the car’s (and team’s) ability to endure on a cross-country trip. The course instructions require the competing teams to drive at or below the posted speed limits at all times.
(above info taken from here)

After helping Josh at work for a few hours, we rushed home to make sure we wouldn't miss it. It's not every day something is going on here. While I would by no means call myself a classic car fanatic, I'm all for experiencing new and different things. It was surprisingly fun and now we have a goal to own a classic car.

First, the cars came through like a parade.

Then all the cars parked at the end of the block for the public's admiration. The VW Beetle and the Fiat were my favorites!

It felt like a truly Southern experience with the bugs in the air, the blues music playing, the river in the background, and the cars lined up. Now if only we were sipping iced tea :) 

"That's a real beautiful dog you got there, miss!"

People in Mississippi LOVE Franklin. I mean, really, people everywhere love Franklin, but it's different down here. Goldendoodles are all but common here (read: most people have never heard of them, thinks he's a poodle cut wrong, look at me funny when I say goldendoodle, and/or reply with "golden-what?"), and so when you combine that with his unique coloring, Franklin becomes quite the attention-hog.

Some examples: 

• Josh, Franklin and I walked past two tables of people sitting outside of a cafe. The first table stopped Josh to talk about Frank, the second table stopped me to ask about Frank. 
• Frank and I will be walking on the sidewalk, and people driving by will shout out their car windows to us. "That's a beautiful dog!!!" one lady yelled with her head strained back looking at us while she drove by. "What kind of dog is that? He's real a beautiful dog!" another man yelled as he rolled through a stop sign. 
• There's a lady down the street who is often outside when we go on our afternoon walk. "How's Franklin doin' today?" Not me, my dog. 

I'm not complaining about this, as it has proven that having Franklin seems to make it a lot easier to talk to people and get to know them. He basically serves as an icebreaker that people are incredibly interested in and obsessed with and don't mind asking you about. 

Franklin, however, is not quite sure how he feels about it down here. 

 Take the kitchen stools, for example. Every day when we eat, he insists on sitting just like this, with his body against the wall and his head and front paws under the stool. When we finish eating, he does not know how to get out. He whines, tries to move but the stool shakes and he gets scared, he whines some more, until finally (after 5-10 minutes of this), he gets the courage up to just go for it and you hear the stool wobble around and almost topple over. And yet, after 7 days of this, he still has to lay in the exact same position. Grace has never been his strong suit.

Other happenings around town:

Everyday I walk past the Coca-Cola museum (where Coca-Cola was bottled for the first time!) and every day I read the sign that says "Ice-cold Coca-Cola!" and everyday I want a Coke. Yesterday, that dream became a reality. We got our 8oz. old time bottles of Coke and it was nothing other than a dream come true.

On an unrelated note, the Mississippi River is quite high this year.

Downtown Living

Shortly after Josh and I got married, I made a list of things I wanted to do in my life. This list includes the achievement of "live in a city." While I don't quite know if this summer will qualify enough as city livin to check it off the list, it is definitely different than anywhere we have ever lived before.

The inside is a dream, with exposed brick, granite counters, hardwood floors, high ceilings, and 2 huge windows in the living room. The outside is old and bricky!

Downtown Vicksburg is an array of random shops. While there are several storefronts that have gone out of business, it seems like the city is really trying to make it a nice downtown area. There's even music piped in to speakers on the street! And as would be expected, it's always jazz. 

So Franklin and I decided to take a field trip today to get better acquainted with our new surroundings. And while I may have felt (and most likely, looked) like an out-of-place tourist walking around with my dog and camera, it was nice to get out and actually have some nice places to walk around.  

As you can see, Franklin loves modeling for me. He also loves summers in Mississippi, that's why his tongue is so long. 

 For those of you who remember our last summer in Mississippi, it wouldn't take much to make this summer better. We're hopeful that location, location, location really is everything!