Tears In My Eyes

Tonight, as a parent I experienced one of the proudest moments of my life. Seriously, my heart swelled in my chest and something became lodged in my throat.

You may or may not remember, but a little over a year ago, when we rescued The Hankster, he required a major orthopedic surgery.

Poor little guy was only 12 weeks old and he came home like this:

In the months (heck, the whole year) that followed, Cowboy H and I often questioned whether the surgery did any good. Occasionally, we considered having the entire leg amputated. For the longest time it seemed, Hank didn't even use the leg. It was just there, even in the way sometimes.

Eventually we realized that the leg was shorter than the other one. In the few weeks between his injury and the surgery, the blood supply to his femur had been compromised. For that period of time, Hank's right femur did not grow at the same rate as the other, making the leg a little stumpy. We're still not sure if he'll ever use the leg normally, despite the fact that he gets quite a bit of use out of it now.

In addition to having leg surgery, Hank was also neutered the same day. The combination of not using the leg and not having the male hormones made us wonder if he would ever stop squatting to pee.

Until tonight. Tonight, while running around at the park, Hank stood on his bad leg and lifted his good leg to pee on a pole.

I have never been prouder.

Never, ever in my life.

In other news, the winner of the "Name That Photo" contest has been decided.

The Desert Rose: "Redneck woman vacuums up two dogs..."

I seriously laughed out loud, because well, I wouldn't be surprised if I actually did vacuum up a dog someday.

Congrats Desert Rose! Take your pick of one of the following:

This Year I Will

The word around the streets these days is "resolution". What's your new year's resolution? Do you have a new year's resolution? Are you making a new year's resolution?

I'm not making a resolution this year. I don't think I've made one in the last few years. However, there are a few things that I want to accomplish this year, or at least make habit again.

Here is the list of things I WILL do this year:

• Eat more salads
  
• Drink 3 cups of green tea a day
• Go to spinning class twice a week
• Visit (maybe not ride) my horses more often
• Blog consistently (i.e. at least 5x a week)
• Comment more on everyone else's killer blogs
• Print and frame some of my photos for my own walls
• Approach the family budget with less of a negative attitude
• Set up a photography website

It's a brand new decade, I have a brand new name (finally) and I feel the nagging pull of change growing stronger. I feel like I've been on the edge, just waiting to leap and I'm finally ready to leap without anyone having to push me!

Anyone else have high hopes for 2010?

Traditions

The other night, as Cowboy H and I were driving home, I began thinking of family traditions and holiday traditions and growing up and making your own.

When Cowboy H and I first got together we were broke. Cowboy and college student broke. Christmas came along and we were still broke, but we were together, so something had to be done. We couldn't afford to buy lots of Christmas presents. Heck, we couldn't even afford any Christmas presents. But we refused to not do anything. Instead of charging up cards, or borrowing money, or renting one's self out on the street corner, I bought dollar stockings, put our names on them with puff paint (remember that stuff?) and we set a $20 per stocking limit. Then we headed to WalMart (together), each got our own cart and spent the next 45 minutes trying to avoid each other while filling our own cart with dorky items for the other's stocking. It was so much fun! And here we are, four Christmases later and we are trying to schedule our annual run.

It has become our tradition. Even though there will be a few actual gifts under the tree this year, we will go to WalMart (together) and buy $20 worth of crap to stuff in each others' stockings.

I was thinking back on this the other night and how we did what worked for us, not what our growing up told us to do, not what the commercials told us to do, not what our friends told us to do.

Of all the Christmas traditions I have participated in, this has become my favorite one. It's my favorite because it belongs to us, was created by us, and it there so much meaning behind it. It gets me, right in the heart, and makes my heart swell up, to the point that it feels like bursting, just thinking about it. In fact, as I'm typing this, I've got a little smile creeping onto the corners of my mouth and my eyes are a little teary.

Does anyone else have a Christmas tradition that holds extra special meaning? Does anyone else remember the first tradition that they created? What are some unique Christmas traditions that you carry on each year?