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The Stolen Fella

This is a story about how Tony and I came to dating – it’s not all pretty.

It was my junior year of high school and I was dating the first love of my life or my first long term boyfriend at the time. I was 16 years-old and sure he was the one even though we had only dated for about a year (like, forever in the life of a teenager) and he had already started at a college about 2 hours away. We were going to be long distance and it was going to work. 

On the first day of school, in my second to last period in the day – drama – I walked in and sat down at the first desk I saw. Then, this beautiful boy walked in the door. He was a senior. He was very tall, slender build, with dark brown, almost black hair with the perfect amount of curl that hung just below his ears.  He had the darkest, thick eyebrows that perfectly accentuated his deep set, brilliant green eyes. My very first and immediate thought was “He’s one of those guys who is so attractive, he won’t even look twice at me”. So, my first action was to protect myself against sure rejection and play it cool. He was automatically placed on my “he’s too good for me” list and was stricken from my mind as a date-worthy possibility. Oh yeah, and also there was my boyfriend, and we were going to be together forever.

I noticed his necklace right away.  It looked like a handmade craft beaded necklace and I opened with “I like your necklace.” He said “thanks” and that started our friendship. The third in our group was a fun girl in the ROTC and we had a ball together. Tony and I would always partner up for projects and skits and I quickly discovered his terrible stammering issue. We were one time reading children’s books as an exercise and it took him so long to get through it, it was almost painful, but the longer we knew each other and the more exercises we did, the smoother his speech became. I wouldn’t find out until later that it was because he was nervous around me and that made it so much worse. 

At the same time that our friendship was budding and growing without me feeling the slightest clue that ever dating him might be an option, I had my own drama going on in the field of romance. My long distance boyfriend was feeling more and more long distant even though we talked all the time on AIM and he came to visit when he could. I had also joined the cross country team and had started hanging out with the team. I met a guy on the team, broke up with my boyfriend and dated the runner for a very brief period.

I really don’t remember much about my relationship with the new guy. It was very short, and he was very pushy about being physical when I wasn’t really there, myself. I remember one time in particular, he was saying goodbye to me in my garage and we went to kiss goodbye and he basically slowly tackled me to the garage floor so he was laying on top of me while he sloppily kissed me. I was caught off guard to say the least and now I was covered in dirt and being slobbered on. I eventually got up, literally dusted myself off and said goodbye.

The homecoming dance was coming up and my friendship with Tony was growing, but I was still blind to the gift dropped in my lap. I was going to the dance with Mr. Pushy, but still wanted my good friend, Tony to come as well. He was very shy and getting him to go to a social function like this was going to take some effort. One of my other best good friends at the time, did not have a date to go to the dance so I matched her and Tony up to go to the dance with the rest of our group of friends. We had a big group of drama/artsy friends who were all going together to homecoming. We were anything but popular, but ignored that and had a fantastic time anyway. We danced, we laughed, we paid no attention to the homecoming crowning or dancing. I don’t even remember seeing that happen. 

For the next few weeks, I was super happy for my friend and Tony. They went out on dates to the movies, went out for hot chocolate, seemed to be a budding relationship and I couldn’t be happier that two of my best friends were hitting it off so well. She was a great friend for me. I never really had very close friends in highschool, but as far as friends went, she was pretty special. She was just as silly and random as I was and made me laugh so hard all the time. We got into trouble writing notes back and forth in English class and one time, the teacher was discussing Moby Dick while she was completely preoccupied with one of the notes I had written her. The teacher noticed her being distracted and called her out and asked “do you have any thoughts on Moby Dick?”. She thought for only a half second and then blurted out “Moby Dick is Jesus!!” to which we all giggled, but the teacher was notably impressed and prodded her to continue. She went on and rattled off some parallels between the two figures and everyone in the class was impressed with her on-the-spot thinking. 

Then, along came my high school field trip. I was still dating Mr Pushy and took a class trip to Italy. There we all went dancing at a local discotech in Florence. I was able to find a very tight, very small gold sparkly top (that was also very itchy and uncomfortable) to go with a tight black mini skirt that I borrowed from my friend. Our group of highschoolers went and danced and there were a few local guys at the discotech very excited about all the enthusiastic young girls dancing in their bar. These guys were very forward with us and were dancing all over us. It was then that a guy in our group came over and danced with me to separate the older men from dancing with us. We danced for awhile and then we all walked back to the hotel in the dark with the streets barely lit and it was then he grabbed my hand. I was still only 16 and it meant the world to me. 

The rest of the Italy trip, we rode next to each other on the bus and talked a little. I was introduced to heavy metal music and tried very hard to like it, but I think I was growing too boring for him. We kept our closeness secret and didn’t show anyone that we were talking or holding hands and I was hopeful, even though I still had an eager kisser boyfriend waiting for me at home. 

The trip ended and I went back to school the next day. I was very excitedly telling all my friends about the trip and all the awesome things we did. Mr Pushy had been on a big, exciting camping trip with his family and, truth be told, I didn’t give him the attention a boyfriend deserves at the time. I also wasn’t sure how to deal with the exciting, new possible relationship I thought had budded in Italy, so I just ignored him, which wasn’t really fair to him. Later that day, I received a very angry note from him (no texting back then, folded paper note) telling me how horrible of a girlfriend I am and cussing me out. So, that ended that relationship. 

I thought that I would have a relationship with Mr. Italy next, but I would find out much later from Tony that I was involved in a love triangle. Apparently, I was interested in Mr Italy, Mr. Italy was interested in another girl, other girl was interested in Tony, and Tony was interested in me.

I had started to feel like Tony might have some interest in me as we went along. We would be sitting in the audience, watching other performers in drama class and I would notice that he would mimic the postures I was doing while sitting. At first I thought “uh oh, I’m going to have to start being careful because I’ve got this guy’s attention and my intentions are not the same”. We grew closer and closer, he was slowly becoming my most anticipated friend to see in the day. Then the camping trip came up where a group of my friends all went to the mountains with my mom as a chaperone. 

We had a blast, we hiked, the boys threw a LOT of sticks in the river, we played games, watched TV and hiked some more. Then, one night, we were all in the living room, watching TV and Tony and I were passing paper back and forth, drawing funny little cartoons trying to make each other laugh, when I decided to take advantage of the silly mood and wrote him “I like you, do you like me, circle yes or no”. He took awhile and then handed it back and had written “maybe” then crossed it out and checked “yes”. It was such a juvenile moment, yet was so exciting for me as well. 

We talked about it more the next day and decided we both liked each other and would see where it would go.  We had a blast listening to music on the way home, then reality hit. I had asked about his dating my friend on our trip and he told me they were not dating, that they had just gone out as friends. The next week, MF came up to me and gave me a letter and asked me to proofread it. It was a letter she had written to Tony about how much she cared for him. I was completely thrown off. I didn’t know how to handle this. She had no idea that Tony and I had talked about dating and I didn’t know how to direct her on this one. I didn’t want to be the one to tell her Tony did not think they had been dating, that was for Tony, but I didn’t want to get her hopes up either. So, I read her letter, directed her to make a few changes, then I went and told Tony that he was going to have to deal with this. 

He did. She found out we were planning on dating and we were no longer friends.  I had mixed emotions at this point. On one hand, I was ignoring the basic laws of friendship and dating her “ex” even though, according to him, they were never dating, but even then, she was still very interested in him. On the other hand, I really liked him and I was being selfish. So, I lost my silly, fun friend.

We’re friends again, facebook friends anyway. I still feel guilty when I think about it.

I found out later that, while I had been juggling guys back and forth since meeting him, Tony had had a crush on me since meeting me.

Me at 16 with my first (and favorite) horse – Jinjer
Cross country race
My senior prom – no, it wasn’t themed – I’m just a dork
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Friendly, a little too friendly

First, and foremost, I want you guys to know that I have no idea what I’m doing. I don’t have a set theme, I more than likely won’t be blogging EVERY day, but I hope it entertains you anyway.

When Tony and I were first married and living in Arnoldsville, GA, just outside of Athens, we were figuring out life. Tony and I both had jobs at the vet school and I was in the process of applying to be a vet student myself. I was out in the ridiculously hot Georgia summer, cutting my grass with a push mower (all we could afford), which in the late summer time was more like pulverizing ash (also just trimming the onion grass and dirt). I was wearing jeans just to protect my legs from the jet propelled pebbles of red clay from being imbedded in my legs forever.

Tony was at work at the time. I was out by the mailbox (about 1/10th mile from the house) when a truck pulled up beside me. I tried to ignore it at first in the noise of the mower as I am a naturally reserved person in person in the hopes it would just keep on driving. It didn’t. I looked up and saw a man in a cowboy hat with another guy in the passenger seat staring at me. I let go of the lever and let the mower engine die. “Can I help you?” I said.

In pretty good English, but thick Hispanic accent, he said “I was wondering if you wanted more work.” Me: “I’m quite busy with my own yard, ha ha!” Then he said what every man says to a woman when he wants to instantly grab her attention: “I work at a horse farm down the road”. At the mention of horse farm, I lost all sense of direction. “Horse farm!?! How wonderful! What kind of horses, how many” (etc). He said “well, why don’t you come over and I’ll show you around”.

“No, I can’t, I have a lot of work to do here” He said “Maybe later then, dinner?” Me “no, I have to cook dinner for my husband” Him “husband!?! you’re married, huh?” “yeah.. ” Him “well, maybe if you don’t have plans tomorrow, you can come over for lunch and I’ll show you around then.” I don’t want my readers to instantly judge me as an easy steal, but you have to understand that there were horses to be seen. At a breeding farm. And he said there were babies – HORSE babies! There is also something you need to know about me and that’s that, at this point in my life, I hadn’t learned to say “no” and didn’t want to disappoint this guy who was trying so hard despite my multiple rejections. So, reluctantly, there on the side of an old country road, sweating like a pig with a healthy coating of dirt and smelling of gasoline and onion grass, I agreed to go on a date with a complete stranger.

Something else you’ll come to find about me. I’m honest. I hate to lie, I’d almost go as far as saying I can’t lie, but that would be a lie. I think lies just complicate life and being honest is so much easier. Of course, as soon as Tony got home that night, I spilled my guts. I told him everything that had transpired and how I was obligated to go on a lunch date with this man. Tony just laughed.

The next day, at lunch time, I drove to the farm. He was just finishing up trimming some bushes when I pulled in. He greeted me, then proceeded to show me around the farm. It was a very lovely farm where the owner hosted numerous weddings, and there were, in fact, a couple of horses (three). We went and got lunch at one of the finest establishments in Winterville at the time (gas station Subway) and then came back to the farm to eat and chat. He was a very nice guy and we talked a lot, but my guilt was catching up to me, knowing that he was really looking for a date. So, I did the only thing an honest girl who was already married could do – I told him my sister, who was living with us at the time was single.

She never let me live that one down. After a couple of hangouts and awkward encounters, including a cowboy in a sushi restaurant, we eventually stopped communicating. I think he was just lonely and wanted some friends to hangout with, he eventually went back to Mexico to be with his family, but the language barrier – strike that – the sarcasm barrier between two languages made it very difficult to communicate. I hope he’s doing well and taking care of his family, he was a really nice guy.

Seattle 2008
Sippin’ Guiness like a rebel 2010
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How I came to work with Dr. Pol

First and foremost, thank you, everyone for subscribing!! We are still trying to figure everything out, so please be patient with us. My husband, Tony, is in charge of running the website and has worked on getting ads added to hopefully help us make a little extra money, but we don’t know exactly what we’re doing, so if (God forbid) something crazy starts happening that is unacceptable or offensive or even annoying, please let us know and we will try to remedy it. My first goal is entertaining and keeping you happy! Also, some of the replies you might get on this site could be Tony. Love you all!!

So, since most of you know me from The Incredible Dr. Pol show, I figured I would give you some back story into how that came to be. I had been working at a mixed animal practice with 50% on call with a egotistical, power hungry boss. Okay, I’ll give you a tiny example – once I was parked at a dairy with the company truck and one of the workers ran into the truck with a tractor, making a smallish 4-5 inch ding in a rear fender. My boss lost his mind and went off on them, me, demanding they pay for it immediately. Mind you, we frequented this dairy 2-3 times a week and it, by itself paid my boss about $20,000 per month in veterinary expenses.

Anyway, I was sick of working there and we were in our second rental house and our landlord had sold the house from underneath us. We had six weeks to move out. I started applying to several different practices locally and across the country. I included in my resume that I was probably going to be having more children. I was honest and open because: 1. That’s who I am and 2. I didn’t want to pick up and move my family to another town or state only to be “let go” and have to move again. My friend, the tech at that clinic I worked pushed me to apply to Dr. Pol when she saw the ad. My first response was “Who would want to live in Michigan!?!?” Having been raised in Georgia and spent the last 2.5 years in South Carolina, Michigan seemed like a stark, desolate wasteland of icy tundra. But, to make her happy (because that’s also who I am) I applied.

My family all went to Colorado that year for Christmas and I hadn’t heard from any of the clinics I had applied for. I was sure I was going to have to go back home and just look for another place to live at my current job and stay there forever. I was standing out on the back porch of the cabin we rented, staring at the stars in the crystal clear sky over the Rocky Mountains and just prayed and prayed (and maybe a little bit of begging) to God to help me and show me the way. I promised Him I would accept whatever He presented to me.

Two days later, I still hadn’t heard anything from other jobs, or from God for that matter, when we were driving home from the Atlanta airport. We had stopped for gas somewhere along the Atlanta Highway for gas when my phone range and it was Dr. Pol. I had not watched the show at all and only knew of it through news articles. I was still star struck, knowing this famous vet wanted me to come interview. I hung up the phone and knew that God had shown me the way.

Another two days and I took a pregnancy test that came up positive. I was thrilled, but then reality hit me when I realized I would have to go interview and admit that I was already pregnant. I considered not telling them, but was, again afraid I would move across country and just have to move back when I got fired for “whatever fits here”. I started my journey to Michigan on a Friday night. Flight got cancelled. Went back Saturday morning, flew to a connecting flight. That flight got cancelled and I had to spend the night at a hotel. I was able to extend my trip into Monday, but had to argue with an airline employee who scolded me for not scheduling an interview flight better, at which I informed her that I had planned on leaving Friday night, and now, because of the lovely airline, would not be flying out until Sunday.

I finally got to Michigan late Sunday afternoon, oooo’ed and awww’ed at all the beautiful snow. Called a real estate agent and asked about a house I had already looked at and finally crashed onto the bed of the hotel. I lay for 2-3 seconds before I mustered up the energy to call Diane Pol and tell her I was here and ready for the interview. During the interview, I eventually informed Diane that I was already pregnant to make sure there was full disclosure.

The next day, I went and saw the house that we ended up buying (which is STILL for sale!! https://www.zillow.com/homes/2931-E-Rosebush-Rd-Rosebush,-MI,-48878_rb/112243628_zpid/) flew home, and found out I got the job a few days later! So, here I am, hopefully still following God’s path. Why did I leave? That will have to be for a later (possibly much later) blog, but I will have to say God works in mysterious ways.

View from our house in Rosebush 2014
New baby surviving Michigan winters 2014
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I’m Going to Let it Shine!



Hello, and thank you for coming to read my random thoughts! I have decided to start a blog page about myself, my life, and random observations about the world in an attempt to give hope, inspire, but mostly make you laugh. I enjoy making people laugh, some for attention (otherwise why would I have the nerve to start a blog), but mostly to bring some positive light to the world when all chaos seems to be going on in our everyday lives. I plan to bring some lighthearted humor to everyday annoying situations so that you, too, can laugh at my downfalls and tribulations.

For my first Blog, I think I want to tell you about my brown stethoscope.

When I was in vet school, I got a purple stethoscope – my favorite color! Unfortunately, my dog ate it. So, then, when it was time to buy a new one, I had reached the point in my schooling where my soul and will to live had been adequately crushed (also known as clinical rotations) to allow for “remolding” – or, eventually, being happy with minimal pay for hard, stressful, skilled labor. At that point in my career, I did not exist as an individual and only was out to please my mentors and clients. Knowing that I would be going into large animal medicine, and therefore, be around barns, farmyards, horses, cows, pigs, etc, I wanted to have the best chance I could to be respected. I was convinced, as a girl, I wouldn’t be respected on the farm with “good ole boys” if I had a purple or pink stethoscope, so I purchased a brown one with copper finish. It looked very professional to me, like an elite equine practitioner and I was ready to go out and try my best to fit in with my clients and make them happy and would never allow them to think that my being a girl was a weakness.

My first real job (after a joke of an internship) was with a boss that was one of those good ole boys on the farm and despite his large stature and thick barrier of testosterone he carried around with him at all times, he employed only small women in his clinic – perhaps it was the need to feel in control, but perhaps it was just that in the veterinary world, women were becoming the majority for options. While working there, and only 3 months into my employment at my first job – granted I was already 28 – I became pregnant with my first child. I was absolutely terrified. I just knew that I was going to get fired for this and even contacted my uncle who is a lawyer to ask his opinion on my chances of getting fired. He told me that, unfortunately, because the business was such a small practice, I could, in fact, be fired legally.

I finally got up the courage to tell him and he was visibly disturbed, but, to my astonishment, did not fire me on the spot or make life harder for me to get me to quit. He did, however, warn me that the farmers around there (rural South Carolina) would not like a pregnant lady working on their cattle – that I’d make them uncomfortable and not to be discouraged if I was asked not to come back. I just knew that this would be the end of my large animal career. I worked very hard in the coming months to hide my belly with large clothes and coveralls, but at some point, you just get to the point where you can’t hide that belly anymore. The farmers did notice. They were shocked, surprised, but not one of them told me not to come back or act like they were unwilling to allow me to work on their animals. They were, maybe, a little more careful with restraining their large animals (but, really, shouldn’t they, anyway).

I went on to have the baby, remain on call, while breastfeeding and have to cart my infant along with me on some farm calls. I would park with the truck running and go pull a calf while my baby screamed in the truck the entire time. I did the same when I went out and castrated some horses, with the baby sleeping in the vehicle. Not one farmer said one thing to me – except I would get the occasional comment on how impressed they were that “a little girl like you can do what you do”.

I eventually established myself as a strong person, and no longer had to hide that I was a woman, that I was a pregnant woman, a nursing woman, a mothering woman, or a womanly woman. I eventually got to the point where I would wear earrings or *gasp* make-up or a sparkly headband that was my daughter’s out to the farms and never got a lick of push back. I still have the brown stethoscope because, well, they’re expensive and this one has not disintegrated yet, and once I cleaned all the cow manure out of the ear pieces, my ears don’t itch so much anymore. But I really love when people ask me about why I have an ugly, brown stethoscope because I get to tell them about how I used to be scared to be me, but once I was me and figured out people were okay with that, I get to be me and love it!