Ehhh Scratch That.

Scratch that whole "Moving" thing in the post earlier. It's not happening.

The people buying our house decided to back out at the LAST POSSIBLE FREAKIN' SECOND. Actually, I got the phone call as I was shampooing carpets in my NEW house. Had to pack up the stuff I'd already taken over to the new house and lug it all back to my old house. Now, I have to unpack all our crap and don't even get a new house out of the deal. Oh, but I doooooooooo get to put my house back on the market and go through all this hell all over again. Fun huh?

I'll be in a better mood once the M&Ms and Smirnoff kick in. =o)

A decision well made...

Here it is! The confirmation I was looking for. The wee glimpse into fate which allowed me to see that we have made the right decision in selecting an African Boerboel for our son with Autism, and even more so, in choosing THIS PARTICULAR African Boerboel who we had such a rocky time getting from the get-go. Mason really has NO interest in the animals who live in our home. He seemingly didn't even NOTICE Matani when he first arrived. Even now Mason tends to ignore the 50-60 pound rough-housing puppy most of the time. But today was different! I came down the stairs to see this!!!!!!! My son, watching cartoons and ALLOWING Matani to lie with him! Yes! He finally let the dog in, and Matani took full advantage of the opportunity! My heart melted a bit... this is one very good decision made in our quest to help our son.

So Much to do... So little time to get it done!

So I figured I better post a blog to let my friends and family know what's been going on around here! We have been SO incredibly busy lately that my head is SPINNING!

We put our house on the market at the end of February. Three weeks later we had a concrete offer on it. We accepted the offer and have until April 27th to be outta here! I can't even believe the house sold so fast! So, with the 'get out date' looming, we spent every single DAY searching for a new home, in the right area, for the right price, yadda yadda yadda. NOTHING. Zip, Zero, Zilch. Until we happened across a WONDERFUL home in a private country club community that was going into foreclosure. (This means we could possibly get it for WAY under appraisal value!) We put in an offer and never heard back from the bank... *sigh* It's okay though. We found ANOTHER property three doors down from THAT property (another foreclosure) and put an offer on THAT one. They came back in 24 hours with a big fat YES! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO We have a new house! A beautiful home too! We take possession on April 22nd! YAY! Perfect timing! And my big bonus????? Now, I'll have my very own SCRAP-ROOM! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This isn't a very good photo. It's the photo off of the real estate site. I'll get some good ones of the outside once we get in there! I did however take a few decent shots of the INSIDE that I'll post for ya.

This is Ashli standing just beyond the foyer. When you walk in, there is a 'scrap-room' immediately to the right behind french doors. There is also a small hallway, coat closet and bathroom. Then you go UP the steps into the house. Off to the right of Ashli is the formal dining, and to her left are the stairs to the bedrooms and other bathrooms.



The living room. Cant seem to get a good photo of it without a fish-eye lens. It's roughly 17x20 and is sunk-in.


I am in LOVE with the new kitchen! Again, it's big so I can't fit it all into one photo. Love the cooktop and double ovens for SURE! hehehe



Another little 'happening' for us, is that Gregg was in a bad car accident on Wed. the 9th. A woman blew through a stop sign and Gregg hit her directly in the driver's side. She was cited as being at fault and both vehicles are pretty well totaled. Gregg is Okay thank God! He suffered a good case of whiplash and some pretty sore body parts, but is none the worse for the wear. THe other people weren't so lucky. They had lots of bad injuries, but are expected to recover. Now, we are dealing with the insurance companies and trying to figure our where we go next as far as getting Gregg a new truck!

With all this going on, it seems I have ZERO time for anything but packing, therapies, hanging out with the kids and if I'm lucky... getting dinner on the table! I'm thinking (hoping) that things will settle down MEASURABLY when we get moved and settled into our new house!

Oh, and for my dear friend Crys.. here's the puppy update! He's huge. Like STOCKY huge! Probably upwards of 50-55 pounds and 100% PUPPY! His toy collection is growing by the day as we are trying to preserve what furnishings we have left! He is an ornery little thing, but the sweetest snuggler I've had the pleasure of sleeping with. Yes... I let this beast (and my rottweiler, and my 20 lb cat) sleep in bed with me when Gregg is working. =o) It's Colorado.. It's COLD... They keep me WARM! Anyway, here are some more recent pics of the little guy!

Goodbye sweet Capone...

My dear and sweet nephew lost his battle with a horrible infection that had ravaged his body this past week. Capone (my Pones) was a true ambassador for his breed. He was a pitbull who dearly LOVED people, he LOVED children and he made any person who met him a pitbull lover themselves. I can honestly say that I would not hesitate for one nano-second to leave my children alone with this beautiful animal. I have in fact done so, and I am not the only one. Pones was an exceptionally wonderful friend and I pray he is finally resting peacefully.

You have a special place Dear Lord
that I know you'll always keep,
A special place reserved for dogs
when they quietly fall asleep.
With large and airy kennels,
and a yard for hiding bones.
With maybe a little babbling creek,
that chatters over stones.
With wide green fields and flowers,
for those who never knew,
about running freely under
Your sky of perfect blue.
Lord, I know You keep this Special Place
and so to you I Pray,
for one very special Pitbull
who quietly died today.
He was full of strength and love,
and so very, very wise.
The puppy look that he once had,
had long since left his eyes.
He went to join his ancestors,
to Your land that is Devine.
So, speak to Capone softly please,
and give him a warm hello.
He's a special gift to You Dear Lord
from his family, who loves him so.

Goodbye sweet boy. We love you.

Little Dog From "AFRICA" No likey da snow!!!

We've been waiting for this moment since Matani was BORN last November 27th, 2007. "What will his reaction to 'SNOW' be?" We wondered often. Yeah.. he didn't so much care for it~ He tip-toed out to the grass, peed, his 'boy parts' touched the snow, he jumped about two feet into the air and ran back to the porch. Then, he proceeded to pee in the house. BLECH!!

Anyway, I did get some pretty cool photos of our little man (and our little girl) in the snow =o)


I shall interpret for you, I speak African Dog (Don't I Stacey?) LMAO.

"WTF IS THIS WHITE STUFF???????? That's it, I'm going home!"

"Oh wait a minute here... what is this? Mommy has SNOW SLIPPERS????"

It's time for EAT THE MOMMAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
(see post below for the 'Eat The Momma' saga)

Oh he's SO TUFF! Barkin' like a BIG DOG!
What he's REALLY saying is "GET ME OUTTA THIS FROZEN WASTELAND!"

I chose to post this photo, so that you all can see how big my little 13 week old puppy is, when he's standing next to my full grown ROTTWEILER! Eeesh. He may be a tad on the LARGE size! =o)

These are just some A-M-A-Z-I-N-G Shots I got of Codi. She is SO much more easy to photograph than Matani!
Click on these suckers to blow them up and see them in detail! WOW!

A little... scenario for you.

Life, with Matani




"Sniff Sniff Sniff. Hmmmm what's THIS new smell? Smells good. OH A LEAF! WOW! COOL! NEW TOY!"

*Leaves rustle as mom sneaks up with a camera*

"Huh? what's at noise?"

"OH MY GOSH IT'S MOMMY!!!! AND SHE'S WEARING MY FAVORITE SLIPPERS!"
"I'M GONNA GETCHA, I'M GONNA GETCHA!"

"Num Num Num. My FAVORITE game! EAT THE MOMMA!"

Hello, my name is "NO-NO! BAD DOG!

It's Official

Mason was officially diagnosed with "Classic Autism" on Monday by a child psychiatrist. We are now putting him on the wait list for the medicaid waiver which will release $25,000 in additional therapies (about 8 hours of the needed 24 hours per week). It's a start. It's one little battle won.


Oh, by the way. As if all the craziness with the design team for Scrap N' Art, the new puppy (oy vey!), and Mason wasn't enough. We've decided to sell our house and get a bigger one. I am flat EXHAUSTED from scrubbing, painting, fixing, running, scrapping, chasing puppies, being bitten everytime I flippin' BREATHE! But.. it'll be worth it when we get into a little bigger place! (I hope!)

This little chicky is going to bed now. G'nite

(errr G'morning/G'Day to YOU Helen!) LOL

Tails from the new mommy,

He ain't so cute at 2:30 in the morning.

There is one thing that apparently I did not think of when having a little immature puppy flown over from South Africa. In South Africa, it is11:30 am right now. It's PLAYTIME in South Africa... Well guess what my friends? It is also PLAYTIME in Aurora, Colorado if I don't want his pitiful cries of lonely torture to wake up my children.

So here we are (the NOT very amused Codi and I) at 2:41 a.m. while the little prince plays with a chewy toy. Oy Vey it's gonna be a long night!

Well guess who showed up today!!!!

YES!!!!!!! He's here! FINALLY! We went through HELL to get this little guy... but at last he's here. Sleeping in my lap (lets see him try THIS when he's 150+ pounds!) Today SUCKED. The suspense for his arrival was K-I-L-L-I-N-G Me! So of course, I left to the airport totally early. Got there right as his plane was landing, but had to wait until he was transported over to the Cargo area. bleh.

I was pacing... back and forth... with both my kiddies with me waiting.... waiting.... waiting... when the idiot behind the counter says.. "oh yeah.. he's here already" GROOOOOOOOOOOOWL~ He's lucky he was behind that wall! Anyway, they bring Matani's crate to JUUUUUUUUUUST where I can barely see that there IS in fact a crate back there and they proceed to tell me that Matani hasn't cleared customs and I can't have him, or even SEE him until he has. Uhm Helloooooooooo! Can you people say TORTURE? I was about 2 seconds from breaking into a full fledged PMS Rage, when I called out to Matani. I simply called out his name and the pup started HOWLING!!!! He KNEW his name! It was like magic. I grabbed the beurocratic BS paperwork and fled doing about 80 down to customs. I got there and the customs guy (who by the way does not have one single humorous cell in his body) proceeds to tell me that my dog is 1.5 years old. Uh no... he's three months old today. So, we argue over this for about five minutes before he accepts defeat and proceeds to tell me that I can't have my dog because he hasn't had a rabies shot yet. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?!? If he didn't have a gun, I woulda lopped him upside his beurocratic too much paperwork HEAD! I tried explaining to him that puppies can't GET a rabbies shot until they are four months old and that I was not going to LEAVE my pup with these dorks for a month! So Mr. Paperwork Dork had to take the files back to the "behind the scenes dorks" and keep me waiting for another 45 minutes while they all figured out that once again.... I was right. Good grief people! STAMP THE FRIGGIN PAPER AND LET ME GET MY DOG! I swear he didn't swallow a bomb on his way over for cryin out loud! So, I went back to the airline, paperwork in hand... had to pay $25.00 for them to 'house' my dog for an hour and I picked him up and LEFT! Well, I got as far as the parking lot before he was OUT of that crate, on a leash and running like mad through the fields! And this little dude loved EVERY single second of it!

Now he's home. He's happy... he's pottied outside 5 or 6 times, he's eating like a champion HORSE, he's tormenting the kids and the cats, he's taken 3 naps and 1 bath (Lord does he smell better now!). I've discovered that STAIRS are a totally foreign concept to him and to watch him climb the porch step into our home is HILARIOUS! He's never had any experience with a sliding glass door either, as is evidenced by him continually walking/running into the damn thing! I've learned he growls in his sleep, he sleeps HARD. Not even the vacuum woke him up! He loves toys and loves to chew. EVERYTHING. He's chewed his "immigration papers", my couch pillows, my sun visor, my jeans, his toys, my cat, my son and my daughter. He likes to chew. A lot. I realized this was a match made in heaven when he passed up the water bowl and went straight for momma's Pepsi. Yep. This is MY BOY and he's stolen my heart! Here are the very first photos of Matani. I'll get some good ones tomorrow I hope when we're all rested a bit!

As {my} luck would have it....

Matani (see post below) will NOT be coming to America any time soon, if at all. It's my luck. Matani's momma stepped on his elbow, tearing the ligaments and leaving him swollen, unable to walk and in extreme pain. Matani is on medication and he WILL heal, though it may take a few months... My heart is broken for this angel puppy, and also for us. We had grown to love him dearly already. Please keep this little guy in your thoughts... and we hope hope hope.... that he will be ours... SOMEDAY.

The Newest Member of our Family!

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the Mosbarger family. This is Matani. (I HOPE his name will be Matani. We are currently arguing over this but I do love it so, and it's so very fitting!)

Matani is our little South African Boerboel puppy! He will be 10 weeks old on Tuesday, February 5th. He is a BIG boy already for SURE. I know this isn't a good photo at all, but it is the ONLY photo I have of our new baby. You see, Matani (which is Swahili for strength and power), is still living with his mommy in Heilbron, South Africa. Yep.. he's half a world away and he has stolen my heart! We are hoping that Matani will be making the very long 24 hour flight to Denver sometime in the next week! At that point, you just KNOW my blog will be flooded with fantastic photos of my little prince!

Why in the WORLD would we buy a dog sight unseen, from a different continent you ask? To make a VERY long story short, South African Boerboel dogs are very well known for the way they bond to the children in the family. This particular breed above any other that we've researched will be the most perfect companion/therapy dog for Mason who is on the Autism Spectrum. The breeder we have chosen, is among the top 3 Boerboel breeders in the world. He is a geneticist who breeds specifically for temperament above all else. No, the man does NOT take very good photos, but he breeds good, sound dogs!

Here is baby Matani -

Mmmmmmm New Lens!

Thank-you to my super sweet friend Heather for giving me first dibs on the 70-300mm Macro lens she was selling to make room for her new Rig! I took it out today to play a bit (and also for the February Photography Challenge at The Little Scrap Shop) We were to focus on Pink & Red in our photos... And of course because I am ME, there had to be chocolate involved!

Air Force 1

Hey, guess who flew over my place today? Whenever the president comes to town, his flight path always takes him right outside my front window. Today, I managed to catch a few shots of him coming in! If you click on the photo to blow it up, you can see a little better detail, though I had to crop them down pretty good.

YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!

MASON SAID, "BYE-BYE" TODAY!!!!!!!

Oh how wonderful it was to hear!!!! He had been waving bye-bye for the past couple of days when prompted to do so by Gregg or myself. (This is a huge milestone in itself, as he does not wave or point). So Gregg and I were waving at him today and repeating, "bye-bye" when out of those precious lips came the words "Ba-bye!" Gregg and I just stared at each other in stunned silence as if to ask one another, "Did you just hear what I heard?"

He didn't say it again... only that once. He probably didn't realize or MEAN what he said... but he said it and I'll TAKE IT!

Later this evening... he pointed at the light and made some grunting noises... WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO SO SO huge! Thank you for letting a proud momma ramble!!

A few treasured shots & an update on the boy...

Mason started Occupational therapy this month, for Sensory Integration Dysfunction. He is doing remarkably well using the sensory diet activities that we have begun using with him. He is seemingly more attentive, easier to 'reach', and he's letting me brush his top teeth! This is SO huge! He has begun to play 'chase' with me, even looking back to make sure I am still behind him. All wonderful wonderful signs! He is still getting behavioral therapy multiple times a month, in addition to the OT which we will be doing 3 times a month for now.

Tonight, I began a three month class at The Children's Hospital where I will be learning the Hanen Method of breaking down speech pathology and giving Mason the Speech Therapy he needs at home! It's undoubtedly a LOT of work, but if it helps my son and I to understand each other on a more meaningful level, it will be SO worth it! We are starting from essentially a blank slate. Mason has VERY little receptive language (his understanding of words and commands) and he has ZERO expressive language... I hope to be able to work on this very hard in the next few months and the Children's Hospital is giving us that opportunity, thanks to a Grant from the Scottish Rite Foundation! THANK-YOU!

We have FINALLY (no thanks to CIGNA HMO) gotten Mason's second opinion scheduled for Feb. 25th. *fingers crossed*

Here are a few shots I got of my special 'Valentine' a couple of weeks ago!

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO in LOVE with those amazing eyes!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!

I bribed, begged, threatened and ultimately FORCED my hubby to get in front of my camera tonight. Usually, my sticking a camera in his face prompts one of three reactions. My favorite (and most popular by far) is the middle finger salute. But lets not forget the finger up the nose (which I do believe runs in his family) or the flat out SPRINT out of the immediate vicinity! Pisses me off!

So, I told him that the 7 foot spruce tree that has taken over our living room will NOT be going anywhere until he gets in front of it to take some pictures with me!
Let's face it, I know DAMN well HE isn't going to take down the tree!

So, with literal TEARS IN HIS EYES (he's such a drama king!) and while he was repeating over and over (AND OVER) that I was 'Sucking out his will to live', we got a couple of photos taken!
It's a huge deal, as we've been married almost FIVE years and have NOT had a decent photo taken together since the day we were married~ So here they are. I really hope it doesn't take another 5 years to get some more... though it PROBABLY will!
Thanks for looking!

A little bit of Christmas...

Here are some photos I took last night of our Christmas tree. I took some close-ups of ornaments after seeing it done SO beautifully by some fellow scrap-bookers.

A boy and his lights...

This was the first Christmas that Mason was able to 'help' decorate (and subsequently UN-decorate) our Christmas tree. After I spent some good 'quality' time untangling the lights, Mason promptly jumped right into them and tied them all back up again!Lucky for me, I had my camera and tripod standing close by and I was able to work on my LOW light / fast child photography. That's a tricky little buggar!

I am just in love with the above photo.