The Notebooks

I am not very big on Valentine's Day.  I just feel like it is just something that is blown up to be way more than what is should be.  I think it is sad that some people only get shown love on one day out of the year.  I am very proud to say that my husband shows me love and affection everyday!! Any who.... I really thought I knew what I was getting but turns out I was wrong.  I wanted some rocking chairs but he could not find the one that I wanted.  I came home from work to find a card and two spiral notebooks on the table.  One was pink and one was black and each had a pen with them.  Inside mine was a letter.  It explained that each day we would write something positive about the other in the notebook.  He said that it had to be positive and nothing negative.  We will exchange our notebooks every weekend so that we can see what the other has wrote.  This weekend will be our first time to exchange our notebooks.  I cannot wait to see what he has wrote.  And I def cannot wait for him to read what I have written.  I just loved this idea! I think it is def healthy to continue to praise one another and make sure the other one understands just how they important they are in the marriage.  I love him so much and could not have thought of a more perfect gift.  So to all you ladies that just threw your dead flowers in trash.... I will still be enjoying my gift for many weeks ;)



Looci Jean Cochran Brooks

On February 11, 2013 I said goodbye to my first child, Looci.  I got her the 4th week of December (cant remember the actual date) of 2000.  She was my early Christmas present.  She was the cutest darn thing ever! I had went over to a friend's house to study and when I came home there she was waiting on me with a bow.  My sweet Mama had went and got her from a breeder in Smith County.  Her blood line was that of champions.  I was not sure what to name her so I waited a couple of days to see what her personality was.  She was so funny and just plain goofy! So, I decided to name her Looci after I Love Lucy.  Mama told me after I named her that the breeder had actually named her Lucy bc of her funny personality.  I immediately fell in love with her along with everyone else in the house.  I was of course a teenager at the time and wanted to go and do so she spent a lot of time with my parents.  Mom potty trained her within like 3 days and she knew she could get anything from my daddy.  Even though I was her "main owner" and Mom took up a lot of time with her she LOVED my dad, her Papaw.  I mean she loved him and he loved her! And if you know my dad he dont share much love.  She was such a bossy flossy!! I mean she demanded things and you couldn't help but just do them.  She had these big brown eyes and everytime she would look at you it was like she was looking into your soul.  And that my friends is how she got anything she wanted.  If you wanted to make her day just say "Looci, you wanna ride?".  She would just about knock you down to get out of the door.  She loved to take naps and sleep in the bed with us at night.  Her routine was to get under the covers, go all the way to the bottom of the bed, turn around and lay about mid ways up your body.  She would then get hot after an hour or so and get on top of the covers.  She was down for a nap anytime!  She was my girl and my sassy lil side kick.  These stories that I am fixing to list are probably not funny to anyone but those who really knew her and wittnessed them but here it goes:

• Before her ears got docked she got her head stuck in a glass gallon pickle jar. 
• She ate a bar of rat poison and we had to give her a tablespoon of salt which equaled in puking everywhere!
• I sprayed my wheels with tire foam and washed it off with a hose.  She began drinking the water and became what looked like she was drunk. 
• She always chased the neighbors chickens and a few times she got lucky and caught one :/
• She went to go chase Daddy's goats one time and didn't know about that electric fence. Well, they immediately got introduced. 
• She would run away for hours upon hours!!! Refused to return when called.
• She would not come back to you while outside.  We would bribe her with ham, treats, milk, anything! It never worked. She would get in reaching distance of you and then dart off.
• She loved to look in the window of cars.... and that would result in scratching the side of some poor visitors car. 
• She drug my dad across the yard one time because she saw a rabbit in the yard. 
• She got sprayed in the face by a skunk and had to spend 2 nights outside. 
• She chewed the laundry room door in half bc she had separation anxiety. 
• We sprayed a type of spray that was suppose to keep them from chewing things.. she was of course allergic to it and her face became swollen. 
• She hated the crate!! But she wouldn't be a good girl if left out.  She could tear out of it in a heart beat. 
• She would chase bikers down the road. Wouldn't listen to "stop!" to save her life!
• We had to nurse a little goat back to health one time and it would always want to nurse her and it would freak her out. LMBO!!
• Chewing or destroying things that belonged to whoever she was ticked at at the time. 
• Josh had a pig that got out of his pen... she commensed to chase the thing into the woods... came out with her eyes swollen shut. Yet, another allergic reaction to something. 

My list could probably go on for a while but those are the good ones!  I loved her so much! She had gotten so sick towards the end.  In that last week she began vomitting a lot.  Monday when I left I had already cleaned up about 5 piles.  Josh and I were texting back and forth about her and how it was definitely getting time to make a decision and not be selfish about it.  About 15 minutes I got the text "we need to go now".  She had lost control of her front legs and Josh had found her head down in a corner.  He laid her on her bed till I got there.  When I walked in I went straight to her. Her eyes were black, no life in them.  She wouldn't wag her "nub" when I would talk to her.  Her breathing was so fast and her tongue was hanging out.  I felt completely helpless and I knew what I had to do. She would not have made it through the day had we not went on.  Dr. Kent Holifield (best vet ever!) came out to my truck and went ahead with the procedure with her in my lap.  I rubbed her face and whispered in her ear that I loved her.  I told her she was her Papaws girl and that her Mamaw loved her too.  And just like that she was gone.  ON the way home, through tears, Josh and I would laugh telling stories about her.  It kept my mind at ease.  I burried her between my blueberry bushes in the front yard.  I can look out my kitchen window and see her.  And that is perfect!! I know she is catching lizards and rats at Raindbow Bridge right now!

Love you LOO LOO! The house is definitely not the same.