Tag Archives: working mom

The First Small Bloom

Posted on March 15, 2011 | 6 comments

Today’s post is provided by my first guest blogger, my husband, Mark.  He wrote this about a year ago.  It is very touching and well worth reading!

The other weekend I took my daughter to visit my father’s grave. Dad died before Kayla was born, so she only knows him through my stories. She has often asked me where he was buried, but I’ve never taken her to see his grave. Instead I’ve always reminded her that he’s not there so why visit an empty house. But last Saturday we found ourselves in the area with some time on our hands, and I felt the time was right for us to visit.

I drove by the cemetery and stopped on the road about 100 yards from where my dad was laid to rest. It was on the top of a small hill under the shade of some pecan trees. Someone had hung wind chimes in one of the trees and there was just enough breeze to make music. Kayla asked me how I knew where to stop since all the tombstones looked alike. I explained to her that some things you just never forget. As we crossed the distance from the drive to the grave I noticed her leaping and criss crossing in every direction. “What are you doing”, I asked. She said “I’m trying not to step on someone else’s grave, but I’m not sure which way everyone is buried”. So, I gave a brief description of how to know where to walk and within a few minutes we knelt beside my dad’s grave. She noticed that my mom’s name was inscribed besides Dad’s and that really bothered her, until I told her the name was okay as long as the dates weren’t filled in. That took a little time to sink in, but she finally got it. She wanted to know why my mom’s name was written with a first initial, and I told her it was because Mom hated her real name and never used it. Very few people even know it. The notion that my mom had a secret name really seemed to blow her mind. She tried her best to get me to tell, but I refused. So, Mom if she ever finds out, she didn’t get it from me.

She asked several technical questions, as only kids can, about what a funeral was like and how you bury someone. I was patiently explaining the answers to her when she noticed a grave near Dad’s that had my friend’s last name on it. I told her that was where his dad was buried. She asked me how I knew, and I told her that I had been a pallbearer at his dad’s funeral just as he had been at mine, that it was one of many shared experiences that have bound our friendship over the years. She asked me if I missed Dad and I told her yes, but that I knew I would see him again one day and that when I do we will never have to be separated again. Sounding a bit alarmed she asked if that was going to happen any time soon. I reassured her that I was in no hurry. I was enjoying life with her and her mom way too much to leave just yet. She asked me if I thought my dad would have liked her and what will he say when she meets him in Heaven one day, and I told her that he will welcome her with open arms and lots of love. She liked that, and so wanting to end the visit on a happy note, we got ready to go.

Just as we were arriving back at the car, she noticed a small flower blooming at the edge of the cemetery by the woods. It was one of those precious early flowers that bloom just in time to remind us that spring really is on the way and things will be brighter soon. Suddenly she took off running to pick the flower and take it to Dad’s grave just as fast as her little legs would carry her. When she returned to my side, she said, “I wanted to make sure that Grandpa Bill knew I want to meet him someday”. Then she stopped, hugged my leg and with tears in her eyes said, “No, that’s not right.” “Dad, I did it because I love you and I know you miss him.”

I don’t know if my dad could see her that day, but I do know my Heavenly Father did. And I’m sure it touched His heart as much as it did mine.

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The Day Mandy Came Home

Posted on March 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

Before we had three dogs, we had two dogs:  Tyra, whom you already know about, and an older dog whose full name was J.P. Wooflesnort (which stood for “Just Plain Wooflesnort”).  Most of the time, though, we just called her Woof.  I called her my kitchen dog, because no matter what I was doing, whether it was cleaning the kitchen after everyone else had gone to the other room, or sewing or just reading in a room by myself, she always stayed with me. 

Woof ended up being the most flexible geriatric dog I have known.  Not only did she adjust to the death of our first dog, Shadow (who was a character in her own right), but she also adjusted to the adoption of Tyra, the adoption of Kayla, a move to a new home and the adoption of Mandy – all after the age of 9! 

Shortly before her birthday one year, Kayla started lobbying for a dog of her own – she said that Mark had Tyra as his dog, I had Woof as my dog, and so she wanted a dog that was hers.  In a fit of madness, I decided to help her in her lobbying efforts, and, because he loves us, ultimately Mark told us we could go to the Humane Society one Sunday to see if we could find a lab or golden retriever to adopt. 

Before he could change his mind, I loaded Kayla, Tyra and Woof into our Chevy Tahoe and headed off to the Humane Society.  I didn’t take time to change, so I was in my church dress and heels.  When we got there, I took Kayla with me, and left Tyra and Woof in the car.  We went in, filled out a form, then I told a very nice young man that I needed a dog that was child friendly, other dog friendly, and housebroken.  He brought Mandy out to us.

Kayla loved her immediately, and even though I did notice that she did not particularly resemble either a lab or a retriever, she seemed to have a good temperament, so I told the shelter I would like to take her for a walk with my dogs.  So, shortly thereafter, I took Mandy out on a leash from the shelter and walked her with Woof and then Tyra.  That went swimmingly, so Kayla and I finished filling out the paperwork and paid the adoption fee, then went to put Mandy in the truck.

Because she didn’t come with a collar, I purchased one for her from the shelter, put it on her and tried to walk her out to the truck (which I had running to keep the air conditioner on for the other two dogs.)  Because the collar was too big, as I lifted her up into the truck, she started to struggle, slipped out of her collar and ran away towards the back side of the shelter.  I started to fly after her as best I could, and was helped by the fact that she stopped to watch a couple playing with their new puppy.  They held her for me until I could get there, then I carried her back and tried to put her in the truck a second time.  I don’t suppose she had ever been in a car or truck before, because she immediately slipped out of her collar for the second time, tore around the building and stopped at the same couple, who were still helpful, but couldn’t help but be amused at the sight of me flying back around the building in heels and a dress for the second time chasing after my new, ungainly dog.  The third time, as always, proved the charm; that time I held on tight enough to make sure she got safely into the truck, slammed the door shut, rushed over to my side of the car, pushed her back onto the passenger’s side to prevent her running out the driver’s side, and we headed towards home. 

However, Kayla and I decided on the way that we had to get Mandy a collar that fit her, so we stopped at Pet Smart before we got back to the house to try to find the right size collar.  We knew we couldn’t walk her in there on a leash, because she would run away again, but she is a very heavy dog to carry, and we had had to park at the back of the parking lot, so I had the bright idea that we would wheel her into Pet Smart in a grocery cart, thinking that she would not be able to jump over the edge, given that she was so short.  Mandy quickly proved me wrong, teaching me the important lesson that body length can make up for short legs, and sailed out of the grocery cart, running pell mell for the door of Pet Smart across the parking lot, completely oblivious to all cars coming her way and giving me my third run for the day in a dress and heels.

I knew in an instant that rather than have obtained a special present for my little girl, I was about to scar her for life by having her see her dog hit by a car, but Mandy was born under a lucky star, and cruised safely to the door of the Pet Smart, where another kind person held her for me until I could get to her.  I ended up carrying a fifty-five pound dog through Pet Smart in search of a small enough collar with a little girl beside me eager to share the story of the afternoon with everyone we met.  I can promise you that the collar we picked out definitely fit! 

Once we finished that purchase, we hauled Mandy back to the car on a leash, where the other two dogs were patiently waiting, then returned to the house where Mark was waiting to see the labrador or golden retriever we were bringing home.  Instead, he saw this:

He looked at her carefully, looked at Kayla and me, and just asked, “Were they out of retrievers at the kennel?” 

Have a good day everyone!

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Wake-Up Call, Lunch Money and Funny Bone

Posted on March 11, 2011 | 2 comments

Hi Everyone!

The Best Alarm Clock in the World!

  • Wake-up Call

I confess that I hoped to be writing this much later than I am, since, as a working mom, I had a rare opportunity to sleep in on a weekday, but Mandy had other ideas.  Mark got up at his regular time, and then after about fifteen minutes, Mandy jumped up on the bed and stood there quietly behind me for about 30 seconds.  (It is even odds as to whether this was her own idea or whether Tyra was egging her on.)  When I didn’t pay any attention, then she took her nose, and touched it gently and sweetly to my ear.   I continued to ignore her, so after another pause, she deliberately stepped on my side with her front paws, took another step so that I was between her front and back paws, finished walking over me with her back paws and jumped off the bed and circled around to the other side.  I still continued to ignore her, so she repeated the walk-over.  However, this time instead of circling around to the other side of the bed, she escalated by turning back to where she could reach my face from the floor , waited another few seconds and when I still didn’t get up, she started licking my face furiously, at which time I really had no choice but to start laughing and get up.  If I had rolled over to ignore her yet again, her next step would have been to jump up on the bed and walk on my hair.  That hurts!

  • Lunch Money

Kayla was worried this morning – she might miss second breakfast.  Let me explain.  The school sends home each Thursday the amount of lunch money remaining in her account.  This Thursday, she did not have a balance, but we owed the school 10 cents.  If you owe the school or have a zero balance, you cannot have breakfast until money is posted back in your account.  Although I am sending a check with her today, it won’t be placed into her account until right before lunch, so breakfast at school will not be available.  She explained all this to Mark, who came out to check if I had lunch money to send with her.  As Mark said to me, “She told me she gets first breakfast (at home), second breakfast at school, lunch at school, snack at school, snack at Learning Lodge and she says you’re usually good for a snack right when the two of you get home, but she is worried she about missing second breakfast in case they have cheese grits!”  I gave her a dollar just in case the school was serving cheese grits and sent her away smiling.  Mark was buying her breakfast at McDonald’s, so she was getting extra food for first breakfast, too.  It reminds of the time when, a young and inexperienced couple with no children, we took our nephew, who was about Kayla’s age at the time, to the Kennedy Space Center, and he told his mother after the trip, “It was fun, but they only fed me three times a day!”

  • Funny Bone

I was walking by our kitchen desk area and hit my funny bone hard on the chair in the kitchen.  It was not, as anyone who has had this experience knows, funny at all.  It was one of those self-censoring moments – right when I hit, I started by saying “Gawww….” and remembered to shift streams to finish with “lly gee whilikers!” 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Nancy

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Dance Picture Day, No-No and Bad Dog Strike Again and The Light Bulb Conspiracy Continues

Posted on March 10, 2011 | 2 comments

Picture, if you will, a rectangular room with echoing acoustics and a hard cement floor, populated by around a dozen mothers who have established squatters’ rights at various positions along the wall, each surrounded by a plethora of paraphenalia, including hair materials, anywhere from three to five costumes, make-up and shoes, along with at least 15 3rd and 4th grade girls, who make enough noise for at least thirty, and one brave dance teacher trying to shepherd the 15 girls through group and individual pictures in each of the three to five costumes.  That picture will give you a pretty good idea of the annual event at Kayla’s dance studio known as picture day, which happened yesterday.  The noisiest picture is the one taken of the girls in their tap costume.  At that point, the 15 girls talking at a decibel of 30 girls geometrically expands to a noise volume somewhere around 90 girls, since the sound of their talking increases to cover the noise of the tap shoes.  The picture above is one I took of Kayla in her tap dance costume.  

Here is Kayla in her ballerina costume.  I think it is really pretty.  This was the second or third photo for the girls, and while I can’t show you the expressions on the mom’s faces, while the girls still are having a good time, most of us are starting to reflect on the uncomfortable aspects of the hard cement floor, although we are having a good time visiting with the other mothers and learning that our children are not unique in the foibles and follies they display to us every day.

The last costume for Kayla was her gymnastics costume, so she decided to do a back bend for me.  I am really impressed; I have never been that flexible.  Since it was the last picture for the day, all of the mothers still remaining were cheering the gymnastics picture taking process on, and most of us were calculating how we were going to drive straight home without doing any errands so that we wouldn’t have to wait for our child to change before we left.  Every time the photo room door would open and a girl scurry out, our hopes would rise that they were done, only to be dashed as each girl explained something to her particular mother and scurried back into the photo room.  Kayla came out three times because she wanted to update me on her progress and I came within an inch of telling her the last time that under no circumstances was she to come out of the photo room again until they were completely done.  I didn’t though, because she truly was just trying to help.

Once the gymnastics photos were done, it didn’t take long for most of us to clear out of there.  

Kayla’s dance teacher constantly amazes me with how calm she can remain in the midst of the necessary chaos, and still steer everyone to where they need to be and answer about fifty questions being shot at her in every direction.  She goes through this every day this week, with dancers ranging from age three up to age 17 or 18! 

  • No-No and Bad Dog Strike Again

After a couple of quiet days, No-No and Bad Dog reemerged yesterday to remove from my bedroom one Merrell and one sneaker and a handkerchief.  I am guessing that No-No (Darwin) scored the shoes because they were not in a dilapidated state but instead just plopped down in the middle of the den floor in the hopes that I would notice.  I am certain that Mandy scored the handkerchief because I caught her red-handed with the handkerchief in her mouth and a mournful expression on her face when she realized that she had been caught.  The mournful expression was not because she was sorry for anything she had done, but because she knew that the handkerchief was about to be taken from her.

 This morning, the intrepid duo managed to score a cheap ring from a McDonald’s Happy Meal.  I removed it from Bad Dog as she was chewing it.  No-No was staring at it and Mandy, simply waiting his turn.  A second ago, while I was writing this, my Merrell just got dropped in the den again by No-No, who is puzzled as to why this troubles me!

  • The Light Bulb Conspiracy Continues

As I told you in an earlier post, we have light bulbs that tend to go out in clusters, and, being tired of that, we put in light bulbs that are supposed to last two years in each of the flood lights in the den.  The other light bulbs in the house have now escalated their attack.  In two days, we have had four bulbs blow in various parts of the house.  The first was the end light over the breakfast bar.  Mark went ahead and replaced it that night, even though I asked him if he wanted to wait until we saw which other lights chose to go out.  The next morning, the middle light on the breakfast bar, a flood light in the bedroom and a bulb over my vanity all went out within ten minutes of each other.  I guess the bulbs feel like they have to make up for the ground they have lost in the den!

Have a good day everyone!

Nancy

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Spring: Scene II, The Mangled Toothbrush and The Assembly After-Party

Posted on March 8, 2011 | Leave a comment

Good morning everyone! 

  • Spring:  Scene II

It turned cold again yesterday, but down here we did just avoid freezing temperatures, so the blooms are still out in full force.  This has been one of those rare years when the tulip trees have been able to bloom for weeks without being cut short by frost.  Most of the tulip trees have finished blooming, but there are a few late starters who are just beginning to reach full bloom.  

The second act of spring is in full swing with the spectacular show being put forth by the Bradford Pear trees.  Just to give you an example, here are pictures of Bradford pear trees in full bloom.

The yellowbells finally made their appearance about two weeks ago and they are blooming well, too.  For those of you who wondered what a yellowbell looks like, here it is:

Finally, I have seen a number of the following bushes blooming, also.  I have no idea what their real name is, but I have made up the name “Snowball Bush” for them.  They have their own beauty.

Spring is always spectacular in the South, and this year may be special if we can avoid a killing frost.  The next act:  the dogwoods and the azaleas! 

  • The Mangled Toothbrush

Apparently toothbrushes can be added to the list of things that dogs can eat without getting sick.  When Kayla took her bath Sunday night, she decided to put both Mandy and Darwin in her bathroom, but then she made the mistake of leaving them alone in there with the door shut for about five minutes while her water ran.  When she came back in, one of them (my bet is Darwin, because the toothbrush should have been too far back on the counter for Mandy to reach) had pulled a toothbrush onto the floor, and between the two of them they had chomped through the plastic top and managed to eat about seven eighths of the head of the toothbrush.  Neither Mandy nor Darwin looked the worse for wear, although the toothbrush was in a sad state! 

The Mangled Toothbrush

  •  The Assembly After-Party

While I showed you yesterday the pictures that Kayla painted for Mark and me Saturday and Sunday, I didn’t get a chance to tell you how those pictures were presented.  Kayla announced at about 4:30 p.m. on Sunday that she was calling an assembly for Mark and I that would take about two minutes.  Shortly thereafter, she had both of us seated on the couch and she began to speak.  She told us that her (pretend) school was running a charter program for art, and that these paintings were the work of two of her students and she wanted to show them to the whole school.  Mark interrupted her to say something, and she gave him a very stern eye and said, “Obviously they run assemblies differently at your school!” and continued talking.  She continued speaking for about four minutes, at which point she was gently reminded that she had said the assembly was going to be two minutes.  She responded with an airy wave of her hand, “Okay – the assembly’s over; now it’s time for the after-party!” and walked off into the sunset, aka the kitchen, in search of the dogs.

Have a good day everyone!  

Nancy

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Cleaning, Petting the Dogs, The Longest Walk Revisited, Braces and Grammar

Posted on March 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

Isn’t it great to know that we have made it to another Friday?  Although we have nothing spectacular planned for this weekend, it’s nice –

excuse me while I go retrieve a handkerchief from Bad Dog, who just saw me looking at her and has decided to lie on the handkerchief and pretend that it’s not really there –

 to know that a chance to sleep in and have some additional family time is right around the corner! 

  • Cleaning

Our first activity of the weekend, however, will occur tonight when Miss Kayla gets to clean her bedroom and bathroom once we arrive home.  I don’t think she’s too happy with that itinerary, but it is necessary! 

  • Petting the Dogs

I got the chance last night to sit down with each of the dogs and pet them for a couple of minutes.  Darwin started it, really; I was going over to him to get him to stand up and go out for the last time before we went to bed, and he looked up at me from his dog bed, which is on one side of our fireplace in the den and his tail started wagging furiously.  Darwin’s dog bed is about two sizes too small for him – we have tried buying bigger beds, but he refuses to have anything to do with them – and it constantly amazes us that he can even fit in there!  So, when he started wagging his tail, rather than make him get up right away, I sat down by him and loved on him for a minute.  While I was doing that, Mandy looked up from the dog bed she was using on the other side of the fireplace with kind of a grumpy “Are you really going to wake me up now?” look, so I went over to her to pet her, too.  Petting Mandy is always a sweet experience; for all her foibles in the chewing and counter departments, she is a very loving dog and has the softest hair I have ever felt on a dog.  In my opinion, it is as soft as an angora cat’s hair would be, but less fluffy and infinitely less likely to send me into a sneezing fit!   Having petted the other two dogs, it just wouldn’t do, of course, to leave Tyra out, so I went over to her (she was on the couch, guarding “her man”, ie., Mark, from all comers except me) and stroked her for a while, too.  I got several tail thumps from her for that one.  It just was a sweet moment. 

  • The Longest Walk, Revisited

I was getting ready for bed last night, when my eyes fell upon the pair of shoes I had worn yesterday sitting by my bureau.  I thought about what I wrote yesterday, and decided it couldn’t be too hard to take them to the closet, so I went ahead and picked them up and carried them through the closet door – at which time I pitched them on the floor two inches from the shoe rack where they still remain, along with most of my other shoes.  Oh well, Rome wasn’t built in a day and two inches beats a whole room as a distance to conquer!

  • Kayla’s Braces

I was on the phone with my mom last night, and had just finished telling her that Kayla’s braces weren’t hurting her anymore, when screams started to erupt from her bathroom – the kind of screams that let you know that something is wrong.  I raced in there, got off the phone with my mom, and then got to play the “Stop screaming long enough to tell me what’s wrong” game – any mother will tell you that if you’re not frazzled when you first hear the screams, you will be by the time you finish playing twenty questions in between the screams.  I usually don’t make it to question 9 before my eyes start flashing and smoke starts coming out of my ears, because it is so frustrating to need to help and not be given any information about how to do so.  It turned out that a wire in the back of her mouth had poked into a very tender place in her cheek and stuck there.  It wasn’t in very deep, and we got it pulled out fairly quickly but there was quite some excitement for a minute or two!  After Mark got home, he insisted that Kayla put some wax on that wire, and put on the Canker-X medicine the doctor gave her, and that helped, too. 

  • Grammar

I have tried to use English correctly in these posts, but”lie” and “lay” defeat me – I have a 50/50 shot at it, but usually get it wrong.  So, if anyone knows, did Mandy “lay” on the handkerchief, or did she “lie” on the handkerchief, and is there a good way to remember the difference? 

Have a great weekend everyone and I will talk to you on Monday!

Nancy

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Earth Fare, The Longest Walk, General Von Bissing and the Birds

Posted on March 3, 2011 | 2 comments

Yesterday’s dog paw prints having faded into a nice light glaze all over our dark wooden floor, it is time to move on to other topics of conversation, although, for the record, No-no and Bad Dog kept up quite a trail of things for me to rescue yesterday, also!

  • Earth Fare

This weekend, Mark and I had the chance to go into an Earth Fare supermarket for the first time.  Earth Fare labels itself as “the Healthy Supermarket.”  The label “organic” is pretty much standard throughout the store.  It had a large selection of teas – I got a tin of berry green tea for Christmas, so I have been trying some different teas from time to time – I can brew one cup of tea, add 1 teaspoon of real suger and have a small treat for the cost of 1/3 point on the Weightwatchers system.  Its produce section, which was all organic fruits and vegetables, looked really good too.  We bought a few of them, some dry roasted cashews (the store sold them in bulk containers and you scooped out what you wanted), a fresh-baked loaf of sour dough bread and some wheat crackers.  The finishing touch, though, was the discovery at the check-out counter that the store sells what I consider to be the very best apple juice in the world – Martinelli’s Gold Medal 100% apple juice.  Kayla agrees with me.  Mark and I bought 16 bottles on Sunday; we are now down to only 4.  If you ever come across this apple juice, you really need to try it! 

  • The Longest Walk

I walked into Kayla’s bedroom the other day, to note the pairs of shoes scattered throughout the floor rather than sitting in the closet, and started to wonder irritably why it seemed so hard for her to walk the two feet from where the shoes were to the closet to put them in there – until I walked into my bedroom and noticed the three pairs of shoes I had sitting on the floor in our bedroom by my bureau drawer rather than in my closet.  The longest walk for both of us appears to be the path from the bedroom to the closet door.  I really should do better, since No-no and Bad Dog have been known to snatch shoes to chew when no handkerchiefs, socks or other items of clothing are available.   Other long walks for me appear to be the walk from the kitchen counter to the trash can with the empty diet coke can, and the walk from wherever the clothes were folded to the place where they are supposed to reside normally. 

Have you ever lost the TV remote and spent thirty minutes looking for it rather than walk the three feet over to the TV to turn it on?  I did that the other day.  I used to think it was just an amusing peculiarity of human nature but during this latest TV remote search I realized it has now become a necessity.  About 15 minutes into the search I walked over to the TV to turn it on manually, only to discover that, while I could turn it on and off manually, I was completely unable to do anything else without the remote.  There wasn’t even a channel switch!  That added a new urgency to the search for the remote, which was ultimately discovered underneath a couch cushion. 

  • General Baron Von Bissing and the Birds

General Baron Von Bissing was the German (well, really Prussian) military governor of occupied Belgium during World War I.  As such, he was responsible for ordering the executions of dozens if not hundreds of individuals, and the deportation of thousands of Belgians to Germany to work in forced labor situations.  (I am researching his life as best I can, in my copious free time, in connection with a book I would like to write.)  I was looking through the newspaper archives of the New York Times last night (they go back to 1851, and articles from 1851 to 1922 are in the public domain, ie., they are free) and came across a one paragraph article about a peculiar order of the general’s.  In the middle of the occupation, General Von Bissing issued an order stating that the “artifical blinding” of song birds was forbidden in Belgium as a “cruelty” that would not be tolerated.  Now, it’s not that I disagree with the sentiment, but for that practice to bother a military governor who acted as he did with respect to people just seems odd.  I also wondered why anyone would want to deliberately make a song bird blind and why that was a big enough problem in the middle of the war to require an edict of its very own. 

Well, that’s enough for now.  I need to complete a “discission” (Kayla tried to say “discussion” and managed to blend the words “discussion” and “decision” instead) with Kayla about the necessity to get her hair and teeth brushed quickly at this point.

Have a great day everyone!  

Have a great day everyone!

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Odds and Ends

Posted on March 2, 2011 | 1 comment

Good morning everyone!  It’s hard to believe we have arrived at Wednesday already! 

  • Kayla deprived of her morning fire 

Yesterday morning was another one of those days when I had a very hard time chivvying Kayla out of hibernation and into the cold, cruel world for another day.  Once I got her awake, she came be-bopping into the den to get dressed in front of the fireplace – only to find out that access was blocked because we had put some clothes up there from ironing.  Let’s just say her reaction was not positive; tears and drama were both involved.  When she said she was cold, I pointed out, yet again, that if she would go ahead and get dressed, she would start to warm up.  She wasn’t too thrilled with the logic of that statement!

  • No-No and Bad Dog Strike Again

Once I got Kayla shipped off to school with Mark, I then had the opportunity to start to get ready for work myself, in between retrieving items from No-No (Darwin) and Bad Dog (Mandy).  Darwin is “No-no” because when you tell him “No” about something he at least thinks about listening to you.   Mandy is “Bad Dog” because she really doesn’t care what you think about her activities.  (That laid back basset hound temperament strikes again!)  Yesterday morning’s festivities included rescuing two of Mark’s handkerchiefs, a pair of my hose, and Tyra’s dog bed from our bedroom from the miscreant pair.  Then, just for grins and giggles, the pair gave me the opportunity to rescue one of the two handkerchiefs for a second time last night.  (I also just had to rescue a dish towel from Darwin a second ago.)  We really are putting these things up; Darwin is just tall enough to reach whatever Mandy tells him to get.  The amazing thing is that no socks have been involved in the past 24 hours; I would guess that’s because Mandy has not yet seen a pair suitable for sharing!

  • Floor Decorations

It rained hard on Monday, which has left the back yard still pretty wet and muddy.  We have beautiful dark wood floors in the main part of our house, so we now have the added pleasure of random paw prints scattered on the floor throughout the den.  The most definite, and largest, paw prints are Darwin’s, and the second best prints are made by Mandy.  It adds a certain air of individuality to the floor!  That air will be lost once I am sure that the yard is dry enough to keep any attempts at wiping up the paw prints from being an exercise in futility. 

  • Sunday Night Eating Out

I have mentioned before that Kayla’s imagination is amazing to me.  We ate out Sunday night, and I got some grilled shrimp on a wooden skewer.  Because Kayla got baked potato soup, she was finished well before either Mark or I, so she picked up my skewer and started pretending like it was a pointer that she could use to show pictures of a house to us.  She started out by offering us a four bedroom house with two kitchens and a bonus room for $50.00.  By the time she finished, she was offering us a four bedroom house with two kitchens and five bonus rooms fully furnished (the fifth bonus room was for the dogs and came complete with 18 pairs of socks for Mandy to chew) with a large backyard (location of said house to be determined later) for $0.00.  We told her she drove a hard bargain, but that the last offer was too good to refuse! 

Have a great day everyone!

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The Accidental Haircut, Rain, Bananas and Light Bulbs

Posted on March 1, 2011 | 2 comments

  • Mark’s New Look

As mentioned yesterday, Mark also has a new look, quite by accident.  Right before bedtime Sunday night, he decided to trim his hair just a little bit over his ears.  Unfortunately, at the same time, Darwin popped onto the bathroom sink with his paws to see what was going on, and bumped Mark’s elbow just enough to cause the clippers to take a free swipe at about a quarter size spot on the front side of his head, completely shaving off all of the hair on that one spot.  Mark then made the mistake of asking for my help.  In spite of my best efforts (please note that there is a reason God steered me away from a career in cosmetology), by the time I had spent ten minutes on it, it looked like we were headed for a complete hair shave.  The three dogs, who have been shaved with clippers of their own before, all sat in front of the bathroom door looking greatly concerned.  Right before we hit the point where all of the hair on his head would have had to be shaved off, Mark remembered that we had some additional razor guards.  He went and found them, and then was able to blend the hair that was left on the top of his head into the part that was shaved so that he now has what looks like a very close crew cut on the top of the head.  The three dogs finally left their post in front of the bathroom door when the clippers stopped making noise, with a sigh of relief as they realized that the clipping was going to stop with Mark.

  • Rain and Bananas

Rain and bananas are two topics that tend not to go together – unless you have an Australian Shepherd mix named Tyra.  She has two idiosyncracies.  The first is her attitude towards water in general, and rain in particular. 

Tyra does not do water.  Period. Sincerely.  The first day we got Tyra from the humane society, back in 2004, we put her in the spare bathtub to give her a bath, and apparently managed to traumatize her for life.  To this day, she refuses to come into the bathroom if someone is in the bathtub, or within reach of a bathtub full of water.  This general attitude towards water is folded into a more specific attitude toward rain.  Tyra does not like to go outside when it rains – unless a human is willing to put on a raincoat and walk out there with her.  In our old city, I managed to walk her through Hurricane Dennis by doing just that.  I was the only person dumb enough to walk outside at the time, but the dog was desperate, and I was fond of the carpet.  We’re not sure how she does it, but even when we have the dogs outside and an unexpected gully washer comes up, though the other two dogs will be soaked to the skin, Tyra remains bone dry.  We have wondered if she makes the other two sit on top of her or something!

Last night, a front moved through, and right about the time we got home, the bottom fell out, which meant I had to force Tyra out in the rain, which brings us to the other idiosyncracy, bananas.  She moped a little bit all evening, until Mark decided to have a couple of bananas for dessert.  Tyra loves bananas.  You can have her on the other end of the house, with three doors shut between her and the kitchen, and the minute someone picks up a banana, she just knows and begins begging her way to the spot where the bananas are.  She has a little tap dance she does once she knows the bananas are on their way.  So, today, her forced sojourn into the rain this evening was assuaged just a little bit by the banana she got to have.  (Mark gave her one all to herself, since the other two dogs happened to be outside at the time.)  She then sat on the couch for another thirty minutes thumping her tail and looking at Mark in hopes that other bananas would be forthcoming.

  • Light Bulbs

We have very interesting light bulbs in the den of our house.  They are spotlight bulbs, and for whatever reason, they tend to go out at least in pairs, if not in triplets, about every three months.  We finally got tired of it, and bought a large supply of light bulbs that are supposed to last for at least two years.  We replaced the last one today.  (The time before when it went out with two others, Mark was able to tighten it and get it to come back on, while the other two were really dead.)  If any of them go out before 2013, I am going to be very disappointed!

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New Looks!

Posted on February 28, 2011 | 3 comments

Good morning everyone!  It is hard to believe that it is Monday already!  Our household, emboldened by the new looks of spring blooming forth across our state, spent the weekend in obtaining new looks themselves!

  • Kayla’s Braces
  • The most important new look, of course, was Kayla’s braces.  The people at Allen Orthodontics on Friday were just super with her, as they always are, and she has been a trooper about her mouth and the soreness that comes along with the first few days of braces.  Sunday we stopped for a minute, and she let me take two pictures of her with her braces. 

Because she said the sun hurt her eyes, we took a second picture, too.

  • Mom’s New Look
  • Then it was my turn.  I spent Saturday morning getting my hair colored, so Kayla wanted to take pictures of me with my new hair color on Sunday. 

Front:

Back:

Side:

Front Again:

  • The Escape’s New Look
  • We also had a trailer hitch put on the Escape on Saturday, so that we would have a way to pull a light trailer that could carry Mark’s scooter back and forth to the Suzuki place for servicing.

  • Spring!
  • While the most important new look in our house was Kayla’s braces, the most spectacular new looks are with the trees and flowers around us as spring approaches.  Here are some pictures of them:

A tulip tree in full bloom:

Close Up of the Tulip Tree:

  • Daffodils

Here are some daffodils that have grown wild on a hillside:

And here is a close-up of another group of daffodils that have just started a new clump across the street from the ones on the hill.  In a few years, they will have the ground covered!

The last new look in our household was Mark’s.  He originally intended to rest on his laurels with the truck, but a small “oopsie” by him, followed by a bigger “oopsie” by me led to an entirely new look for him also.  But that post will have to wait for another day!  So, COMING SOON:  The Accidental Haircut!

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