When one of your children messages you saying “Yikes, I’m in trouble!” It can make your stomach do horrible, horrible things.
Thankfully, it can also make you laugh when you find out the reason your child is in trouble is that her son, your grandson, is totes adorbs and she’s in trouble because you’ve sent her the link to the Toys-R-Us Black Friday ad and your grandson needs ALL. OF. THE. THINGS.
I’m thankful for that kind of trouble.
“Yikes, I’m In Trouble” Read More »
Haven’t I already given thanks, numerous times this month, for my family? Seems like that’s pretty much the only thing I’ve written about. I kind of hope these prompts take me in some other direction — soon — otherwise I’m going to have to go off the rails and come up with my own topics because as awesome as my family IS, they aren’t the only thing/people I’m appreciative of. Seriously.
It’s been another one of those rough mornings. Lots to do and everything should be done quickly — very quickly. But, I’ve still had time to receive a text from my son. Look at a couple of unusual gift ideas for one of the girls. Laugh at TW because the puppy stole her iPhone (again). And tease TW’s mom about her not having an iPhone.
Pretty typical day, so far.
I expect I’ll hear from a couple more kids before the day is out. I’ll hear some weird story from TW’s mom. I’ll laugh over many things with TW and I really should call my dad but that will have to wait til my mini vacation later in the week. I might even get a photo of JMP to really make me smile.
I’m thankful for these crazy people. Every single one of them. I cannot imagine what my days would look like or feel like without them.
Ah, My Weird and Crazy Family Read More »
We’re doing a lot of BUSTERRRRRRRRRRR yelling around here. This puppy gets into more than Skeeter ever dreamed of getting into.
He’s a climber.
He’s also a thief.
He does chew things, certainly, but mostly he steals things and runs. Here’s a list of the things he has stolen recently.
– A plastic watering jug (that was on a shelf about chest high).
– Old photos of TW’s mom and siblings as children.
– TW’s iPhone.
– Shoes off of my feet (while I was trying to put them on) and slippers off of TW’s feet while she was walking.
– A Staples bag containing three reams of printer paper (Buster is also STRONG)
– Library books from the bedside table, from the bed, from the library cart and from the bag hanging on the library cart.
– 3 cans of coke.
– An electric screwdriver.
– Coupons from my desk and from my coupon storage ottoman thingy.
– Tissue paper, rubber stamps, and markers from my art desk.
– A bag of prairie dog hay.
As I typed this, he tried to steal the dustpan (it’s one of those that has the stand up pole thingy so you don’t have to bend over to sweep stuff into it) and a broom. He couldn’t get either of those through the door way but he tried, boy did he try.
Oy, this is not the 50th birthday post I thought I’d write back when I didn’t have a PUPPY (or a house full of puppies) but this is pretty much all I have energy (and concentration) for.
It was a very busy day. But also a nice day.
Buster keeps jumping into my lap and grabbing my arm while I type. If you’d told me yesterday that he’d be doing that today, I would not have believed it. I also probably wouldn’t have believed Skeeter would have taught him to counter surf or that Lola would have taught him to dig very deep holes in the backyard. I did, however, expect the vet to say he had worms — which did happen. So yay all of the dogs get to enjoy canned dog food in celebration of my birthday.
I never expected JMP would have finger painted pictures for me, though I suppose I should have — his mother is, after all, my daughter. I can’t wait to have the real things in my hands… good thing I hadn’t done anything with the ones he painted for me last month, now I can frame them all at the same time.
I did expect wonderful birthday wishes from my Facebook friends but it’s always a lot of fun to see them roll in, anyway. I didn’t have nearly enough time to thank everyone, individually, but I really did appreciate all of your good wishes.
I enjoyed my Smashburger dinner with TW and her mom — there’s not enough lime soda in my life, I should change that because my Green River float was awesome, (and the black bean burger was fabulous, too.)
All in all, fifty feels pretty darn good. Now I’m off to collapse into my bed with a pack of wild hounds and a book that I really want to finish tonight.
Buster (aka Hamlet) was listed as “shy” and that was a serious understatement. Buster wasn’t shy, he was terrified of people. Today, two days later, he is shy with a little bit of scared thrown in.
But, just a little less than 48 hours have passed and he’s made huge progress. Here are some things Buster can do (though not always) now that he could not do on Thursday.
Buster can:
– Take a treat out of a person’s hand.
– Eat a treat while in his crate.
– He can walk from one end of the house to the other, following dogs or people. (Though showing him the red confidence leash speeds up the process.)
– He can walk to his crate, while wearing the red confidence leash.
– He picks toys up off of the floor and plays with him. (He joined a game of fetch, once, by grabbing a toy Lola was retrieving from me — and he kept it, though it helps that Lola did not try to take it away.)
– He can join Skeeter and Lola in roughhousing, for a few minutes.
– He can walk past a person who is standing or sitting still.
– He can go in and out of the back door while a person is standing at the door.
– He can stand in the doorway or on the steps while a person is standing there. (which is why this morning’s photo, above, was such a big deal. He could not even do THAT yesterday.)
– He can approach a person who is standing or sitting still and sniff or lick them. He might even let the person pet him for a few seconds.
– He can wander into the bedroom when people and dogs are in there.
– He can put his front paws on the bed to see what the people and the dogs are doing.
– He can wander in during nap time and decide to nap on Skeeter’s bed while the people and the dogs are napping on the bed.
– He can sniff the prairie dogs.
– He can approach a person who is sitting or standing still, when called. Though he will only go halfway before he turns around to find a safe place to lay down.
Things he cannot do, EVER:
– Hold his spot or approach a person who is walking toward him.
He’s one heck of a cute puppy and once he has some weight on, and some more confidence, he’s really going to be a beauty. Right now he’s just sweet and when he lets you walk by him or stand near him or, gasp, pet him, you kind of feel like you’ve won the lottery.
Buster’s Progress Report Read More »
I’ll be 50 on Monday and I was feeling just fine with that. But now I’m a little concerned. My mind, my senses, it’s all going. I need someone to THINK because I’m apparently unable to do so, any more.
Obviously.
Since I asked for a puppy for my birthday.
And got him.
This is Buster, formerly known as Hamlet.
So maybe I haven’t completely lost my mind. He needed us to adopt him after the horrible bus accident. Watching him in a crate with his brother, before they’d let people into the tent area to check out the adoptable dogs — it was heartbreaking to see him just lay there. He didn’t move. He didn’t look around. He didn’t even think about barking.
HEARTBREAKING.
He’s very afraid of people. A little shy around the dogs (especially Lola). Did I mention it’s heartbreaking? But there’s a spark in him, you can see it when he’s outside with the dogs. He really, really wants to play with them. He thought he was awesome sauce when he snuck up on Skeeter (who was peeing at the time) and nothing bad happened.
Maybe I’m not senile, just a little softhearted?
Senility Has Set In Read More »
We have a barking problem. It got worse when the neighbors got a golden doodle who they don’t do a very good job of trying to teach not to bark. Even without that darn dog (and the #asshat neighbors), we’ve got Lola who does not like squirrels or birds and will bark at them non-stop if we don’t bring her in.
So, TW threw the Bark Off thing (she’s a sucker for “As Seen on TV” stuff) into the cart when we were at Petsmart last week and I didn’t growl at her loudly enough to prevent that from happening so… here we are with a $6 gadget that I was pretty sure was not going to work.
Turns out it works really well on Skeeter… too well. She’s terrified to go into the backyard now. I’m not exaggerating.
She goes into the cold room, which leads to the backyard, and stops right inside the door and shakes until we all come back inside. She won’t go any further than just inside the door unless she’s dragged out.
Lola, on the other hand, just keeps on barking at the squirrels and trying to climb the trees.
I made TW turn it off and hide it.
Poor poodle, she’s just so sensitive.
UPDATE: 24 hours later, Skeeter is no longer afraid of the backyard and was happily chasing Lola around and barking at squirrels alongside her.
The Poodle Is Sensitive Read More »
Obviously, since my stream is full of photos about dogs and status updates about dogs and if JMP isn’t around, it’s all dogs all of the time.
Even the Petsmart clerk was taken aback by the 30 dog toys we bought a couple of weeks ago. She is very sure she’s never seen anyone buy so many dog toys at one time. (Which kind of scared me but hey, we’re those people now so I am just gonna go with it…)
The next level of being those people is happening tomorrow. We’re walking a 5k, with the dogs, to help raise money for Wright-Way Rescue (the shelter that brought us Skeeter and Lola.) It’s gonna be HELL because Skeeter and Lola aren’t well leash trained (Lola isn’t leash trained at all, when you get right down to it.) They both see crowds of dogs and think “off-leash dog park, let us go!!!!” so I have no idea what’s gonna happen when they’re in a crowd of people, and dogs, and we force them to walk with us. Thank goodness for harnesses and dual leash clip thingies.
Think good, happy thoughts — it’s gonna be wild, but also fun.
And if you like and have the funds, a donation would be very much appreciated. Too many dogs (and cats) are put down every year and I’m thankful for Wright-Way for giving us the opportunity to bring these two wild (and oh so cute) beasts into our lives (and yours.)
Yea, We’re Those People Read More »
Last Saturday TW said she thought Jenn would need balloons for her birthday. I didn’t get it. Balloons? Why would she need balloons? It hit me about three days later. Oh. 30. She’ll be 30. Of course she needs balloons.
So we ran down to the Dollar Tree before coffee and grabbed a few mylar balloons and one on a stick for JMP and some birthday candles. Those were a hit, particularly with JMP — he played with them all day long.
Then it was pretty low key for the rest of the day. We all did a little work. TW had a little nap. We played with JMP.
I picked the girls up from school and brought them home where we all sang to Jenn while she opened the magic birthday bag. (TW got a present in her email this morning and she’ll get another present tomorrow when she and Chris go shopping…)
Then we all loaded up in two cars and went out to Chicken & Waffles (TW’s choice) — mmmm, chicken and waffles. We got there too early for the live Jazz but we wanted to beat the storm and it’s a good thing we did. It was bad (brief, but bad) — watching the lightning strike in the field across from the restaurant. Ouch. I’m glad we weren’t out in that. It was a good dinner — JMP enjoyed it, quite a lot.
Then it was back home for a quick blowing out of the 30 birthday candles and a few bites of cheesecake before the little girls had to head back to their dad’s house.
It was nice having Jenn home for her birthday. 30 years. It seems pretty impossible, to me.
We had a ton of fun being grandmas today — we bought all of the things that caught our eyes or caught JMP’s eye and I mean all of the things.
We bought clothes (including something cute for the photos we have to have taken later in the visit because my mom is annoying.)
We bought books.
We bought a foam sword.
We bought bath toys.
We bought some sort of snack ball thing that is going to be a bad idea but JMP’s mom was fascinated by it so we had to have it.
We bought a wooden train.
We bought a night light.
We bought shoe bins at IKEA that I’m going to have to ship to them (full of toys.)
We bought a sleeping bag backpack combo thingy so the next time JMP goes camping with his parents, he’ll be ready!
We bought a kid bath towel.
We bought a hat.
We bought Jockey Bras (those didn’t catch JMP’s eye, though he was fascinated by the murals and the lighting in the very cool Jockey Bra store.)
We bought things I can’t even begin to think of right now.
Everything, we just bought everything.
There are a lot of toys at Grandma and ThatGrandma’s house — though it is hard to convince Skeeter and Lola that the toys aren’t THEIRS.
We Bought All of the Things Read More »