A Dog's Day

Back story. It gets pretty darn hot here, and our dog really has no way of cooling off. She has her own little pool, But she does not get in it very often.

So we buy these rollover things, Slice them and freeze them flat on a cookie sheet.

We call them Pupsicles.

The boys have come up with a plan for Smokey's birthday part (August tenth). So far, they have

1.planned out the cake :

A slice of roll over - not frozen, with a carrot wrapped in a piece of baloney in the center for a candle - with just a bit of the carrot showing so it is like a flame, then freeze it so it stays together. After it is frozen, the children would like Hubs to decorate it with icing.

2. Decided that she should NOT have balloons - becuase she pops them.

3. and that we NEED to send out birthday invitations.

I'm not sure if they mean send invites to the neighbor hood dogs, or to family members.

looks like it will be quite a party, thought I doubt Smokey will wear her party hat!

Woah

I'm glad we bought our house when we did.

Right now, because of the whole housing crisis and landlords jacking up the prices of rentals, we are paying LESS than 1/4 of what the average renter is paying right now. Seriously.

I admit, i was afraid of having to deal with mortgage lenders and bank and the whole Idea of buying something so big, so expensive, but now? I'm So relieved we took that jump. I'm positive that if we had not, we would be homeless right now as there is no way we would be able to afford to rent!

Pee Ess: Our Mortgage lady was actually very nice, she was able to explain all the little things I needed to know without once making me feel stupid. And trust me, there was a lot I did not understand about buying a home!

I need a Wife

I do! And not for what you would think either! I'd be fine with doing the housework, I just need someone to make the decorating decisions for me! I absolutely suck at this.

our bedroom has been done, finished, complete for eight months now, and I still have yet to decide : Keep the blinds (white, plastic, gather dust like you would not believe) or get curtains?

This is it people. D-Day. Hmm. C-day - YOU decide if I want curtains (what color, length and weight* too please) or stick with the blinds!

*Light is not an issue, at night, when we sleep it is dark, there are no street lamps back there to bug us, so light-weight is fine - if thats what you want to choose.

Just had a thought

...Say I lose the twenty - twenty five pounds like I want in the next few months.....Just - bear with me, pretend if you have to!

Say I lose it, Imagine the awesome costumes I could wear for Halloween! It's hard to get a nice outfit for Halloween when you are fat and or chubby. Most of the chick ones are made with size two models in mind!

I've always wanted to wear one of those renaissance costumes, In fact I really wanted a renaissance type dress for when I got married, but seeing as I was eight zillion months pregnant, we were broke and my granny sewed my dress, that did not happen.

My favorite parts of a renaissance dress are the long flowing sleeves and the laces that are on the bodice, back and sometimes the sides.

I'm going to have to look into this. I wonder if they are expensive? I know there is a costume rental place in teh city nearest us...

Bullets! Back To School Edition

Hope y'all have your bullet proof vests ready!

• School will be starting in four weeks.
• I'm not as excited as one might think.
• In fact, I am not excited at all.
• I thoroughly enjoy summer vacation and having the kids home.
• I checked over the boys school supply lists and was pleasantly surprised with them.
  
• For the first time ever, they actually seem like reasonable lists! YAY!
• But then, after buying the school supplies, there are school fees.
• And paying for school pictures.
• And making a decision about child life insurance policies that the school offers.
• And making sure the kids go to bed on time.
• Oh wait. I don't have to pay for them to go to sleep!
  
• LOL
• Logan will be lonely, as both of his brothers will be in full time school this year.
• I told hubs that I would go through their last years school supplies and check the lists to make a NEW list of what we need to buy.
• I told him I would do it THIS week.
• This week is almost over.
  
• So far, I have only gotten as far as reading the lists!
• Maybe I should go do that now?
• Nahhhhhh
  

September 12th - not so far away!

My brothers long time girlfriend is pregnant with their second child, a little girl. She is not due until September 12th, but we had a scare this week where we went into Labour and delivery because we thought she might have gone into premature labour.

thankfully, she was NOT in premature labour and the baby is fine.

But it seems to have kicked their butts into gear! they are now pretty frantic about getting the baby's nursery ready. They, unfortunately, lost their crib, car seat and stroller in a move - long story, and need to get those items - especially the car seat as the hospital will not discharge a baby unless they are in their car seat!

So my brother's Girlfreind has been in and out of furniture stores and baby super centers looking for the items they need. She is pretty sure she has found the crib she wants, but is still on the hunt for that all important car seat!

But oh! The cute and tiny outfits she has ready just make my heart melt! I cannot wait to hold this little person!

IT'S HERE

Just finished my Wii Fit for the day. I'm pleased to report I am sweaty and my heart is beating at a nice fast rate! I decided to cool down by taking a walk to the mail box.

I've been waiting for my new diet pills to come for two and a half weeks now!

THEY ARE HERE!!

(heh. too lazy to stick this in PS so I covered my address with my keys. I am sneaky!)

I bought one bottle, and there are 62 pills in each bottle. I have to take one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. Is it a coincidence that August is almost here and there are 31 days in August?

I think not!

Unfortunately, even if the pills work as well as I have heard they do, I will only be doing them for the month of August. I am saving up for something very important - even more important than me being slim!!

I have already lost 4.2 pounds on the Wii Fit (over 18 days)(I missed the last 8 days 'cus my tummy was sore, so 4.2 in ten days) and my goal is to lose twenty to twenty five in total, so if the pills help me drop, say an additional ten pounds, I am almost at my goal. And of course, I will continue with the Wii Fit!

Friday Morning I will take my very first pill. On that day I will post my start weight (not sure what blog yet, but I will link if it is not here) and I will update as I see changes!

WOOT!

I always

...I always thought that the saying "I have blisters on my blisters" was just a saying. Now I know this is false, because I have blisters on my blisters!

We have two ugly bushes in the front yard. It goes Bush, apple tree, bush, apple tree. The apple trees are beautiful, I love them. They are my best friends and I am going to have their babies!

Uhm. yea.

OK, so the point is, I hate the bushes! Last fall I cut them down to the stem. Literally every single branch was cut to the ground. Today, when I started cutting them, they were six feet by six feet. Or more. I dunno. Those crappy trees grow and grow and grow and then? they grow a bit more. After that? you guessed it, they grow even MORE.

And I hate them.

So I grabbed some kitchen scissors and started but those gave me blisters, so I quit after the first tree.

Lets not mention the fact that I am ALLERGIC to the freaking tree!

So I quit and went down the street to my father in laws house to borrow his tree clipper things and went at the second tree.

Not surprisingly, Those also gave me blisters.

So now? I am left with ugly - if trimmed - trees and bloiters on my blisters.

Sigh.

Merle's Door ; Lessons from a Freethinking Dog

Merle's Door; Lessons from a Freethinking Dog
Author: Ted Kerasote
Publisher : Harcourt

I absolutely dreaded coming to the end of this book. The closer I came to the end, the slower I read, and when the last page was read, I sat and had a good cry.

We got our dog eleven months ago, and it has been a challenge. At one point, my Mother-In-law suggested we take her to the pound. I replied that our dog is Family, that she is one of us, and it was a concept that my mother In Law simply could not comprehend. "It's Just A Dog", she told me.

My Mother-In-Law needs to read Merle's Door, because this book has the power to change how human beings see animals.

I know that when you "review" a book, you should talk about the actual book, the story, the plot, how good the writing was, etc, but this book was more that just words on paper, it changed me. It changed how I feel and act in regards to my own dog. To the dog that lives across the street, and the one that lives next door. It changed my very definition of the word "dog".

"Merle's Door" should be required reading for every person before they make the decision to share their life with a dog.

"This exquisite written book is sure to be controversial, but it raises important questions that every thoughtful dog owner should consider" Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D.,

The controversy Dr. McConnell refers to starts right in the title of this book. "Freethinking" - that is, a dog who is given the same choices we as humans are given. Merle is not leashed except in the most urban of environments. He has a dog door leading him to the outdoors where no fence is there to keep him caged. He is free to go where he wants, see and do what he wants. To grow and learn.

Not many people feel comfortable giving their dog this type of freedom. Including myself. Smokey is on a leash at all times when outdoors. I worry that she will run off, or worse, get hurt. But am I protecting her? Or am I hindering the natural learning process she deserves to experience?

I'm not sure that I have the strength within myself to give Smokey the freedom that Ted allowed Merle to enjoy. I am sure however, that "Merle's Door; lessons from a freethinking Dog" was an amazing book to read. It's odd to think of it now, but looking back at the book, there is a tonne of information about the nature and history of dogs, but it was written into the story so naturally that it did not distract from the story.

It was a book that made me both laugh out loud and cry, and that, my friends, is a sign of a darn good book.

Bad Parenting 101

I forgot to get a loaf of bread from the freezer last night, so I asked the boys "Who wants apple sauce, cheese strings and cookies for lunch"

Not surprisingly, all three boys thought that this would be an acceptable lunch.

Update on my ME

Well, combine three hours of sleep with excruciating pain, pain that is not dulled by the (many) Advil nor the (many many)Tylenol I have taken, and you will end up with a very cranky me.

I suggest very strongly that if you are the religious type, you take up your religious jewelry in your hand, hold it tight and start praying you do not piss me off.

I am, in fact, unsure I have ever been hit by this beast called PMS this hard before in my life. The anger at the slightest thing I feel is downright frightening!

A child asking for a cookie, a Husband asking for my attention, the dog begging for a treat, it all makes me want to scream.

I do not LIKE this attitude, and even in the midst of a red hazed temper tantrum, I can realize that my reaction is absolutely improper, but I cannot seem to stop it.

For the children's peace of mind, to save them from my angst, I have sent them outside to play. In the rain. There is no safe haven for the husband, he is stuck with me. We can only hope that this ends soon. Very soon.

PMS

So this is unexpected. I mean, my boobs have been tender the past few days, but four months I have done this, sore boobs and no period. So now, I guess, four months worth of aches and cramps are here at once?

AND ME WITH NO MIDOL.

I kind of feel like my family should don tactical gear and take cover.

(who am I kidding? The effort it takes to bring my coffee mug to my mouth is not worth it, I cannot imagine moving from this spot to attack anyone in a PMS rage! It's been four years since I was in labor, but dude, this is just as bad as the mid stages of labor.)

(AND ME WITHOUT ANY MIDOL)

shoot me please.

Nice Towel Rack

So last winter I borrowed a piece of exercise equipment from my sister. I used it once or twice. Even, one time, four days in a row!

but then, I had a load of wet laundry that needed to go into the dryer, but the dryer was full, so I put the load of freshly dried clothes on top of the treadmill.

And that was the last time I used it! Well, except for when I need a place to put my laundry.

I've been trying to figure out a way to get the treadmill back to my sister's place, she has a roommate who would like to use it (Whether for exercises or to hang clothes, I don't know)

ETA: Hubs just told me that the new car, (we have a new car since I got the treadmill,) he figures the treadmill will fit in the trunk of the new car 'cus the back seat folds down.

The Box

So, first I need each and every one of you to know and understand that i would sell my soul, I would sell my children's souls for one tiny midol. Four months of not having my period, and bam, it comes last night.

I would really like to curl up in a ball and cry right now!

Anyway. The Box. The Box full of wonderful delights from here to there, has not yet arrived. Hubs sent it airmail, sans tracking code, so for all I know it is lost in space!

The Box is just one of the shipping boxes that I store in my sewing room, but inside the box are things that took me weeks to choose! Funny Things, special things, Well, mostly funny things!

But. Hubs neglected to get the tracking code.

I sure hope it gets to it's destination today!

Pee ess : here is a link to my Sheila - when she does receive the box, I am sure she will post alllll about it!

September/December babies!

My brother's girlfriend is due in September with her second child.
My brother's Wife is due in December with her first child.

Heh.

The September baby is a girl, and I think the December baby is too, but they refuse to take a look see during ultra sounds, preferring to be surprised. That actually makes it hard when it comes to buying baby gifts.

Like my Friend C. She had a baby in mid April. I bought a baby gift for her, but not knowing the gender of her child I ended up getting her this dorky plush blocks set. Woo.

If I had known she was going to have a girl, I had seen the most darling summer dress, I would have LOVED to pick that up for the baby, but nooooooo, they want to be surprised!

Well fine. September baby will get an awesomely girly gift , given to her in the hospital, but little Mr/Miss December? She/He will have to wait until such a time as I have been informed of the gender!

On the Road Again!

Yesterday I had made plans with my aunt to meet at a local water park (FREE!! LOVE IT!!) so that my kids and her adopted child could play while we chatted.

We were to meet at 1pm, and I knew how to get to the water park - an important thing indeed! She called at 12:45 saying that she was running very behind waiting on a person to get to her RV site so they could all go.

Not a big deal I said, just call when it is time to meet. But when she suggested I drive to her RV site and we could chat while waiting. I very hesitantly agreed.

You see, I am nasty horrible, terrible, awful with directions. On paper, the directions looked very simple, I had to drive to Costco at the edge of town - I can do that! Then pass Costco, continue on to a highway I have never been on in my LIFE, follow wee little brown signs and eventually I would find the park!

I have never in my life wished for a Garmin GPS more than I did that afternoon!

Just an Observation

I was scrolling my feeds this morning and read a post. I think by Bossy? Any way, she had a picture of a STACK of business cards she received from people at Blogher 08.

What the heck is the point? Who is going to go home and roll o dex all those cards? Who is actually going to remember who belongs to which card? I say go and get a big box of promotional pens and give those out. People NEED pens. I always have one or two pens in my purse, more in the drawer set aside just for pens and pencils.

Each time you take out and use a pen, you cannot help but notice the logos, names, ect. written on the pen. Besides. Pens are useful, little squares of paper not only kill trees, is anyone REALLY gonna store them?

bah.

Two things :

1. I woke up at 9:35 this morning. Awake. Refreshed. Had no desire whatsoever to go back to bed. This is unheard of, especially considering I had a nasty horrid sleep. I woke up a few times too hot to push the blankets off, and a few times too cold to struggle to get them back on. The dog has a habit of laying on the blankets effectively stealing them. I also woke up at 5Am - ready to start the day. I went back to bed, obviously, but I had a hard time falling back asleep. I was WIDE AWAKE.

I wonder if its that whole exercise thing? They say that when you exercises you get more energy? And I have been doing my Wii Fit almost every day. I missed the first two days after we got it due to family outings, and I missed Sunday die to the Birthday Party/Coffee/Wasp stinging escapades.

2. Dog shock collars are horribly cruel. My dad and his wife put one of those invisible fences around their yard to contain Joey, a tiny 9 pound puppy. How they work is, the line is buried around the perimeter and when Joey has his special collar - I will tell you more about that in a minute - the collar will beep if he gets too close to the fence. if he ignores the beep, the collar will SHOCK him.

This is Joey.



Neither my dad nor his wife tested the collar to see the strength of the shock, and I thought, what a cool idea! Until my father brought out Joey's shock collar. It has two one centimeter prongs on it, and when the collar is on, the prongs make a connection on Joey's neck. Dad told me to hold the collar and go over the fence. I was expecting something along the lines of a static discharge shock.

Oh no! This, while it did not hurt, was 100 times bigger than a static shock, it was - to be frank, shocking! I held the prongs one thumb over each of them, and the shock went through my arms and my CHIN was buzzing.

Even an hour later, on the drive home, I could feel the shock in the joints of my thumbs.

My dad argued that the shock does not hurt - true, no actual pain to ME, but maybe to Joey who is 9 pounds there would be pain, how can we know for sure? He also said that the shock to him is much better than him racing into the street, being hit by a car or being attacked by a dog.

But still. The invisible fence is NOT something I would ever get for MY pet!

Good Morning!

The unthinkable has happened! I am awake! In the Morning!

Hmm. that sentence is misleading, I am often out of bed int he morning, but this morning I am awake - as in ready to start the day, not tired, feeling "wooohoooo" ish!

It's a nice feeling!

( I just wanted you all to know!)

((LOL))

Lactic Acid overdose

On one hand, waking up this morning with my muscles screaming bloody murder is nice, it lets me know that the workouts I have been doing are actually working.

On the other hand? OWWWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEIIIIIIIIII!!

Here are a few pictures of our weekend so far! ( I really need to get off my butt and stick them all on FaceBook!!)

Our city (not "our" city, per say, but the one closest to us), is Known as The City Of Bridges, mostly becuase we have six million nine hundred forty three bridges..

Can you tell that this picture was taken through a closed car window? I'm pretty pleased with it, though I plan on putting it through a few photo shop actions to give it some extra OOmpf!

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! Giant Mutated DUCKS are attacking!


The boys, playing some sort of game at a tree outside the place where we go to have coffee.

Payday Plans

Tomorrow, Payday, I will be purchasing a few things.

Hubs needs a car adapter for his PSP for when we go camping - we plan on leaving him at the campsite with the dog while the rest of us go swimming, and the car adapter will ensure he is well occupied for the hours and hours and hours we will be at the pool. The adapter costs under ten dollars on eBay, but almost forty dollars in the stores, so we will be buying in on eBay.

I will be paying Sheila back - she saved my butt by providing the money I was short when I forgot about renewing my blog. Actually, I will be paying Sheila back before I buy the adapter LOL.

And third, I will be starting another step in my weight loss journey by ordering my diet pills. Please remember, these pills - or, their ingredients - have been examined by my doctor, the doctor I have been seeing for six years, and he has deemed them safe for me. Please also take not that I am changing how I eat, and getting added exercises Every Day.

By the time all of that is done, I do believe my paycheck will be gone.

It Stopped Raining!

It;s been raining here , off an on, for three days, and it is super annoying! In between rain showers we have beautiful, not too hot, just right blue sky weather. And it lasts just long enough to get outside and start doing something fun. Then the rain starts again!

Last night it rained twice in the four hours it took us to fill up the pool, and when we woke up this morning and the ground was dry, I was hopeful. It hasn't been until now, 9 PM at night, while I am sitting outside typing and watching the boys play together outside (can't buy memory like that!), with no rain clouds in site, am I finally convinced the rain has stopped!

I hope that when we go camping in August we do not have rain.

Back Yard Plans

Now, first of all, these are allllll LONG range plans. We simply do not have the $ laying around to do them all at once!

Here are some of the improvements we have planned for our yard.

Although it would make sense to start with the front yard, I will instead start with the project we are working on this year!

Last week I hauled eight barrows full of dirt from the back alley. Sometime after the house was built, in the five years the original owners had it, they dumped garden soil back there, three feet high. I guess they planted some potatoes or what not out there. A lot of people in town here do that, Grow veggies in the alley, it allows them the extra garden space without taking up valuable back yard play area. ANYWAY. I am not much of a gardener, I can do it, and I like to eat the things that come out of gardens but I hate the upkeep. the weeding and watering and the braving of spiders and the dirt. Oye, do I hate the dirt.

So, the dirt went away. (with much much effort on my part - and like I told my husband when he got home that first day of shoveling and dumping, I am a bonbon and soap opera wife, not a manual labor one!)

Just leveling off the dirt from the back alley is not enough, if we leave it like that it will be over run with weeds in a matter of weeks, so we have ordered a few trailers full of crush rock and are going to fill it in with rocks. it will not stop the weeds entirely, but it sure will help! At the same time, we are replacing the rock along the backyard path. Most of it is gone, washed or carried away by little hands, so it is definitely time for that!

Anyway, that is our landscaping plans for this summer. The list to follow, I do not know when we will finish it off, well one thing I do, sort of, but the rest is up in the air.

*I want to seal in the dog house, we are still deciding if we should go with vinyl siding, which is easy to clean, or get it stuccoed to match the house.

*I want to build a shed. One that is about 8x8 or 10x10. No bigger than that. They sell kits at the lumber yard that has all the materials and the wood is already cut to size, so that would be an easy project for hubs and I to do. But It will cost about 1000.00

*I REALLY want to take the rocks out of the front yard and those two ugly bushes there, and replace them with sod. At the same time, I want to continue the sidewalk on towards the back yard. I will not be removing my beloved apple trees from the front yard, I will leave them there, placing cement tree rings around them. Having lawn in the front yard will do two things - make the front yard look a lot nicer, and give the kids more room to play! This will also be a costly project, between 1000.00-2000.00, so it will be waiting a bit.

*lastly, In the back yard, in the corner where I would put up the shed, I have a four by twenty patch of garden. I want it OUT. It's not big enough to offer enough veggies to satisfy us, and yet it takes the same amount of work that a larger garden would take. So, this fall when the peas and carrots are done, I am going to rip out the railroad tie border, add a bit more dirt to level it off, and put in some winterizing grass seed. is there such a thing? if not, I will do it in the spring, but with sod. (Sod is only 3-30 cents a square foot, so it won;t cost that much)

And there you have it. My plans for the - oh - and I want to re-paint the front rail, it is starting to chip, and if that is left, it will begin to rust - but thats it! thats all I have planned!

Right?

(and maybe while we are painting the rail, we can paint the front door?)

Musically challenged

I have to admit that newer technology confuses me. My six year old is more up to date on what things plug into what and how to turn machines on and all that stuff. We have several ipods in our house, the boys have shuffles, and me and hubs have Ipod nano's.

But. My Nano is dead and needs to be recharged. And when I try to just plug it in, a thingy pops up and wants me to do updates and blah blah blah, and its HARD. And CONFUSING! And I keep forgetting to ask Hubs to come and do it for me!

Will you come do it for me?

It's either you or I will have to ask the six year old, and trust me, that's a very embarrassing option!

Where Was I : A Continuation of Where I Was

So. Where Was I? LOLz!

Round Four PM this afternoon, I took the laptop, and my computer memory card out to the garage to sit in the shade, blog, drink coffee and keep an eye on the boys. My first decision was "Where do I want to blog". I decided that the best place for the pictures would be Where Was I and clicked over to it.

Then I closed the window, convinced I had clicked the wrong button and tried again. And Again. And then I panicked!

In the time it took me to load and reload the page a few times, digital signage was flashing in my head :

DOMAIN RENEWAL!

OH MY GOOD YOU FORGOT TO RENEW YOUR DOMAIN!

WHAT KIND OF BLOGGER FORGETS TO RENEW THEIR DOMAIN??

Me. That's what kind. The domain place had tried to email me (I later found out there had been four reminders starting four weeks before the date it was due) but becuase I had no way to access my Yahoo account, I had not received any of them.

Did I mention yet that I started to panic?

I headed over to the place that I bought my domains from, NameCheap, tried to login to see what the reactivation would cost me, and crossed my fingers, knowing I only had 5 dollars in my paypal account becuase we had just bought the Wii Fit!

But. Did you see that word up there? TRIED? As in I FORGOT MY PASSWORD! And becuase I am an idiot and do not write them down, I was screwed.

Then I remembered that Nobody had helped me set Where Was I up on the domain and to do that, I had told him the password, and then not changed it.

I twittered and emailed my distress to him and he came through - while at his children's swimming lessons with the PW. YAY! And Then, THEN, I had to ask a friend to loan me Five dollars to bring me up to enough to be able to renew the domain, which was only 9.29.

Thankfully, My BFF Sheila came through for me, and loaned me the $ and litteraly, the minute the screen cleared with the payment, I clicked over to Where Was I and there she was, in all her glory!

SO.RELEIVED!

Somedays I scare myself.

Today I had an almost disaster, thanks to some very very very good friends, the disaster was averted. You see, Today I wanted to post some photos of my boys, and I bunny hopped over to my other blog, Where Was I? Only to find it was GONE.

[cue horror movie type scream here]

My mind raced as I tried to figure out what the hell had happened when it hit me. Yahoo. You see, way, way back in 1998 I was introduced to the internet by my then boyfriend, now husband. From there I found yahoo, and in particular, their games. I fell in LOVE with a game called Canasta and played it constantly.

But to join Yahoo, you need to first sign up. Well, I was SO new to the internet that I was terrified of giving out ANY personal information, so my registration looked like this:

NAME : laskurfsndf
Date Of Birth : lalksfjapofs
COUNTRY: alksjfoaipsf

Are you getting the picture?

Fast forward now ten and a half years, I was still using the same Yahoo account, Bluepaintred, and had used my Yahoo e-mail to sign up for almost everything. It's better to use a web based e-mail, like Yahoo, Hotmail or G-mail - my favorite is g-mail) than the email your ISP provides you because if you change ISP's you will lose that e-mail.

ANYWAY. My boys dumped a full glass of water on my laptop, and I had to set yahoo (and everything ELSE) up again. Except. I forgot my password. And all my info was fake so I could not request a new one, AND I had forgotten that one of my domains was up for renewal, and that the renewal forms were sent to - you guessed it, my yahoo e-mail.

Hmmm

This is getting longer than the used cisco network cords, so I will continue this horrifying tale in another post!

Stupid - or lazy?

Some dude is a retard. He is throwing a bunch of stuff onto the curb.

1. Garbage day was Friday - that means that stuff will be sitting there, in front of his house for five more days.

2. He is tossing out stuff like a couch (really ugly and worn)(yes I went and looked) weight benches and a - yes really- a DOG HOUSE!

2.a. When Friday does roll around, he will expect all his junk to be picked up and taken away. Did he not read the notice we all got last April? You know, the big neon yellow paper TAPED onto our new garbage cans? The one that stated that they ONLY pick up what is in the garbage can, and nothing around it? Thats it is an AUTOMATED truck thingy doing the picking up and NOT a person like last year?

Sigh.

At least I can be thankful he is tossing out household goods and NOT heaps of garbage! Imaging the stench.

Wonder how long he will leave it there before hauling it away himself?

Vacation - Success!

Looks like we will be going camping this summer after all!

[yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!]

Back story : Smokey - our dog - came to us from a farm 11 hours away, in November, VIA a kennel in the back of a pick up truck. The ride was long, and cold and lonely. She was one of 11 pups, who had known 12 weeks of having her siblings, her mom and dad, as well as about six other adult dogs with her. She had never been in a vehicle, much less taken an 11 hour ride in the cold, before.

Because of that horrible ride, Smokey came to us hating cars, and trucks, and basically anything with a motor. We found this out one evening when we decided to load her up and take her into the city for some dog toy shopping. She puked and pooped and foamed at the mouth. She shook and cried and was generally terrified. I've never felt like a meaner person that when I had to push her rump to get her back into the car for that 20 minute ride home from the city.

Since then, we have slowly been acclimating her with the car. First by just getting her to go in it for treats, and in the past week, we have taken her for short drives, 10- 15 minutes every night. In the middle of each ride we stop for something fun, a few minutes of running in a park, to explore the pond and water fountain. When we get home she gets treats and cuddles.

She has not soiled herself, nor does she spend the whole time crying and shaking, but she does bark. A lot. In fact, she barks constantly. We have just over a month to get her up to handling a 45 minute drive, becuase mid August we will be heading out to the campground.

Our first plan was for Smokey to spend the weekend at my brothers place, but he was evicted. I checked out the kennel, but felt Smokey would not get the kind of attention she was used to, and the prices were horrible. My Mother in law offered to come over every few hours to walk her and play with her, but she would spend the rest of that time alone. In a kennel.

So it was decided we would not go camping. and we were all pretty sad. Sure, Camping is not on par with Vegas vacations, but we LOVE it.

With the improvements Smokey has made in the past week, we are determined to bring her with us. I know she will love being outside with us, and she will be fine sleeping in the tent. I am kind of sad that we might not be able to go to the pool, becuase I will not leaver her alone in the campsite (she would BARK!BARK!BARK!) but hubs said he is willing to stay back at the site with her while me and the kids go, so that might be an option..

Anyway. I'm super happy that we are going. I just wish it was sooner than the middle of August!

eBay FAIL

All afternoon I have been trying to bid - successfully - on a Wii Fit. After all, the reason we got the Wii was because I wanted to use the Wii Fit!~

So far I have bid in four different auctions, all around the same price, and every single time I am the highest bid until anywhere fro 30 to OMG 11 seconds remaining.

It's easier to play beer pong with whiskey than to get a Wii Fit on eBay!

We would buy it in stores, but they NEVER have them in stock. Well. We did see it that one time, about a week before we located our Wii. We talked about picking it up and eventually decided it was too weird to iuy a game for a system before we have the system. By the time we drove home from the city that night we were kicking ourselves for not picking it up, and hubs went back to the store the next day after work, but they had sold out by then.

We haven't seen it since!

Eventually, I will win the Fit. I might have to wait until next payday so I can up my bid, but eventually, it will be MINE!