You People Are No Fun

A summary of my most awesome weekend...

Friday was the last day of school for the kids. They have the next two weeks or so off of school for Winter Break. I'm so looking forward to not driving kids to and from school every day. Friday night, the Youngest child had a new friend spend the night at our house. She was an...interesting kid. We had a Christmas event planned for Friday night but with the nasty weather we had, we nixed that and went to iHop for dinner instead.

Saturday, both the girls managed to make plans to spend the night at friends' houses so the Mister and I had the night to ourselves. It's the first night we've had alone since our anniversary vacation back in May. Because the girls made these plans on the fly, we didn't have a chance to plan a special night so we just went out to dinner and then did some shopping. It was just nice knowing that we could do what we wanted to do without worrying about having to get home to the kids.

Today, we vegged. The Mister had two papers to finish up for his classes and the girls were both tired from their nights out. I think that I might be coming down with a cold (my throat is scratchy and I'm tired beyond all belief), so I took a pajama day and watched Netflix on the couch all day. I also played Tiny Tower on my phone too, heheh. My Bitizens are prosperous just in case you were wondering.

We did have a couple of hiccups in the weekend. Bailey peed on our brand new couch. I'm pretty sure this is a jealous reaction to the cat. She used to pee in our bed when she got mad but our bed is so high now that I can barely get into it, lol. Bailey won't even jump into the back of our SUV anymore. As for the couch, we got Lazy Boy's maintenance coverage or whatever they call it so all I have to do is schedule someone to come out and clean it. If they can't clean and remove the smell, they have to give us a new couch. Even so, the Mister and I were very upset by this behavior. Not to mention, the house smells like dog pee. Bailey has also taken to eating cat cookies if you know what I mean. Besides the fact that this is totally, completely, and utterly disgusting, and she's making a mess throughout the house with kitty litter, we have the clumping litter which could make her sick. I have what I hope is a solution to this problem but we haven't tried it out yet, so we'll see. Since Friday, I've vacuumed the house, upstairs and down, four times.

All in all, and in spite of the dog, we had a great weekend and I'm looking forward to the next couple weeks. Woot!

NaBloPoMo Day 3: Soaking Up the Sun

This is a picture I took of Bailey yesterday. This is what she does every day though. She follows the sun around the living room. It doesn't matter how small a sliver of sun it is, if she can wedge herself into it, she's laying in it. As you can see by her hind end, the sliver of sun was only about 1/2 an inch wide but she tried laying in it nonetheless.

The first thing I do in the mornings is open up the blinds in the front window so that as soon as the sun angles in that window, she can lay in it. If I forget, she shoots me dirty looks until I remember. If it happens to be a cloudy day, she gives me these looks like it's my fault.

Who's really the boss in my house??

Bailey's Saga or The Murphy's Law of Deployments

The original surgery

If you’re familiar at all with deployments, you know, if something will go wrong, it’ll go wrong during a deployment. The Mister’s other deployment, I temporarily lost my eyesight in my right eye. That’s real fun when you’re alone with two kids. This deployment, my dog Bailey has been keeping me stressed out.

On September 24^th, I took Bailey to the vet for a pre-spay checkup and to have one lump and two bumps checked out. One common health issue of Boxers is that they get skin bumps and lumps, some of which turn out to be cancer. One bump was nothing and the rather large lump under her front armpit was just a fatty cyst. However, the other bump had the vet worried that it was cancer. She recommended that it be removed and biopsied. Not wanting to take chances, I agreed to have this procedure done the same day Bailey got her spay.

September 28^th, I dropped Bailey off at the vet bright and early and scheduled to pick her up at 4:30 the same afternoon. Everything went off without a hitch. I was pretty shocked at the size of the incision where the bump was removed. It was the size of a pencil eraser yet the incision was about three inches long. When I picked her up, she was still recovering from the anesthesia and pain meds. She cracked the girls and I up running into things and leaving her tongue poking out of her mouth for several hours. She looked like she had partied hard the night before, lol.

It's hard to tell, but this was right after her 1st surgery. She's loopy here, lol.

On October 2^nd, I noticed that Bailey’s bump incision was looking kinda red and it was oozing more than it had been so I took her to the Pet ER to have her checked out. They said the incision actually looked pretty good but that I should make sure and keep her follow up appointment I had scheduled on October 8^th. By the time I got her into the vet on the 8^th, the incision was infected. Instead of getting her stitches removed, they sent me home with antibiotics and instructions to wash the area with a warm washcloth 2-4 times a day and to bring her back in on the 11^th for a recheck. However, I noticed on the 9^th that her incision had a gap in it about the size of a penny and whenever I applied pressure to wipe it with a washcloth, fluid flowed out of it to the point it was dripping on the floor (sorry, TMI, I know.) I don’t really consider myself to have a squeamish stomach, but this was pushing my limits. It was all I could do not to puke on the floor. So, I called the Pet ER and described what was going on. They told me to stop washing it and instead apply a warm washcloth inside of a ziplock bag as a warm compress. So I did this and by Sunday afternoon, her incision was almost completely open from end to end. By this point, I’d had enough and I trooped her to the Pet ER. After sitting in the waiting room for almost 2 hours, the vet finally looked at her and said that she needed another procedure. The infection wasn’t allowing her incision to heal and had caused it to gape open instead. So, he had to clean out the infection, create new edges on each side of her incision, and then apply dual-layered sutures to close it back up. Oh. And he put in a drain, which was just lovely. I spent almost the entire day on Sunday at the Pet ER. I am totally thankful that I even have one nearby.

Now, it’s three days after the second procedure.

The incision now, 10/13

I took Bailey into her regular vet for another wound check today. She’s doing so well that they were able to take the drain out. The vet apologized profusely for everything that I’ve had to go through with this ordeal. It’s been over 2 weeks (13 days to be exact) and Bailey still isn’t healed. I have to take her back again on the 18^th to hopefully have the stitches removed provided nothing else goes wrong.

This was almost more than I could take. I’ve had Bailey at the vet’s 5 times in the last 20 days, two of which were weekend runs to the Pet ER for a total cost (thus far) of $1500.00 give or take a couple dollars. I guess for three surgeries and three different medications, that’s not so bad. I’m hoping and keeping my fingers crossed, that this is my deployment “thing”. I’ve paid my dues to the angry deployment gods and will now be left alone in peace to wait for my husband to come home. Sounds fair, right?

OBX Vaca 2009, Day 1

We made it safe and sound to the Outer Banks. We always overestimate how long it takes to get here. Check in wasn’t until 4 pm and we got here at 2 pm. We had two hours to kill which isn’t a big deal except that we had the dogs with us which makes it hard to do things since we can’t leave them in the car for very long.

The first thing we did was stop at this deli that we ate at last year. They make a to-die-for crab cake sandwich. YUM! Alas! They closed early for the season this year. :( Big bummer. Instead of eating, we checked out some of the shops that were in the same little shopping area. We were about to leave when this guy flagged down the Mister who was wearing an Ohio State t-shirt. The guy told the Mister that he had something in his store that we just had to see. We followed him back to his very nice, outdoor-type clothing store. He goes behind the counter and hauls out this really long necklace made out of buckeyes! It was so funny. He was like, “Do people really wear these? Even men???” Growing up in Ohio, I remember making similar necklaces in elementary school for the Ohio State v. Michigan game. And yes, everyone wears them, even men. He was amused and still a little skeptical but put on the necklace anyway explaining that a friend of his had sent it to him, heheh.

Anyway, he was a very nice man and told us that if we donated $5 to the Wounded Warriors that he would give us a 20% discount. The oldest child has had her eye on a North Face jacket for the longest time and she didn’t have a “winter” coat yet so we figured that it would be the perfect time to get her one. It turns out that the 20% of coupon is good for a year and that we can use it online or call and talk to Betsy in the store and still get the discount. PLUS free shipping. Woot! He was hosting the donation drive and had homemade cookies and hot apple cider which we enjoyed while shopping. The cider was wonderful! Like apple pie in a cup.

It was finally time to check in after our little shopping excursion so we headed to the check in office. We picked up our keys in Duck and drove to the house in Corolla. This house is massive!! It’s three stories and I’m not sure how many bedrooms and bathrooms, lol. Seriously. I can’t remember. I know that it has four master bedrooms and I can remember seeing at least three other bedrooms. The 3rd floor has a huge open floor plan with a sitting area, dining area, and beautiful kitchen. We were going to eat out tonight but once we saw the kitchen with the huge granite topped island, lots of additional counter space, and Italian tile floors, we decided to cook tonight. It was great.

The house isn’t directly on the beach but the walkway to the beach is right across the street and you can see and hear the ocean from our house. I’ll take pictures tomorrow when we have sunlight.

The Mister will be running in the 4th Annual OBX Marathon bright and early tomorrow. We picked up his race packet while waiting to check in so he’s all set to go.

Oh. One funny thing before I go for the night. There is a life sized pirate statue next to the door right when you come in the house. I knew it was there because of the pictures I had seen of the house online. The Mister, however, didn’t and it scared the crap out of him when we walked in!! It was so funny. There is also a life sized chef statue in the kitchen (Why? I don’t know. It’s the ultimate in tacky decorations.). Hannah couldn’t figure that thing out and kept standing up to it and whining. She seriously cracked us up. We also have weird mermaids coming out of the walls. But I’ll show you all that tomorrow. Laters.

NaBloPoMo 2009, post 7 of 30.

Georgia, Here We Come!

I’ve been going nonstop since 6 am but I think I finally have us ready to leave. The car is loaded and I dropped the dogs off at the pet spa about an hour ago. :( It was really hard to leave them, lol. I feel silly about it, but I miss them already. I know they’ll be fine. The people at the spa and the vet’s love them. When the woman took the dogs to the back, they went with her without even looking back and they didn’t even give me a chance to say goodbye. They probably won’t even notice we’re not there. Oh well.

As for the trip, we’re leaving tonight when the Mister and the girls get home which should put us at the hotel around midnight. It sucks, but I wanted to have the entire day there Saturday and the Mister couldn’t finagle any time off of work. It’s going to be a whirlwind trip since we’re leaving to come home Sunday but I don’t care. It’ll be fun and totally worth it.

I have no idea what we’re going to do while we’re there. I hope Jennifer has some ideas, lol. I’ve been so busy all week that I haven’t had a chance to do any research. If anyone has any suggestions of “must see” sights in Savannah, leave a comment!!

We’re not taking a computer with us so I won’t be able to post anything over the weekend but I’ll have pictures and stuff Monday. Tuesday at the latest.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!! I’ll see ya’ll when I get back.

The Results are In

Hannah had her vet visit this morning and she is fine. She just has some sort of stomach bug. I had no idea that dogs could get what is basically the stomach flu, did you?  Anyway, they ran tests and took x-rays but didn’t find anything. No worms or obstructions. She does have a fever so she’s being treated for that and the nausea. I have to give her two different pills twice a day for five days and she should be all cleared up. AND, the doctor said that we can kennel both dogs at their sister facility next door so that if anything happens with Hannah, they’ll be right there to take care of her. Neato, huh? It’s actually a pet spa, heheh, so they should have a pretty good time while we’re gone. I even paid a little extra so that they could have  special play time each day they’re there.

I’m pretty relieved. Hannah laying around the house for four days had me more worried than her nausea did. She’s such a hyperactive, go, go, go, kinda dog that it’s really scary to see her sleeping all the time. But I guess like people, dogs sleep when they have the flu too, lol.

So, since everything is cool with the dogs, I’m making plans for a weekend trip to Georgia. There’s packing and cleaning to do but with only going for the weekend, it shouldn’t be that bad. I’m really excited and looking forward to going and to seeing Jennifer again. The really coincidental thing is that I was in California this time last year visiting her, lol. It would be really great if we could actually turn this into an annual visitation. Only time will tell.

That’s One Sick Puppy

It’s never a good thing to start your day out with having to clean. It’s a really bad day when that cleaning involves dog puke, pee, and poo. That’s how my morning started Friday and the cleaning continued up until yesterday. I have a carpet steam cleaner that has totally saved us. Not to be too disgusting here, but the messes were dark in color and I have very light carpeting. My steam cleaner got every last trace out of the carpet leaving nothing behind. Each spot took about half the reservoir of cleaner, but whatever works. So far today, Hannah hasn’t vomited anywhere but she’s had these really loud, deep burps that have panicked me twice this morning, lol. I called the vet and made her an appointment for first thing tomorrow just in case.

We’re trying to plan a weekend trip to Georgia to visit with Jennifer this coming weekend but it’s sort of in limbo with Hannah being the way that she is. We can’t kennel a sick dog and we don’t want to take the dogs with us either. Should we be able to follow through with our plans, we are going to tour Savannah which should be a lot of fun. I’ve been to and through Georgia several times but I’ve never seen Savannah before. I really hope that we get to go. It would be a shame for Jennifer to be this close and for us not to get a chance to see her.

In My Neighborhood

It snowed again. This snow is much wetter than the other snow so it’s mostly slush. Weird thing about it is that the last time we  got snow, school was cancelled while it was still raining. This time, it was actively snowing and at a good rate and school wasn’t even delayed. Not that I mind. I get much more work done when the kids are in school, but it was still a bit intimidating being out on the streets with people that can’t drive in the rain.

Also in my neighborhood…

We got Bailey back in 2005. She has lived in three different houses. We got Hannah in 2007. She has lived in two different  houses. In all that time, with all the different neighbors, my dogs have never barked at people. They don’t bark at the mail carrier, the UPS delivery person, the neighborhood kids, people on a stroll, nobody. That is, until a couple weeks ago. I’m not sure if we got new neighbors or if they are just behaving differently, but every time the guy that lives directly behind us comes out of his house (our backyards butt up against each other being separated by privacy fences.) Hannah goes crazy barking at him, scratching at the back door, and jumping at the fence. She does not  like this guy. It’s weird. Even more weird, the oldest child and I saw him standing inside his house, staring out his patio doors, and into our kitchen yesterday afternoon. He wasn’t just glancing, he stood there for several minutes. It was so odd that I closed all the blinds at the back of the house. I know it’s probably wrong to judge a person based on how your dog reacts to them, but her behavior is so out of the ordinary and then the watching our house, I’m beginning to wonder what the heck is up with this guy. I’m probably just being paranoid.

Also in my neighborhood…

One of our neighbors moved yesterday. They moved into their house a day before we moved into ours and they are already moving. We’re sad about it because their daughter is friends with my daughters. She’s a sweetheart too. She calls me Miss Trisha and gives me a hug whenever she sees me. The turnaround time in my neighborhood is huge. There are several houses for sale and for rent and there’s only two streets. That also makes one wonder about the neighborhood. Oh well.

Living healthy update…

Prior to typing this entry, I was on the elliptical. It was a pretty good workout and no nausea, lol. Last night for dinner, we had seasoned tilapia, broccolini, and corn. We were supposed to have polenta with it but I bought the wrong kind and it looked like nasty, gooey, slop in the pan. The recipe was another one from Cooking Light. For the day, I was 382 calories under my total allowed for the day AND, I wasn’t even hungry. Nifty, eh?

Now that I’ve stopped sweating, I’m off for my shower and breakfast. Oh! That reminds me. Something that I’ve added to my daily routine is a glass of Cranergy. I honestly can’t stand the taste of the stuff. For one thing, I hate artificial sweeteners and for another, it has a celery taste to it which is odd considering that isn’t an ingredient. Even so, it gives the most awesome energy boost that lasts for several hours and it’s only 50 calories per 12 ounces. You can’t say that about coffee or soda. At least not the coffee or soda that I would normally drink trying to perk myself up.

Ok. Enough. I’m off

Old Friends

Saturday we visited with some friends that we hadn’t seen in about three  years. It was a really great visit. Both the Mister and I commented on how we picked up right where we had left off and that the three years didn’t make us feel awkward in the least.

We were originally going to have them down to our house because they don’t have a house of their own yet. But instead of staying in a hotel until they could move into their new house, they decided to rent one of the beach rentals on Camp Lejeune at Onslow Beach. We, of course, couldn’t turn down a chance to hang out at the beach for the day. They wanted us to come for the whole weekend but you’re not allowed dogs there and we had nobody to watch Hannah and Bailey on such short notice. Do you know how much easier it is to travel with kids than it is with dogs? With kids, they’re allowed most anywhere that you are. You don’t have to pay a non-refundable deposit for kids at hotels. People are more willing to watch kids than they are dogs because kids don’t eat your garbage, chew your furniture, pee on the floor, or dig up your yard. Anyway…

So we spent the day at the beach rental. We mostly just sat around and reminisced and caught up with what we had missed out on the last three years. We had dinner together and the girls collected lots of neat shells on the beach. Then we had to leave because we had to get home to let the dogs out.

About a block of two from our house, the Mister asked the kids if they had locked the door on their way out. I have no idea what prompted him to worry about the doors being locked at that point because it was way too late to do anything about it had someone decided to break in while we were gone. Then, he gets this look on his face because he had just realized that we took his car instead of mine which meant that we didn’t have house keys with us. See? We have four sets of keys; two each for the Rav and the Scion. My Scion key also has my house keys on the same key chain because that’s the car that I drive. Likewise, the Mister’s Rav key is on the same keychain with his set of house keys. Turns out that he’s been using my Rav keys for some time because he lost his. We had to take the Rav to Camp Lejeune because we had to take our friends’ huge boxes that they had sent to our house when they moved. We held out hope that that interior garage door was unlocked because we don’t always keep that door locked. Nope. No such luck. Then we checked all the windows which was no easy feat because we have solar screens on all the windows and we had to climb the privacy fence to get in the backyard, heheh. But alas, I’m a stickler for not getting murdered in my sleep and all our windows were locked up tight. What other choice did we have at 8:30 at night but to call a locksmith. I was afraid that it was going to cost a lot to have the locksmith out but it didn’t at all. I was pleasantly surprised. It also only took him like two minutes to get the door open with his lock picking tool. Through it all, I totally kept my cool. I sat in the car and surfed the Internet on my iPod, lol. Oh. And you know what else?? The locksmith didn’t ask for identification AT ALL and we paid in cash. I know we didn’t exactly look suspicious with two kids and all, but that would be a really good cover for breaking into people’s houses. He should have at least asked for a driver’s license, imo.

That was our Saturday.

Sunday, I didn’t do a darn thing all day. I didn’t even get dressed but stayed in my pj’s all day. Last week was rough and I just wanted one mindless day. The biggest thing I did all day was cook dinner, lol. It was wonderful.

How was your weekend?

Having Dog Issues

 

Does this look like a mean dog to you?

My sweet dog is being not-so-sweet lately. Bailey is having issues and I can’t figure out why. She’s three years old and until recently, I could never in a million years picture her being mean. Just in the last couple weeks though she’s not been herself. 

She snarled at me when I made her get off my bed. (We have a no dogs on the furniture rule.) She bit the youngest child on the hand just a few minutes ago. She mounted one of the kids when they were on the floor playing with her last week. She’s also been showing dominance over Hannah lately and when we first got Hannah, Bailey allowed her to be the dominant dog even as a puppy. Maybe it’s all the changes since we moved. She became depressed when we moved from Vermont to North Carolina which is one of the reasons we got Hannah in the first place. We don’t want a third dog right now so getting Bailey another puppy is out of the question. 98% of the time, Bailey is perfectly fine. She’s affectionate, she obeys commands, and she’s just generally well-behaved. It’s that other 2% that has me worried because she could progress really fast into being aggressive if I don’t figure out what to do. She’s also been extra hungry lately but I have no idea what that could mean. Maybe I should take her to the vet. She’s not due for a check-up but it couldn’t hurt I suppose. She’s not spayed either. We never came to a decision on whether or not we wanted to breed her. It’s probably time to fix her and be done with it though. If we can’t make a decision after three years, it’s not meant to be, right?

I would be devastated if anything ever happened to either one of my dogs. I need a solution.

The Past Few Days

We had a fantastic time at the N.C. Seafood Festival Saturday night. The weather could not have been more perfect. It was gorgeous. We had shrimp, funnel cakes, and salt water taffy. There was also a N.C. vineyard, J. Wesley Vineyards, that hosted a wine tasting at the festival so I tried I think five different wines and bought a pretty decent bottle of cabernet sauvignon.

The thing about these outdoor festival deals is that your choice of restroom is pretty limited. You have porta potties and restrooms inside of businesses which are usually closed to the public. Well, the youngest was in desperate need of a potty so we headed towards a bank of porta potties. I checked them out and HOLY COW!! Unfit for humans is the only nice way to put it. I wouldn’t even let my dogs in those things. But what do you expect from porta potties? By this time, the child was doing the pee pee dance and was looking pathetic. Our only choice was to head to a restaurant and pay for some food. We went to this restaurant called Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant. We didn’t actually want to eat there because we wanted to eat at the festival so we got salads and drinks. For the privilege of a clean restroom and a little bit of food, we paid $52.00. Oh well.

The wine tasting.

Heading towards the funnel cake vendor.

Looking down a street.

Sunset over the river or inlet or whatever body of water this is. I really like this picture though.

On the way home we stopped at Petsmart for some dog food and ended up buying Bailey her Halloween costume.

Heheh.

Bailey the ham.

Those pictures were taken with my digi camera not my phone.

Sunday we didn’t do a whole lot except for go to the commissary, the Mister ran 14 miles or something like that, and he mowed the lawn which needs watering.

Yesterday I was feeling quiet. Not depressed or grumpy, just quiet. I didn’t want to hear the TV, the kids, music, or anything. I dug out a book from one of the boxes in the garage and read it. It’s the first time in recent memory that I’ve started and finished a book in one day. I miss that. It was sort of like visiting with an old friend.

Today I’m still feeling a little bit on the quiet side. Unfortunately, both of my phones have been ringing off the hook and I’ve had to deal with rent issues again. My rent, not the Vermont rent. I first tried mailing the rent check on 9/22 and it was returned as undeliverable yesterday. Then, on 10/3 I tried doing an electronic transfer. I got an e-mail from the Mister this morning saying that they still didn’t have the money so I went into a bit of a panic and a lot of fury and proceeded to figure out what the hell. Turns out that it takes three business days for electronic transfers to complete when they are transacted between my bank and an outside bank. All in all, it took me 11 days to pay my rent. What a PIA.

But, My Teacher Hates Me!!

The oldest child had a fabulous first day. She didn’t get lost and one of her friends from elementary school is in almost all of her classes including band. What more can you ask for? Picking her up from school was a bit interesting. I got there 20 minutes early and the carpool lane was up and down both sides of the road. Cars as far as you could see. We didn’t even start moving until about 3:05 and by then I was beginning to panic that I was going to miss the youngest getting off her bus. Turns out there was nothing to worry about because her bus didn’t even leave the school until 3:15 and didn’t arrive until about 3:45. So much for 3:15.

When the youngest got off of the bus and I asked her about her day, she said she had a bad day. When I asked her why, she said because she kept getting lost, lol, so I told her it would get better with time. As we were walking back to the house, two middle school aged girls were walking behind us talking about missing elementary school. One said that she hated Mrs. So and So because she was so mean. The other girl agreed with her. Turns out that Mrs. So and So is the youngest’s teacher. When I asked her if the teacher was indeed mean, the youngest was pretty adamant that she was. I just chalked it up to kids talking. When you’re nervous and having a rough day, everyone seems like they’re mean.

As the night progressed, the youngest was acting more whiny than she usually does. She actually cried because she forgot her iPod at home when we went to the new house which isn’t like her at all. The Mister and I figured that she was just overly tired not being used to getting up at 6 am. (I’m not either. I HATE 6 am. 6 am should ROT!) When we got home and we were all sitting together in the living room, the dam broke. The youngest said that she got in trouble for not paying attention in school and then she proceeded to bawl. I almost started crying myself. I felt so bad for her because she had obviously held that in all day. I don’t remember having bad first days of school the entire time I went let alone in elementary school. She cried again this morning when I got her up for school because she really didn’t want to go back. I know I’m the mom and partial to my kids but I hate Mrs. So and So too. How can you make a kid hate school on the very first day? Especially since I took the woman aside and explained the child’s issues to her and she knew she was starting at a new school. I’m crying too, lol. Not a good way to start the day.

Speaking of which…We were running late this morning because I’m dumb. We were trying to leave but Hannah wouldn’t come inside. She does that, the little bugger. And if you try and go out to get her, she runs and my yard is too big to chase a dog that doesn’t want to be caught. So, we had to leave her outside. I knew when we left that she would jump the gate but I didn’t have a choice. As it was, when we got there, the bus was already there and she barely made it. When the youngest got on the bus, the oldest and I decided to run home real fast and see if we could get Hannah to come in the house. As we pulled down our street, we saw two women holding their dogs while another manic dog was jumping all over them. Who’s dog would that have been??? MINE!!! The little shit (sorry) jumped the gate like I knew she would and was jumping all over the neighbors and their dogs. After I profusely apologized, we loaded her up in the car and rushed the oldest to school. Until we get moved, Hannah doesn’t go out in the morning unless she’s on a leash.

Now I’m off to paint some more. Fun fun. I’m going to need a vacation when all of this is done.

Would You Look at This???

I just took this picture minutes ago.

What is it? It’s a pile of dirt. Why did I take a picture of a pile of dirt??? This is what just came off of the dogs when they came in from outside and shook themselves. Dust and CRUD went everywhere. Ya think they need baths now??? SHEESH! They like to roll around in the dirt and muck under our deck because they’re special like that.

And this picture I took last night because I was disgusted and wanted to share my disgust with all my loyal blogger friends. See? I’m a generous person.

Isn’t that freaking disgusting?? I hate slugs.

Some Stuff to Share

Today’s my birthday. I’m firmly entrenched in my 30’s now. I really hate that. The Mister and I went shopping yesterday and I got a new purse and wallet to match and a new pair of sunglasses. I told him that I didn’t want anything, and I really meant it, but we were out so why not. We also got Fools Gold, Juno, and the first season of The Shield on DVD. It was a fun time and good enough for my birthday.

Friday night we went to Jacksonville for dinner. We got there early so we did a little shopping that day too, heheh. I got the cutest pair of sandals. Check them out:

I absolutely love them and they are very comfortable and they were on sale too. I also got a new pair of running shoes but the arches hit my feet wrong so I’m giving them to the oldest child. It’s too bad too because I really liked them and I have the hardest time picking out running shoes. Just ask Jennifer. She went with me back when we both lived in California and it was probably the most painful shoe shopping trip she ever suffered through. I still need new running shoes though because my current ones make my toes go numb on the elliptical. Not a good thing.

Oh. And I also got the newest “Stuff” pack for the Sims 2. It’s Ikea furniture and I love it!

When I’m depressed, I shop. I’m not a comfort eater, I’m a comfort shopper. I’m feeling much better these days, LMAO!!

I also have another picture that I want to share because I find it hilarious:

This is Bailey being silly with her rope. She cracks me up when she does this.

And this picture is the oldest child’s guinea pig, Bacon. We’ve been Bacon-sitting for her while she's in Ohio and he’s a cute little guy. He likes to sleep in this dish which used to be his food dish. Now he has another food dish that's too small for him to sleep in.

Lastly, the following picture is the view from our hotel room in Asheville. It was pretty nice, huh?

That's it for today. Sorry for all the previous funkiness.

Two Things

I can't believe that I forgot to blog about this yesterday. My retardo dog, Hannah, busted through a pane of glass on my back door yesterday. She gets really excited about going outside and jumps at the door. This time, she broke a window. Now I need to figure out what to look for in the phone book so that I can get the glass replaced before my landlord finds out. I love my dogs but Hannah is sometimes hard to like.

Secondly, here's a followup to my whining about my business professor. If you'll recall, she gave very vague instructions on how to prepare for the exam. These same exact, word for word, instructions were all that was included with the actual exam too. It was supposed to be a six page essay with a model (that was the vague part) on leadership and change. We had to include cites from our text book as well as cites from four different websites. Well, I managed to reference my text book and two different websites but I didn't include the names of the websites (they were long and unmanageable titles) or the web addresses so they were very vague references. I also only wrote 3 1/2 pages and didn't waste my time attempting to include a model. Not my best work at ALL but I really had no idea what she was looking for. My grade? 100%. Yup. Apparently what I wrote qualified as perfect. I'm not complaining about my grade, but my professor was clearly sub-standard. She sucked. Suck, suck, suckerson. She sucked. I could have taught this class and better than she did too. Whatever. It's over and I'm done talking about it.

Funkiness

I read a lot about Monday funkiness around the Net yesterday which made me feel somewhat better that it wasn't just me. The Mister came home from work in a bad mood and the kids were a bit touchy too. Everyone in our house kept to our own corners last night. Posting my post yesterday (which nobody seemed to want to touch, you chickens) didn't help in the least. It also didn't help that a friend called out of the blue, said she was coming over, and three hours later called to say she had a contagious illness and couldn't come over after all. At least she gave me three hours to bust my ass (pardon the French) to clean my house for no good reason. Holy cow!! I'm still in a bad mood, lol. Trying to move on...

Did anyone catch last night's Medium? Was it or was it not AWESOME!! I won't give anything away in case someone has it waiting for them on their DVR but I LOVE that show. And Bones!! OMG! I had read online at TVGuide that it had a surprise ending but I totally didn't see that coming. The Big Bang Theory was positively hilarious too. I am so glad that it got renewed for next season and didn't become a victim of the strikes.



Something to make us all laugh. I just took this picture of Hannah. The girls dressed her and brought her in for me to see.


Now didn't that make you giggle a little?? I truly hope everyone has a good Tuesday.

Wonderful Saturday

We have had a great day so far today. It's 85 out and sunny with some clouds. It's a pretty perfect day weather-wise.

We took a drive out to Morehead City. They have some new stores that have opened up since the last time we were there and we decided to check them out. Also, the Mister wanted to show us the route he ran there when he ran in the half marathon. That was a ridiculous amount of road to run on when a car would work perfectly well. I told him that he would never convince me that running that far while you're bleeding is fun. Not in a million years.

Then, we drove on down the road to Ft. Macon cuz we hadn't been there since last winter or spring, I'm not sure which. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect because we got there right before they fired off a Civil War cannon which was pretty awesome. I actually sat right outside where they were firing the cannon cause the youngest child isn't overly fond of loud noises. We watched as a group of unknowing people walk into the fort right as they fired the cannon. Those people jumped so high I'm surprised they didn't pee their pants. I could have warned them but that wouldn't have been fun for me at all, heheh. We also walked along the beach for a bit while we were there. The wind is blowing pretty hard today and blowing sand is painful so we didn't stay long.

When we got home, we decided to give the dogs a bath since it's so warm outside. Hannah likes to attack the water as it's coming out of the hose but Bailey hates the whole process. But now they don't stink like dogs so it's all good.

Now, we're up to pretty much nothing. Oh!

And last night I made a ham dinner for dinner. The Mister and I had a craving for ham so we made one. We figured why do you have to have ham only on major holidays, right? Well, I discovered the reason. You only have ham or turkey dinners, meals that take 4+ hours to cook, in the colder months because it's too hot any other time of the year to have your oven on for that long. Regardless, the ham was scrumptious and the ham gravy was to die for so it was worth sweating for in the end.

And I'm off.

Music Sooths the Savage Beast

I went on a downloading spree last night. Jennifer S. suggested that I needed to listen to some Bach in order to chill out and I took her advice. Then I took it a bit further and downloaded some Sinatra too, heheh. Who doesn't love Sinatra?? I also ripped three opera cds, one Mozart cd, and two Celtic music cds onto my computer to add to my "chill out" music on my computer. Despite being amazingly mellow when I went to bed last night, as soon as my head hit the pillow my mind went into overdrive and I didn't get to sleep until after 2 this morning. I just have too much stuff going on right now.

It's absolutely pouring rain here today. Bailey hates the rain and won't willingly go out in it. We literally have to shove her out the door so she can do her business. Hannah, however, doesn't care in the least and she'll stay out until she's soaked to the bone. Speaking of my dogs, I haven't posted new pictures of them in forever. I should do that. They're going to miss me while I'm gone.

My iLuv battery case for my iPod probably isn't going to make it here before I leave which really peeves me. I placed the order on 3/5 and it's only in processing as of today. My luck, it'll get here on Wednesday after I leave, lol.

Come fly with me. Let's fly, let's fly away! I leave in FIVE days!!

The Energizer Bunny

That's what my day has been like. It just keeps going and going.

After running my last and final errand which was going to Target to pick up a tire pressure gauge and some other stuff (I treated myself to a lipgloss since I was having such a crappy day, heheh.), I finally came home for what I thought would be the last time today.

Sidenote: When I checked the tire pressures, I made an interesting discovery. The rear right tire has a Saab valve cap on it. I drive a Toyota and have no idea where the cap came from. I asked the Mister about it on the phone tonight and the best we can figure is that one of the guys he works with put it on as a joke. I dunno. Also. none of the tires have the correct air pressure.

Anyway, so the kids get home from school, I'm doing my school work, all is quiet. I start dinner at the usual time which tonight was fettucini alfredo from scratch with cajun chicken to go on top. I had been wanting to try my hand at homemade alfredo sauce for years but the hubby doesn't like it so I never did. I was totally looking forward to this meal. As I'm serving the girls their plates, Sidney looks out of the front door and sees Bailey standing there waiting to get in. Holy crap!! I knew Hannah was going to be all the way gone and sure enough, she was nowhere to be found. I was spitting mad. It was dinner time and dark and I figured she was gone for good cuz I just wanted to sit down and eat and wait for her to come home on her own. The oldest, however, started to cry so I put my sandals on, grabbed my cell and a flashlight and started the old drive around the neighborhood. I came across some teenagers taking a stroll and stopped and asked them if they'd seen Hannah. They hadn't so I asked them if they did, to please stop her and call me that my cell phone number is on her collar. Then, I proceeded to drive to the most exclusive neighborhood in New Bern which is where the dogs ran off to the first time. I guess they like to see how the other half lives. I had just about given up when my phone rang. It was those teenagers and they had Hannah. Funnily enough, she was still on our block. I drove over and picked her up, thanking them profusely, and came home. I got to enjoy my dinner of cold, congealed alfredo sauce, nasty looking fettucini, and cold chicken. Yum.

Oh. And about the gas pump...I told the hubby about it when he called. Remember way back when, when he got his first speeding ticket? Well, he was on his way to the same gas station and had gotten gas at the same pump and the same thing happened to him. FIX IT ALREADY!!

I'd give up and go to bed right now if it wasn't just 7 pm. I'm not leaving the house tomorrow for anything.

Pictures and a Video for Today

I uploaded a video from our trip to the beach today. The dogs had so much fun. You can tell from their fat tongues how much they were running and playing. Hannah's the leashed dog because she'll run off. Bailey's our other dog. They are fine pieces of dog flesh if I do say so myself.

Also, here's pictures of the light and our Christmas tree. Isn't it the ugliest light ever? Notice the broken light on the right towards the back, lol.