Loyal dog, crazy owner

When we got our dog Casey about 6 1/2 years ago, we saw potential. His tiny puppy face was so adorable. He was sleepy and so sweet when we went to the farm to pick him out. His father is a pure bread Siberian Husky and his mom is a black lab mix that wandered into the yard and hooked up with the crazy Husky. The puppies that resulted were interesting. There was one white one that looked just like his daddy, a chubby black boy, 2 mixed color girls, and Casey. He looks the most like his sisters. I guess I would have preferred a girl, but they were both spoken for. The owners were planning to keep the white one, as they were getting rid of the dad and keeping the mom. That left us with the roly black one and the little guy that was sleeping in the box. We woke up the little guy and he was the only one that didn't chew on Matt's shoe. lol They were only 6 1/2 weeks old, but the owners assured us that they were weaned and fine to go on their merry ways. We chose the sleepy guy and paid a $75 adoption fee. As we let him say goodbye to his family, his mom jumped up, put her paws on Matt's shoulders, and gave him a lick on the cheek. She then gave an affectionate nudge to her first son to leave the nest, and walked back to her other babies. That should have been our first indication. We soon discovered that he was sleeping because he had been terrorizing the whole place the entire day.

Wasn't he just too adorable? Who could say no to that face? Oh, yeah. The people whose shoes, rocking chair, and camcorder cable he decided to chew on. We said no a lot that first year. He was great at staying in the yard for awhile. Then he started wandering a bit. We had to tie him up. Unfortunately, he is a husky. He likes to run. He did that a LOT until rather recently. When we moved to Chilton when he was a bit over a year old, I vividly remember watching a lady walking down the road with a pretty dog following right behind her as if on a leash. Except that he wasn't on a leash. And it was our dog! We met a lot of neighbors with "I'm sorry, he likes to run. He's friendly, just kind of dumb. Could you, um, grab his collar please? Thanks!" He was great with the cat, since we had her a couple years before we got him. He was kind of raised by her. They're practically the same color and get along rather well. This is them back about 5 years when we lived in Chilton (I had somehow not had the date on my camera set right, so ignore that date in the corner. It was 2004.)

In those eyes we always saw the love and loyalty. He has food allergies and itches and/or gets the runs if he eats the wrong things. He doesn't do fetch. He does do tug. He loves to play tug. With ropes, socks, tennis balls...yeah, he's odd. He likes to be vacuumed, which happens quite frequently during the shedding seasons since he sheds a LOT. And he is phenomenal with the kids. He doesn't tug hard with them, he tolerates them climbing on him to a point, and I truly believe that if any of his family were in trouble he would do what dogs do to help us.

One of his quirks has always been bedtime. He likes to go to bed by about 10pm. However, very rarely will be go to sleep if anyone is not in their beds. He will sit and stare at us or lay next to us and sigh if we're not going to bed when he wants. He has grown to a rather chunky 89 pounds and doesn't get walked enough. He's never turned down a walk, but I know that after midnight he thinks I'm crazy if I try to take him for a walk with me. And that brings us to tonight and the title of this entry.

I am up to a 40 pound weight loss and very excited about that. I have let my diet slip a lot more lately, simply because I've discovered that I can make some concessions and still lose. Exercise is a key component to that working, though. Today I had a horrible migraine and after Samantha's softball game I didn't feel like cooking so we ate at Pizza Ranch. I did well at first. A large salad, some fruit, and a piece of chicken. Then it went downhill. A yummy piece of pepperoni pizza, 4 breadsticks, and a piece of dessert pizza left me feeling really guilty. When Matt went to bed at midnight, I tried but couldn't sleep. At 12:45 I decided that since it's around 70 degrees out and I love the peace of nighttime, I wanted to take a walk. It's generally agreed that when I go walking after dark I should take the dog with me. Well, the dog and my cell phone. I was laying in bed with Matt and Casey was happily snoozing next to the bed. I got up and casually said "Casey, do you want to go for a walk?" At the word "walk" his ears naturally perk up. He lifted his head and his eyes said "oh, yeah right. You're going to walk? Now?" I got up and he cautiously rose to see if I was serious. I got out socks and he cocked his head as if to ask me. When I got my tennis shoes, he was practically smiling. He was awake and ready to go. He stood by me while I got ready and I think if he had thumbs he would have put his leash on himself. I grabbed my cell phone, MP3 player, a flashlight, and we headed out.

We set a good pace. He's become quite the good walker. I use a 4 foot leash and he walks next to me so nicely it barely tugs. I heard him start breathing harder about 10 minutes in. At 15 minutes he was giving me the "alright, is anyone else really warm?" look. At 20 minutes his tongue was lolled out to the side and I noticed him falling behind me just the slightest bit. We got back to our road after 25 minutes. I expected him to be rushing to get to our yard since he was breathing like he'd just run a marathon. In his defense, it was rainy today and it's still quite humid out. But really. Out of shape much, Dog? We got home at the 30 minute mark and to his credit I will say that as we came up the driveway he gave me the "what? I can keep going. Let's go some more" look. Since I happen to like the dog and don't want to give him a heart attack, I declined and we came inside. We have been home nearly an hour at this point and he's STILL panting hard next to me. But giving me the look asking if we're going to go out more, or if we can go to bed now.

It's as if I can see in his eyes what he's thinking. "Seriously, crazy human. I do love to walk, but could you do it at a normal time? Maybe during the daylight? I mean, if you need a flashlight it's probably too dark." I love my dog and I love that he's so loyal and wonderful. But I do need to get him in shape. I wonder if he'd get used to 1am walks if we did it every night.

Joy

Right now I'm feeling rather calm and happy. In the 8 days since we got back from Europe, I've been struggling to get back to life. I came home with a souvenir cold that I'm finally getting over. I had been kind of out of the swing of mothering for 16 days, which I'm embarrassed to admit left me very disoriented when I came home and thought about getting back to the primary caregiver role. My mom was wonderful and stayed until today to help me recoup and re-acclimate. She helped me clean the house and helped us put up sheetrock in the basement. Last night I spent the night with dozens of elementary school girl scouts at the zoo.


And today I got back home and my baby girl was so happy to see me. (she always is, but I never get tired of seeing her happiness.) She was clapping with open hands! Before today it's always just kind of been getting her hands near each other. And even though she was crabby at me, likely due to her first tooth finally trying to make an appearance at 11 months, I felt content. I'm now able to look back and see that I have had some great things happen in the last few weeks. Yes, going to Europe was at the top of the list. But I also got a B in Spanish, so I am finished with college! And as of Friday I am down 28.6 pounds! I'm starting to really see it. I am fitting (well) into shorts from a couple years ago. I no longer look 9 months pregnant at all times. And I can see my cheekbones again! I looked in the mirror tonight and smiled because I felt good. It has been a really. long. time. since that has happened.

Maybe I'm easy to please, because it doesn't seem like much; but I'm sitting in a clean house watching Grey's Anatomy and thinking about my baby clapping, my older kids being relatively well behaved today, never having to go to college again, and not having to buy a larger wardrobe for the summer and I am happy.

Numbers

I'm definitely a numbers person. It's usually centered around money, but I've been thinking this week and there are a lot of significant numbers lately.

29. That would be my age. My birthday was April 5. I'm not sure if next year will seem more "important" or anything seeing that I'm leaving a decade, but this one sure wasn't that impressive. We were at my parents' house. We had to go to a memorial service on Saturday night and then Matt and I went to eat, shopped at Wal-Mart, and hit the casino for a few minutes (see numbers 40 and 30 later) before we went to see my dad play in the band for awhile. Matt had to leave Sunday to get back to work for Monday. I was sad that he didn't stay for my birthday, but there's not a whole lot we can do if we want money coming in. My sister-in-law made AMAZING chocolate cakes which made me really wish I wasn't on a diet. I restrained myself to a piece on Sunday and then a half piece on Monday. I could have probably eaten both 9x13 pans of it and still wanted more.

40. The amount of money we lost at the casino.

30. The time in minutes that it took us to lose said $40. Not a great night for gambling. I'm almost proud of myself, though, as we had another $20 that we brought in as the amount we would be willing to lose. Since we were never up more than a quarter at a time, we decided to cut our losses early.

5. The number of Spanish classes I have left before my final exam. Yikes! I really really really hope I get an A or B in the class, because then I get my degree! I took my oral final exam today and she (the conversational Spanish professor, unfortunately she isn't the professor for the class and doesn't give me my grade) said that I was the best in the class and got a perfect score! Talk about an ego boost.

15. The number of days until we go to Europe. GULP. I don't have anything packed, my house is a disaster, and I still need to shop a bit to figure out what I'm going to wear. I was really hoping to lose a bit more weight before leaving, but I suppose if I really wanted to do that, I would have had the willpower to avoid the pizza, nachos, cake, pie, and various other "bad" things I inhaled last week.

17. The number of pounds I've lost so far. Being the instant gratification person I am, it doesn't seem significant enough, but I'm still very happy that my jeans are looser and I'm feeling much better. Now I just have to get back on track with taking my vitamins and eating (or drinking rather) at regular intervals. 17 down, 82 to go...hmmm that doesn't have the ring to it I was hoping.

There are more numbers floating around in my head, but on this lovely day that my children are at school/sitter, I need to be getting errands run. I lost all day yesterday to a migraine and I now have a migraine hangover, but a mother's work is never done, I guess. Perhaps I will get better at blogging; maybe even adding some entries from our European vacation. I keep thinking that eventually I will have more time; or the perception of more time. Probably not, but it sure is a nice thought.

I WON!!!

WOOHOO! I'm so excited! I won one of the give-aways from the other day. I;m getting an awesome holiday banner from Kristie over at Girlville http://mycraftcloset.blogspot.com/ I can't wait to hang it up! That, along with the beautiful snow that's falling today, are really helping put me in the Christmas spirit!

As if I needed another obsession

I have a rather addictive personality. I kind of fixate on things and don't do anything until I finish. Unfortunately, this does not extend to housework. It does include books, though. When I was in High School, I was into V.C. Andrews books. You know, the Flower in the Attic and such. I would borrow them from my aunt Tamie and the book wouldn't leave my side until it was finished. My mom implemented the "no books at the dinner table" rule as a result. I would lose entire days of my life because I was buried in books.

Well, thanks to my Sister-in-law Holly, I am buried in books again this week. It's not to the extent that it was when I was younger. Now I have responsibilities and "Mommy's reading a book" doesn't really cut it with 5 month olds, 4 year olds, or even 9 year olds. Regardless, I began The Twilight Series http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10183440 (I still can't figure out how to hyperlink here...tips on how to do that are welcomed) on Saturday after going to the movie with Holly. She's been reading these books over and over for a few months and I didn't really understand how she could ignore all of her housework and everything else in her life for these books...I get it now. I read Twilight from Saturday until Wednesday night. Then I started New Moon and finished it before bed last night. I read farily quickly, but I think I'm flying through these books at a speed I've never read before. And I'm not skim reading. I just can't wait to get to the next page, so I'm forcing my mind to tune everything else out (with the exception of the phone and my kids) so I can get them done. I started Eclipse this morning, but walked away after a few minutes. I had to check the bank balance and do some other things. It keeps creeping back into my mind, though. When Cadence goes down for a nap I'll probably sneek off to my bed again and lose myself in the world of Vampires and Werewolves again.



So, if you're looking for a phenomenal book to read, I highly recommend this saga. But consider yourself warned: your vacuum cleaner might be neglected for awhile while you finish them.

It's December already?

Wow. I know I think this every single year, but I'm in shock that it's December already. And yet, June seems like a distant memory. It's odd how time plays tricks on our minds.

So, since we've moved to Michigan, not much has happened. It's kind of the same old. Samantha has a new best friend here. Liz. She's a very nice girl and it's helping Sam not be so sad to leave "home". Tevin adores school and has made tons of friends. At 4 years old, we didn't figure he'd have any issues with that. Cadence is finally getting bigger. We had a little problem with my milk supply. I took her to the doctor here September 16 and she weighed 9 pounds, 11 ounces. I weighed her a couple weeks later and she was over 10 pounds. Then 2 weeks ago Monday we went to the doctor and she was down to 8 pounds, 14 ounces. Not good. We started supplementing with formula and a week later she was up to 10 pounds, 2 ounces. I just took her in yesterday and she's 10 pounds, 15 ounces! And we started her on rice cereal on Tuesday! She loves it. At one point, my silly sassy little girl grabbed the spoon from my hand and jammed it into her mouth. lol She gets frustrated that it doesn't refill itself. And she likes it thick, like the other 2 did. I'm hoping this helps her gain weight a little quicker without going through formula like it's going out of style. Man, that girl can drink. I'm thinking about contacting LLL to see if there's something we can do about my supply. I just can't seem to make enough. :(

In other news, I'm married to a slightly older man. He's now joined the decade ahead of me...the big Three-oh. Generally I save candles and signify 10's with a single candle. But for a big birthday like this, I thought it befitting that we put all 30 on there. He chose a pumpkin swirl cheesecake from Wal-Mart. It's very yummy. Generally I would have made an attempt to bake up a concoction of a cake and plague my family with it, but we didn't get home from Wisconsin until after 9:00 on Monday night. Bad weather kept us there an extra day. So store-bought it was. Doesn't it look good? And pre-cut. Who could ask for more? We had a pretty low-key celebration. We kept the kids home from school. We hadn't gotten home until late the night before and we're all kind of sick. Sam and I made him breakfast in bed around 10:30. We lazed around the house and then went to get our Christmas tree, went to his store to drop something off for his store manager, and ate at Red Robin. Then we came home, expressed thanks that the kids aren't tone-deaf, as I had laryngitis and didn't sound quite so pretty singing, and ate cheesecake. The kids were then off to bed and we sat around watching TV for awhile, then hit the sack. Such an exciting life we lead.

I guess other big changes have happened since we moved. For Sam's 9th birthday, we got her a dog. He's a little beagle. His name is Baxter, but we call him Roo'er. He roo-roo's all the time. He's probably about 8 years old and deaf. That's fun. We rescued him from a pound, where he was going to be put down 3 days later. It's been...challenging, we'll say, to have another adult male dog in the house. Especially an unneutered one. But he's sweet and we're adjusting to life with him. That's him next to my itty bitty baby before she gained any weight. He's a whopping 22 pounds. lol We love him even though he irritates us with his roo rooing all night and his marking of things like the garbage can. Blah. Hopefully getting him snipped helps that problem.

Since I've been trying to work on this post all day, I'm going to publish it now so it doesn't end up sitting unfinished for months like all the other posts I've started. *blush*

Give-away day!

Today while I'm not dragging my 5 month old in for a weight check at the same time as my 4 year old gets looked over to see if he has pinkeye; and when I'm not reading New Moon, the second book in the Twilight series; I am entering give-aways! http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=650 It might take me all day, especially since I'm addicted to all the cute awesome crafty things. I get these ideas in my head of things that I'd love to do, but I'm short on time, motivation, and most of all talent.

I guess the biggest reason I'm posting this is to tell anyone that I might have the great fortune of winning that I'm not entirely sure what kind of contact info you get from my comment, but if I win your give-away and you were lead here by my comment, here I am. Comment away or e-mail me. :)