We’ve Gone to the Dogs!

We’ve talked about getting a dog for some time. Sam has always wanted a dog, but there were so many things that we needed to do first. We don’t have a fully fenced in yard, for example. We also were concerned with how the dog would react to the kids – not to mention our cat. We always knew that at some point, we’d be getting a dog. However, I don’t think either one of us thought it would be … well, today!

Here’s the scoop. Yesterday before Sam left for work, her sister texted. She asked if we would be interested in a four year old lab who is good with kids. The story behind this is that her friend’s daughter had diabetes and epilepsy. It was recommended that they get her a service dog. I guess the dogs didn’t really get along. So her owner wanted her to have a loving home.

Her owner said that if things don’t work out, she will gladly take her back and try to find a home for her. They obviously love this dog a lot. I think we both figured that it would be a trial run, but we knew pretty quickly that this will be her new home.

This is Maizy. Coincidentally, Maizey is also our cat’s name. She made herself at home after sniffing around a lot. The kids were MORE than excited to have a “puppy friend” of their own!

I guess by the look on my face, I was pretty excited, too.

The one thing I worry about is that when the kids are at my mother in law’s, they can lay on top of their golden retriever. They climb all over her and she takes every bit of it. I’m not sure Maizy will be as happy about it. So we have to tell the kids to be very careful with her and to use nice hands.

After she got used to all of us, we piled into the van and headed to PetSmart. We had to get food, food and water dishes, a lead for her to run around in the backyard until the fence goes in, and a pet bed. It was an expensive trip, but we expected that.

She is making herself at home and at one point curled up in front of me and fell asleep … and so did my leg!

The only one who is still not too sure about our newest family member is Maizey our cat. That hasn’t stopped her from sneaking up on her while she is asleep to check her out and make sure she is ok …

I laughed when I told Sam, “Well, one thing is for sure. We won’t have to worry about cleaning up food on the floor anymore ….”

We are all looking forward to having our new puppy friend living at our house!

Making Spirits Bright

I saw a thing on Facebook that made me laugh. It said, “It only snows in November because people decorate early for Christmas.” Blame me if you wish, but we needed to brighten things up over this way!

There has been a lot going on in my life, some of which I have shared and some I have kept to myself. We’re all processing a variety of emotions. With the passing of my sister-in-law, there is an extra bit of sadness. Like the song says, “We need a little Christmas!” So we decided to put up the Christmas tree this weekend.

The older the kids get, the more fun this becomes. Andrew was just a couple months old last year, so he was especially excited to see the tree and the lights. He and Ella both “helped” handing me lights. They were both extra giddy.

I had the lights plugged in as I walked around the tree with them. That way I could make sure they were placed evenly and all areas has the proper amount of lights.

Andrew, as you know, is everywhere. He gets into everything! So we debated waiting until closer to Christmas to put ornaments on the tree. We also debated not putting any on at all. We did decide to put the tree topper on, and Andrew was the perfect helper!

My dad commented on a picture of the tree on Facebook. He said he was taking bets on who was going to know the tree down – Ella, Andrew, or the cat! For the record, the cat has yet to get near the tree, which is really odd.

We brought up the baby gate and set it around the tree. It’s the “look, but don’t touch” gate. The kids can still touch it, but the probability of the tree coming down is a lot less.

I decided that certain ornaments had to go up on the tree. As ridiculous as it looks, all the ornaments are on the tree from about a foot higher than the top of the baby gate and up to the top. In total, there are maybe 12-20 ornaments on there.

Every year, we got to Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth to get an ornament that represents a big even from the year. We got one for our engagement, or marriage, the birth of both kids, etc. We went early this year and at the time, didn’t really have an “event” to get an ornament for. We opted instead for a plaque for the door with a snowman family on it.

When my sister-in-law, Grace, passed away I decided I was going to get Sam and her folks a memorial ornament for the tree. I had seen a few designs in the Bronner’s catalog, and chose this one.

I had hoped to save it until closer to Christmas to give it to Sam, but I can’t control my face. Let me explain.

I took the kids with me to Bronner’s on a day Sam was home sleeping. I kept the ornaments in my car so she wouldn’t see them. Then a day or two later, she was getting ready for work and said, “I was thinking about getting a Christmas ornament with Grace’s name on it for my mom.”

I must have stood there dumbfounded. My face obviously giving away that I had already done it. Instead of just saying, “That’s a great idea. We should do that.” I knew that she would just go and do it. So I walked out to the car and brought inside.

I’m glad it’s inside and I’m glad it is on the tree. Grace already has a special place in our hearts, and now she will have a special place on our tree every year.

If my tree being up brings snow your way, I’m sorry. We needed something help brighten the season, even if it is early.

Another thing I saw on Facebook this week said, “Don’t you just love it when the Christmas tree is the only light in the room?”

Yes. Yes, I do!

Mouse Wrecker!

This afternoon before work, I wanted to go for a walk. The kids had been a handful throughout the day and Sam said that she wanted to stay home. I thought it would be a good idea to take the kids and give her a good half hour of quiet. So I loaded up the kids in the stroller and began my walk.

I got about a block and a half from home and my phone rang. It was Sam.

“Where are you!?”

“I’m walking with the kids. Why?”

“You’ve got to get home NOW!”

“What’s going on? What’s the mat…..”

“There is a mouse in the house! Maizey had it in her mouth! It jumped out and it is still alive!”

“Where is it now?”

“Under the couch! Just get home!”

“Where are you at?”

“I’m ON the couch. I’m not moving until you get here!”

So I turn around and walk the block and a half back to our house. I’m not letting the kids go in the house and I tell Sam to come out. I walk in to see our cat, Maizey, staring at the couch. This is a good sign, as it tells me the mouse has not moved anywhere else in the house. I go to the kitchen and begin to look for something – anything – that I can use to throw on top of the mouse in the event that I can get it out in the open.

I found a large Tupperware bowl and see myself as Tom (above) being able to trap this thing in the bowl. I begin to push the couch from against the wall. I do this is slow movements, as I want the mouse to stay sort of in that area. If he goes into another room, I know I’m in trouble.

Little by little I move the couch. No mouse. Finally, I move it one more time and the mouse goes scurrying across the floor. There is no way for me to get the dumb thing because the couch is in front of me. I see it scurry under the table in the corner of the living room. So I slowly walk over there. I know I have got to keep this little pest over there. I have a flashlight and I am looking all over the place, but don’t see it where I thought I did.

At this point I feel like Mr. Jinks from the cartoon. “Where is this little Meece?!”

As I look under the table, I see the back cracker that Sam has. It is meant to sit on the floor, and you lay on it to crack your back. Your back goes on this little “hill” with massagers on it.

I see the mouse sitting under the hill and begin to think of how to get the Tupperware bowl over the top of it. I laid on the floor with the bowl in one hand and the flashlight in the other. I start to slowly move the back cracker and think I can force him out the back and I can slam the bowl on top of him. I am just about to get him and he shoots out from the front, which I should have expected, but didn’t. I give out the “man scream” and watch it scurry across the room and toward the mesh baby gate.

I start looking around and cannot find that little bugger to save my life. It is entirely possible that the thing is now in the basement or elsewhere in the house. I’m furious. It is then that I notice the small run that sits next to the mesh gate. We put our shoes on it. There is a fabric square container that Ella’s shoes are in that sits on the rug almost up against the wall. The rug has a little “bump” in it against the wall. I got behind it at took the flashlight to see the mouse’s tail and rear end hiding in between the floor and the rug. Now I got it where I want it – Trapped!

It is too close to the wall to use the bowl. So I have to think of the best way to get this thing. The best way was not the most humane way. I begin to look around to see what I can get to hold this mouse. I flashback to another time I was in a similar situation and grabbed the 2 foot level my grandpa gave me.

I know that I can slide this against the wall and down on top of the rug. My intention was to kind of hold him there until I could get him under the bowl. I pushed the level down and now had the little guy by the tail. Sam hollered in through the screen wanting to know if I had caught him. I told her I did, but was not really sure what to do next!

She asked if I needed her. She had loaded the kids up in the car and was about to head off to get ice cream or to her mom’s for the night (if I didn’t catch the thing). She came in the house and I asked her to go het the barbecue tongs. She did and I was able to pick up the mouse with them.

I walked outside with the little thing and was going to toss him into the yard. My wife yelled to not let him loose close to the house. So, I walked out toward the road and let it loose there. Apparently, the road was still too close to the house, even though it was clear that mouse wasn’t coming back to our place.

Tomorrow, I will head to the store to get some of that stuff to place around the house that repels mice and rodents. I will probably also buy a few traps, just in case. One thing is for sure, from now on, the only mouse trapping I want to do will be with a board game!!

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We had our garage sale on Friday and Saturday, but Sunday may have been busier than the rest of my weekend. I got my steps in for the day, that’s for sure!

You may remember that when we were expecting Ella, we took what was our dining room and built a wall to make a nursery. When that happened, we moved our dining room table to the living room. Eventually, we bought Ella toys that we needed to make room for, so we moved the table downstairs.

So for over 2 years, we’ve eaten dinners on the couch and Ella ate at her little table. Sam decided it was time to bring the table back upstairs. Ella is big enough to sit at the table (she may need a booster) and Andrew has a high chair that straps to one of the chairs. So we put Ella’s table in her room and got rid of the big high chair.

I brought up the table and Sunday morning, we all got to eat breakfast and lunch at the table. It’s amazing how much that really meant to us. Having all of us at the table really was quite a nice bonding experience. It’s been nice to be able to do this again.

The kids and I played outside a lot and we took our walk around the neighborhood. Afterward, we came home and played with toys and watched TV. Ella was sitting next to me on the floor and we were watching one of her shows. We were probably sitting like this for 15 minutes before I noticed that we were sitting the same way. So I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture. Please pardon the “weekend bumming around” socks I am wearing.

On Monday morning, Andrew was up first. I got up with him and made him a bottle. After he ate it, he got down on the floor and was trying to pet our cat. Our cat is terrified of Ella. Probably because she chases her all over the place. I’m surprised at how much the cat lets Andrew pet her.

Knowing that I had over did it with the chimichangas from Saturday night, I wanted to be sure that I got a good walk in. I put the kids in the stroller and we were off and walking. Midway through the walk, I was thrown a curveball. I totally lost one of the front wheels on the stroller!!

We were at least a half mile from home, and Sam was asleep, so I had to keep walking home. There were times where I was able to push with just the one wheel. Most of the time, however, I pushed down on the stroller handle to lift the wheel up from the ground and walked home that way. Either way, it was not fun.

By the time we got home, Ella wanted to stay outside and play. All I wanted to do was sit down and chug a bottle of water. So I put Andrew in his swing and Ella played in the dirt. LOL

I must have been worried about weighing in on Tuesday morning, because Monday night I had a dream that I was sitting at the dining room table stuffing my face with plain M&M’s.

I don’t remember what I was stressing about in the dream, but I just kept stuffing my face with those M&M’s. Finally, I remember I have to weigh in and push the bowl off the table.

When I weighed in, I was surprised to see that I had actually lost a pound. I really thought that I would be up or stay the same. Those chimichangas were worth every bite, and I know that because of them, my week was not as good as it could have been. However, a loss is still a loss. I will do it one pound at a time. Total weight loss – 14 pounds.

I took the kids out for a walk in the other double stroller we have. It’s not as easy to push as the jogger, but it gets us through the neighborhood. After we got home, Ella wanted to play on the trampoline. I decided to let Andrew go in for a second and he loved it. If I had to pick a picture that says “This is summer,” it might just be this one:

Ella wanted me to come in and play, too. It takes me a minute to get myself up and in that thing (and even longer to get out). We had such fun just rolling and jumping around. The kids are hard to wrangle for photos now, but I was able to nab this one of the three of us before going inside for naps.

What a wonderful blessing these kids are!!