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Bug, Family Matters, fitness, half assed posts, instagram, place holder posts, Slow News Day, spilling my guts, the dogs
All for now.
If you ask me what I’ve been up to lately my eyes will glaze over while my mind struggles to bring up a directory of activities. I know a lot has been going on but I can’t really say what it’s been exactly. Work, kids, puppies…I guess that pretty much sums it up. If you have work, kids and/or puppies you probably understand the glazed over spinny-ball look in my eyes that eternally says, Please hold. You also understand why my eyes have dark circles under them and my yoga leggings are covered in a thin layer of white fur.
Payam and I were lamenting the other day that we sure didn’t realize what a ninety-degree-turn the puppies would take our lives. We knew it would be complicated but really? Really?!! Were things going too well? Did we have to turn it up this much?
Everything good in life takes work. Just like babies, the stages are fleeting and I have to remind myself to appreciate them while they last because someday I’ll be looking at big lazy grown dogs and I’ll pine for the days when they nuzzled my neck with their wet noses and chewed on my hair. One of these days they will not greet me with their whole mouth open.
I really shouldn’t complain because they are both super sweet dogs. Cody is slow and patient and super adorable like a big dopey oaf of a dog. He’s not as quick and crazy as Whiskey, or as emotional, but he’s bigger so when he jumps up he knocks things over and makes a bigger mess. He loves water and regularly sleeps with his head in his water bowl. His paws are giant and he makes big wet sloshy footprints all over the house. He loves to eat and is ruled supremely by his stomach.
Whiskey on the other hand is a bit emo. He will pout and whine if things don’t go his way. His tail is super expressive. If he’s happy, it flies at full-mast like a flag for everyone to see. He trots along on walks with it stuck straight up in the air like he is king of the world and everything is going his way. But when he’s sad, he puts his nose down and looks up at you through his messy hair just like a punk kid with long bangs. His eyes are strangely human-like (when you can see them) and sometimes it feels like he’s reading your mind and judging you. But then he’ll pop up and run around like a squirrel going batshit crazy and I guess that means he’s forgiven you. He loves games and will taunt and tease Cody until they have a lively brawl going.
We often get mad at Cody for picking on Whiskey because he’s bigger but if you watch them carefully you see that Whiskey actually instigates the play and he fully deserves any take-downs that Cody might give him. Oh puppies…
This is all very challenging because they got fixed this week. We were going to do one puppy at a time but then when we realized it might be easier to get it all over with with one fell swoop. Two dogs with cones is better than one dog with a cone when it comes to evening things up. It’s been a bit like Medieval Times at our house with endless cone-head jousting going on. The poor things.
They have giant lampshades on their heads and no sense of depth perception. They hit things like walls, water bowls, couches, my legs, each other at 100 miles per hour and it’s amazing they have not shattered their cones to smithereens. Cody has cracked his cone on the edge and I have a feeling Whiskey is not too far behind. I can’t believe they have to leave these things on for fourteen days. I’m hoping the vet is like the doctor counting drinks and when they say fourteen days, I’m hoping they really mean seven.
Spring is here or it was, I should say. Last week it was really warm and I took a bunch of photos with flowers. I have to say I am loving the jobs I’ve been getting lately for photography and styling. I think I will soon be able to ramp it up and buy a professional lens that actually focuses in low light.
Bug has some sort of stomach virus for a week now. She’s not been able to keep food down since Monday and she’s lost three pounds, which on her is a lot. Her knees are knobby and her hip bones stick out more than usual which makes me worry of course. The doctor said not to worry unless it lasts for more than two weeks so we’ve been giving her anti-nausea medicine and attempting to keep her on the BRAT diet. We’ve been picking up her homework from school daily and in between waves of nausea she’s been in pretty good spirits, getting things done. It has been nice to have a little person around the house but I miss the old smiley Bug. I’m sure she’ll be better soon.
Anyway, I just thought I’d check in and wave. (Hi Gingermog!) I often have daydreams of writing daily and getting back into my old swing of blogging (I miss it.) but I don’t want to promise anything and set myself up for failure. I have been going to yoga nearly every day for about five months now so that’s a huge win for me but, like usual, I only manage to keep at most four or five balls in the air at one time. Right now my five balls are: cooking dinner regularly (yay!), puppies (arg, I’m so tired!), kids (yay! except the sick one which is boo, sad.), yoga (arg, I’m so tired.) and work (yay! I love my job[s] when I get to them.). Any more than that is likely to throw off my balance.
I do like a challenge though so maybe I’ll try to get back here once a week. If only for my own personal record not because any of you are hanging on my every word. (Puppies, snore! Yoga, snore! Cooking, snore! Kids, hmmmm…I can’t really write the funny stuff because that’s *so embarrassing mom* when you are nine and ten.
All for now! xo
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Spring, Puppies, Glasses.. Oh my!
Last week was Spring Break so I took Bug out to The Sticks with me to visit my mom and dad. On the way there we stopped and took some photos in a big field. I’ve always wanted to do that but never had the time. It was the perfect combination of plenty of time, willing models (Bug was in a good mood since her best friend was along) and an amazing Spring day. The sky was so blue and clear with puffy white Care Bear-esque clouds floating along. It was beautiful.
There were these funny yellow puff ball flowers everywhere that reminded me of tiny little Dr. Seuss trees. I was just wondering why I’d never noticed them before when my cousin (a biologist) pointed out (on Facebook) that they are a new invasive species that is choking out native wild flowers. What a bummer.
We spent some quality time chilling at my mom and dad’s. I love that they don’t have television and there isn’t much to do but sit in the yard and play ball with the dogs. The older I get the more and more I savor boredom. It’s so nice to feel every minute go by and not wonder where they went.
We spent the night in my parent’s travel trailer and it felt like camping but with wifi and hot showers only a few feet away.
You might be noticing Bug’s new glasses. Yep, she’s near-sighted just like her dad. I was worried that she just wanted them because she thinks they are fashionable (which she does) but the eye doctor assured me that she couldn’t fake the test and she indeed has a significant stigmatism in both eyes. Poor kid. It’s a good thing glasses are so cute these days.
She’s taken to making ties out of paper and clipping them onto her shirts. Then she walks around the house muttering, “Business, business, business.” as if that’s what busy business people do who wear smart looking glasses and neck ties. She’s a nut.
Speaking of business, I am kind of impressed (and a little scared) with Bug and her leadership skills these days. She’s organized a club with her classmates called The Pusheen Club. It’s named after her favorite stuffed cat and apparently is all the rage. They use Google Docs at school and she’s taken it upon herself, as President, to require each member of the club to take a Pusheen test and write up a paper in Google Docs before they are allowed to be in the club.
Then she started a petition, in Google Docs, to bring back the old fashioned orange juice boxes they used to have at the cafeteria. I guess they have a new juice that is watered down and not as tasty or something and she’s rallying her classmates to bring back the old juice. I randomly get emails from her to edit her Google documents and you can imagine my surprise when I see that the principal of her school is also getting emailed these documents. She’s a mover and a shaker, that girl!
Speaking of moving and shaking, (Groan. I know. I am the queen of clunky transitions.) we have a lot of moving and shaking going on in our home lately. Yes, we have puppies! We are insane and adopted two puppies at the same time.
The light-colored one is an English Golden Retriever named Cody aka Cody Flufflebutt. The brown one is a Soft-Haired Wheaten Terrior named Whiskey aka Whiskey Tangopants. They are adorable and fluffy and a whole lot of trouble.
Having two-month-old puppies is like having two toddlers in the house. There are baby gates blocking the hallway and fencing in the living room, brightly colored toys are strewn all over the floor, all magnets on the refrigerator have been pushed up two feet, knickknacks have been moved up high and all plants are up off the ground … cleaning products are stashed in cubbies for quick mop-ups, we wake up at all hours of the night, we have to make special meals for upset tummies… it’s good times! Like new parenthood all over again!
But we love it. And them. And we wouldn’t have it any other way. Of course.
