Crazytown

My life is insane.  Good insane, but insane!  It's the Christmas season, I know I mention it all the time, but it's my favorite.  I should be busy with all things Christmas.  So what do we do?  Adopt a dog.  I dye my hair a strange brown from a box I got at Target.  Hubby gets spur-of-the-moment Lasik.  Yikes!

It's nutty.  I'm so madly in love with Freddy, so that's all wonderful.  He honestly seems like a perfect dog, so I'm waiting to see what's wrong with him.  So adopting the dog so far is one of the easiest things I've ever done.  Then I decided it was time to dye my hair.

I've been highlighting my hair ever since my wedding, which was the first time I had any sort of treatment on my hair.  I have curly, frustrating hair.  It is (or was in my youth) a dishwater blonde, and would be a completely forgettable head of hair were it not for it's general wildness, curls, and complete disregard for fashion trends.  So for my wedding, I got foil highlights.  It was so much fun, and I was instantly hooked.  So over the next 15 years, I have spent more money than I care to admit trying to make my hair interesting. Highlights, lowlights, whatever, until I completely lost touch with what was my natural color.  Last year I let the roots grow out, and had the stylist try to match my natural color and do an all-over dye job.  I was determined to stop the highlighting.

I found out I am not a blonde anymore!  I don't know if it's age or motherhood, but I am now mousy brown instead of dishwater blonde.  I actually am a brunette.

So I went back to highlighting.  And I was due for another trip to the salon, but I've been pouring money into Christmas shopping and dog adopting, so I decided to go the cheap route and get a box at Target for $8.00.  I dyed it yesterday.  Now it just looks like a strange deep brown with a tinge of red.  Not natural looking, but who's hair is these days?  It is what it is.  Here is a pic of my hair right now (thanks to my Photo booth on my iMac!):

Hubby went to the eye doc last Tuesday on a whim to see if he was a good candidate for Lasik.  As it turns out, he was, they had an opening in a few days, and we took him today!  He's upstairs recovering now, it went well.  Thanks for asking.

So how bizarre.  I feel like I am FLYING BY THE SEAT OF MY PANTS!  I suppose I should be used to this, right?

I need to start wrapping some presents.  I'm still around half done with my shopping, hoping to get some more done on Monday.  It's going to be a great weekend!  Hubby can see now (I wonder if he'll still think I'm cute), I'm going to the Christmas Carol with some of my favorite ladies at a beautiful new theater, and there's still snow on the ground.  And the kiddos get a couple solid days to spend with Freddy.  What could be better?

Fourteen days to Christmas Eve, folks!

Puppy Love

He's here!  He's here!  Freddy (we've decided to spell it with a "y" instead of "ie") arrived at his new home yesterday at 12:45 p.m.  I was so nervous I felt like I was going to throw up!  I kept thinking, "oh crap what have I gotten myself into?"

So he got out of the van on his leash and I walked him around outside a bit first.  He seemed so much more laid back than he was when we saw him at the pet adoption event.  Then we came inside, and the nice lady from the adoption organization watched him for a bit to make sure everything seemed all right, and then we started the paperwork!  I couldn't believe it!  She left about 20 minutes later, and Freddy got to stay--in his NEW HOME!  Hubby also had to go, he had to work.  So there I was, alone with the dog, for three hours until the kids got home.  I kind of just looked at him like, "so what am I supposed to do with you?"

Then I went into the living room and sat on the floor.  He proceeded to dig into the grocery bag that came with him, which was sitting on the dining room floor, and one by one bring me each toy that he brought.  He was so proud to show them all to me!  So we played a bit, and I kept petting him and hugging him.  I took him out a couple times, and he walked around checking the place out, and peed like a pro.  He even whines to tell us when he has to go out!  Amazing!

A & J were so excited when they got home that he is here.  They peppered him with affection and chatter for a couple solid hours before they finally calmed down and let him be.  But he really seems to like them.  His tail wags constantly, and he has a spring in his step with them.

He seems to be pretty good at fetch, too.  Too bad I'm not ready to really let him loose outside yet.  He loves his tennis balls and will bring them right back to you after you toss it away, and if you bounce it he will catch it mid-air.  This may not seem amazing, but I think it's pretty cool.  And last night at bedtime, we just put a couple of his things and a little handful of food in his room (kennel), and he went right in.  He whined for about 15 minutes, but then went to sleep.  And he was SUPER excited to see us all this morning!  I took him out, he peed (and peed and peed), and then came back in like he's never not lived here.  Life with a dog is gonna be good, folks.

The only worrisome thing so far is that a couple of his toys are the stuffed animal variety, and he proceeded to shred one of them, a bunny, and pull out all the stuffing.  Yikes!  I left all the stuffing all over the floor to show the kids so they would know how important it is to keep their special stuffed pups out of his reach.  I plan to keep him out of their bedrooms, so this will be a team effort.  It would be seriously bad if that happened.  Seriously.  Bad.  Bad bad.

But other than that, he's strangely easy.  He's super laid back, seems to really enjoy the kids, and he's affectionate and sweet.  Well behaved.  Is this normal?  I think he's already sort of attached to me, too.  He follows me around everywhere I go, and gave a little whine when I went down into the basement and wouldn't let him come with me.  He's sleeping on the floor right next to me now.

What a little sweetie.  And it is such a comfort to have his warm, furry little body keeping me company around here.  Welcome to the family, Freddy.

Feeling Old (And Slightly Nuts)

Geez, I hope we're doing the right thing.  Today is our last day without a dog.  Our lives will change starting tomorrow!  Yesterday we set up Freddy's kennel ("room", according to my mom).  We ended up getting just a metal one, because we changed our mind about where it's going to be, and a wood one would have looked silly.  But we got his dishes, his food, a couple toys, and his little tag for his collar.  So I think we're pretty much ready!  I never made it to the grocery store yesterday, so I have to do that today, along with picking anything else up that I need for the pup.

So yesterday after running around getting dog stuff, hubby had the spur of the moment idea to take the kids to the Big 10 for some food.  The Big 10 is one of my favorite places to eat on the campus of the University of Minnesota, and we've taken the boys there before.  So we headed out, in hubby's ginormous monster truck.  I love going out to the campus.  It makes me nostalgic for my 18-24 year old self, but it also makes me feel at home.  I loved it there.  But yesterday was a bit different.

I didn't know we were going to end up there yesterday.  When we left the house, I thought we were going to Petco, and maybe running to a couple other pet-ish stores, with a possible trip to the grocery store.  So I was grubby.  I took no time to get ready before we left.  I was wearing sweatpants, my Crocs, and since I didn't do anything with my hair I just put my Santa hat on.  No biggie for the pet store, so I didn't give it too much thought.  Even when we ran into Miss Chihuahua and her family at the fleet farm.  I didn't care then, because well, she knows me already, and it's the fleet farm.

But a college campus?  And to make matters worse, I was wearing this big jacket that prominently advertises that I'm a MOM on it.  Which I am, and a proud one, but it just made me all the more, well, not-collegiate.  So I felt like a dork at the campus.  Old and a dork.  It was awesome.  Good think I don't know anybody out there anymore.  Because I'm now TWENTY years older than most of them.  AUGH!!!!

So that was fun.  Actually it was, once I got over myself.  I mean, vanity isn't a very big part of my personality, just in super-obvious moments like that.  We ate well, griped about what is happening to Washington Avenue, talked about how awesome the campus is, told the kids how much fun they're going to have in college, and came  home.

Then I had a mini-meltdown because the lights on my tree went out.  I was in the living room, folding laundry and watching my waste-of-brain-space soap, and the lights just went out.  I fiddled and fiddled with it, and ended up having to completely undecorate the tree, test the lights, re-string the lights, and re-decorate the tree.  I felt like Clark Griswold, for real.  When he's running around the yard kicking over his plastic Santa and reindeer set.  I actually told the kids to leave the room because I was very frustrated and did not want them watching me while I had my temper tantrum.

So I got it all figured out and re-done, and I even finished folding the laundry.  Crisis averted.  And I didn't break anything while I was pouting.  So bring on this dog--I can handle anything.

A Tree, A Dog, A To-Do List

We got the tree decorated last night!  I sort of wanted to gather around it with the family and sway, singing "loo loo loo loo....." like they did in A Charlie Brown Christmas, but I didn't think the three men would go for it.  And I thought I would look like a weirdo doing it myself, so it didn't work out.  But isn't it purdy?  I always string the lights and then let the kids do all the ornaments.  They're getting much better at it.  In the early years all the ornaments would be clumped together in one section of the tree.

So Freddie is coming on Wednesday now, instead of Friday.  We're all excited, but reality is also setting in for me and the hubby.  I look around the house and realize I need to make some changes.  This time of year I always have dishes of candy put out, most of them involving chocolate.  They will all need to go up and out of Freddie-reach.  I'll also need to make sure to keep the door to the upstairs closed as much as possible.  I never shut it, and I should get into that habit.  In general, I've told the kids we need to keep the house picked up all the time so that Freddie doesn't get into anything he's not supposed to be getting into.  I feel bad that he's coming into our family when we're all decorated for Christmas--it probably looks a little crazy from a dog's perspective.  And I have no idea what he might do with the tree....

I also have been thinking about the general lifestyle changes.  We'll have to make sure to take him out first thing every morning, last thing every night, in addition to all the other times.  I'll need to take him for walks, which will be very good for me, and is one of the benefits I'm looking forward to from having a dog.  The forced exercise!  The only downside we've heard about Freddie is that he might be a runner.  So until we figure him out, he figures us out, and we get an electric fence or something, he's going to have to be on a leash when he's outside.  Which is sort of sad for a dog that lives on a farm...  And leaving home will be different!  If I leave when hubby's not here, I'll have to kennel him up when I go!  And I'll have to make sure to not leave him alone very long.  But I'm sort of excited to take him on little errands I have to run.  I hope he likes the car.

Then there's the money.  Yikes!  His adoption fee is pretty high.  We need to set him up with a vet.  We need to get all his gear.  A crate (I think I've picked the one out--it looks like a coffee table!), his food, food dishes, toys, treats, grooming gear, leashes, poop scoop, and all the bling I plan on getting him like cool collars and tags and junk like that.  Not to mention the electric fence thing.  And maybe seat covers for my car.  He's going to be so expensive!

So it's all good, and the kids are still in crazytown about it, but hubby and I are getting serious.  I think I'll do some shopping for him today, and then maybe some more tomorrow.  (Miss Chihuahua:  if you're reading this are you available Tuesday?)  It will be fun to see what's out there in the world for dogs since I was a dog owner.  Hubby and I got our first dog in 1997, and she was killed in 2003.  It's been a while since I've been willing to share my heart with a dog again, and I'm sure there have been improvements in dog gear.

My Christmas season is coming along nicely.  I actually started wrapping yesterday, so that always feels like progress.  I have probably just over half of my shopping done, but much of it was done on line, so I have to wait for it to arrive before I really feel like I can check it off.  My goal is to finish the Christmas shopping this week so I can concentrate on other things.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm going grocery shopping today, but hubby is itching to go looking at dog kennels.  So he may have to get dragged to the grocery store with me as well.  Which is hilarious, because grocery shopping is painfully boring for him. So much to do today!  And I have to clean up the house because when Freddie comes on Wednesday I'm sure they'll be checking us out, and I don't want to be embarrassed.

Eighteen days until Christmas Eve, folks!  Eeeek!

What A Special Day

FINALLY!!!!!  We have SNOW on the ground!!!!  Yesterday was beautiful.  Beautiful.   I love almost nothing more than the quiet snow falling at night, making a white blanket on the ground and trees, and especially with the Christmas lights glowing underneath.  It makes me want to pause time and just stare for a while.  Smelling that clean snow smell, listening to the hush of the flakes falling.  I LOVE it.

The First Meeting

What a lovely day yesterday.  We started the day, as you know, by going out to hopefully meet Freddie.  And we met him!!!!  I was a crazy woman.  It was this pet adoption event at a Petco.  We got there early, and he wasn't there yet.  So I hovered like a vulture around the front door watching for him.  I saw him get out of the car with his caretaker, and zeroed in.  As soon as they came in the door, I said, "is that Freddie?" And the guy said yes, sort of surprised, and I told him I'd been obsessing over him for days.  (I must have seemed off my rocker.)  So he HANDED ME THE LEASH for him.  He had another dog with him as well, so I suppose he was just letting me help him.  I didn't let the leash go the rest of the time we were there unless it was to the hubby.  Freddie was exactly like I'd imagined him, and I wanted him!  It was a chaotic event, there were about 15 dogs there and lots of people, and I think it made all the dogs very distracted.

Sitting for Kibble

The lady from the adoption agency let us (hubby, A, J, and me) take Freddie outside for a little walk to get away from the craziness, and she came along.  So it was nice to get out with him and really get a feel for him.  Hubby kept petting him to see if his allergies were going to kick in, but they seemed under control.  The kids loved him instantly.  She gave them some dog food from her pocket and he would sit for them and they'd give him a "treat."  I thought it was pretty cool that he thought even dog food was a reward, not just dog treats.  She said he's very food driven and it was handy that he'd "work for kibble."

Anyway, we are super interested.  But we couldn't come home with him, because that's not how it works, which is actually sort of a relief.  She (that main lady who is super nice) is coming over to our house with Freddie on Friday for a home visit.  If hubby's allergies are still under control, and all seems well with Freddie, he gets to stay!  So that gives us time to get a kennel for him, dog food and supplies, and all his gear so we're ready for him.

We're all so excited!!!!

So then after that we were able to go out and get our Christmas tree.  We went to a lot where we could pick and cut our own, and it was lovely.  It hadn't begun to snow yet, and it was still nice outside, no wind and not too cold.  We picked out a nice, full, narrow-ish tree, and wrapped it up and drove it home in the truck. Then after we got it home we left it in the truck because we had to drive an hour (or so we thought) to a birthday dinner party at my Uncle's house.

When we left it was snowing very hard, and although it was beautiful, I am not a huge fan of driving in heavy snow.  Hubby drove, of course, but I still get so nervous!  As we were driving and slipping around on the roads, one of our wiper blades FLEW off and over the car!  These things only happen to us, I swear.  So then we had to stop at a car place and get replacement blades, and that added on to our already long commute.  When we finally got to Uncle's house, we passed it unintentionally, and slid all the way down the hill his house is on, since his street had been turned into an ice rink.  Slid all the way down where we slowly crashed into the shrubbery at the bottom.  Luckily, no damage to the car, but it was an adventure getting back up to the hill to Uncle's house.  I pushed the car, since I was the obvious choice due to my superhuman strength and bulging muscles, and we eventually got it slid right in to the driveway.  I felt very powerful.  Ha!

We got home after the lovely dinner party with no more incidents and two deeply sleeping boys in the back.  What a day.  Now we have a Christmas tree sitting in the bed of hubby's truck under a four inch blanket of snow.  We'll have to shake it off and bring it in, because the kids and I are super excited to get it all decorated!  Woo hoo!

So today will be another lovely Christmas season weekend, with an added cheer because of the excitement over our impending new family member.  Now I know the cure for a funk (since I've been in one lately):  A new dog and snow!

Dog Fever Part 2

Okay, folks, today is a big day.  Potentially.  We are going to a dog adoption event later this morning, and Freddie (the one in the picture from yesterday) is going to be there.  We are bringing the kids.  My hope is that we will meet him, and have a chance for the kids to meet him and for hubby to handle him and see if he's affected by allergies.  I am hoping there won't be other people there immediately who are also interested in Freddie, and if there are, I am going to try not to do something horrible like just take Freddie and run, or whisper to them that Freddie is a biter, or just push them down.

I'm so nervous!  It's just silly.  I get so weird about stuff like this.  I'm obsessing over it, no matter how hard I try not to.  It's a dog.  There are hundreds of dogs that need homes.  If we want a dog in our home, it does not have to be this one.  Unfortunately, the picture of him really affected me, and the description of him sounds so perfect.  But my brain is not letting me relax.  Here's a transcript of my brain for the last 10 seconds or so:

What if Freddie's not there?
What if someone already adopted him?
What if he hates the kids?
Ohmygosh I want him so bad!
What if we're not ready for a dog?
Is hubby going to like him?
Is our house going to get destroyed by a dog?
Will we play with a dog enough?
He's so cute!
Maybe he's too small.
Are other people going to be trying to get him at the same time?
How will we ever be free to travel?
Will he ride in the car ok?
I love him so much!
What if the kids don't like him?
What if there's a dog there we like more than Freddie?
It's going to cost so much money.

We don't have any supplies for a dog yet!
I hope Freddie's there.
What if we get him and he runs away?
What if we're terrible dog owners and he eats a bowl of Hershey kisses and gets horribly sick?
I hate clipping dog toenails.
He's so cute!

Holy cow I'm going to make myself crazy.  Yesterday I kept telling myself, "tons of people have dogs.  This shouldn't be such a big deal.  WE USED TO HAVE A DOG!"  What's wrong with me?  Has old age and parenting made me nuts?

We were also planning on getting our Christmas tree today.  So depending on how this other errand goes, we may or may not get to that.  Wow!  Maybe I should send hubby and the kids alone to that adoption event.  If I see him, and put my hands on him, I won't be able to walk away without him.  And that's not objective.  We need to make this decision the right way.  I'm so pathetic!

I'll let you know how it goes.

Just Babbling

A had so much homework last night!  It's crazy.  He's in this program at his school where he stays after school for an hour and a half every Tuesday and Thursday, and it helps him catch up with some things at school.  Usually he gets most, if not all, of his homework for that day done at this program.  Not yesterday. He had an additional math homework, some vocabulary homework, and a map of the southeastern United States to do.  It was brutal!  He was doing homework past his bed time, with the help of trusty old dad, who is an unbelievably patient and thorough homework helper.  He's in fourth grade!  I remember having homework in 4th grade, but this seems excessive to me.  I hope it's just that he needs to catch up on things sometimes, and this isn't the standard.  Or how much worse is it going to get as he gets older?  Yikes!

Whew.  So I'm having a lovely home day today.  I did some shopping with my mom yesterday.  Got a few stocking stuffers (look out, SIL1!) and a few gifts, but mostly did birthday gift shopping for a big family birthday dinner this weekend.  Four people at a time!  We combine my extended family with my Uncle's family, and get together several times a year for groups of birthdays.  It's really fun.  Today I'm going to go through all my shopping stuff, do some wrapping, figure out what shopping I have left.  I need to do laundry, and hopefully do some work in the kids' rooms.  This is starting to seem less lovely.  Well, we'll see what I get to today.  I also promised the kids I'd make muddy buddies while they're at school.  Oooh!  I think I'll turn on Love Actually while I'm wrapping!  Yahoo!

It's a big weekend, folks!  I'm so excited!  I think we're getting our Christmas tree tomorrow!  And this year I'm putting it right in front of our living room window, where it belongs!  We haven't been able to put it there in the past because of the placement of our TV, but now with it mounted above the fireplace, there's room for the tree!  Yay!  Then we have our birthday dinner and the kids have a three day weekend.  Awesome.  I actually have plans every single weekend through December.  Which is actually sort of amazing if you knew my regular social schedule.

Freddie.  Be still my heart.

I also wanted to let my little pocket of readers know that although I've been quiet about it lately, I'm still wanting to add a dog to our crazy brood.  I've been slowing down on the hunt, though, making sure I'm doing it right, hoping the right one will jump out at me.  And I'm in love.  Right now he's just a picture that hubby showed me of a cutie that's up for adoption, but I love him.  His name is Freddie.  We left a voice mail for them and I e-mailed yesterday, so we'll see if he's still available, but he's pretty darling, so I wouldn't be surprised if some lucky family already swooped in on him.  But I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I have no idea what breed he is.  Neither does the adoption place.  He looks perfect to me.  I'll keep you all informed....

Oh, and a couple things I need advice on:

Do I want an iPad?  Do I need an iPad?  Is it cool enough to play the "Please hubby get me one for Christmas" card?

What are some of the coolest gifts you've ever received for Christmas?  I need some original ideas.

What are some good holiday cocktail recipes?  Like a peppermint martini?