Our real forever puppy!

On Saturday we made a trip to Remus which is just west of Mt. Pleasant to the home of the aunt & uncle of a friend of mine. They had a litter of puppies that were ready for a new home so off we went in search of our new family member. After checking all of them out and asking a couple of questions (we really aren't used to this), we made our decision and picked a puppy that had markings similar to what Dash had. The puppies are 3/4 Australian Shepherd and 1/4 Yellow Lab. Our puppy's name is Trooper. We also toyed with the name Flash, but decided that it was too close to Dash and we were already having problems not calling the puppy Dash.

But please meet our new, forever puppy, Trooper. He's a sweetie. He will be two months old Wednesday. He's got some learning to do and so do we, but he's handling the transition very well. We've only had one minor potty accident in the house and it happened to be in the kitchen which was easy to clean up. And then Trooper initiated Maddie on the way home with a barf from what we determined as a nervous stomach with all the changes that took place. All is well now and we are glad to have Trooper with us.

Have a wonderful day and a very blessed Thanksgiving.

Can't stand selfish people

I cannot stand selfish people. What's even more, I cannot stand selfish, rich people. So if you're rich and reading this blog, check yourself and make sure you're not selfish and be grateful for your financial blessings.

As you've read from my previous blog, we became the owners of a fabulous miniature Australian Shepherd on Monday. Well, we're no longer his owners anymore. The previous owner had the audacity to have my poor sister-in-law (who happens to work for them) call my husband yesterday morning to ask for Dash back. Needless to say, Tony and I were LIVID. I don't know that I've ever been that angry before. If I have, I certainly can't remember. I said absolutely not. Not until either Tony or I spoke to one of them personally.

Long story short, we ended up giving Dash back to them last night. It was not pretty. At first we told this woman that she would have to come to our house to pick Dash up and then explain to our little girls what she was doing. But then as common sense began to reappear, we realized that we didn't want this woman to come into our home and lie to our girls about the situation. So when we got home last night, we sat the girls down and explained the situation to them that we love Dash and want him to stay with us forever but that the previous owner wanted him back. Never mind the fact that this woman was being deceitful, but whatever. The girls didn't need to know that.

I'd already begun damage control and got in touch with someone that I trust and knew would probably be able to help. And boy did she come through for me. So once we broke the news to the girls, we quickly followed with the fact that we were going to be looking at puppies this Saturday and that the girls would be able to pick it out, name it and keep it forever. And that no one would be able to come and ask for their new puppy back.

Maddie, being 4 and being a little girl that lets lots of things roll off her back, did really well with the news. Emily on the other hand, didn't do so well. It took me over 2 hours to quit bawling so Em looked like a champ. She broke down immediately but we gave her Dash's dog ID tag to keep as a reminder of him. That helped and she calmed down. But when Dash ended up leaving, she broke down again. And then poor Katie came over feeling horrible herself because she was drug in the middle of this, saw Em and they broke down together. Emily asked if she could go back to Auntie Katie's house by herself with her and we certainly agreed. Well Katie had a chain that she wasn't using and put Dash's dog tag on it so that Emily could wear it like a necklace. That was fabulous.

So the picture above is of Emily just before leaving for school today wearing her new necklace. She's signing "I love you" and that's meant for Dash. Poor kid.

You can certainly say we've learned a good lesson here. But I can tell you that I am proud of my girls for taking the news as best as they could and rebounding like they have. Never under estimate the power of your children. If you do, they'll surprise you.

Stay tuned for an update once we have the opportunity to visit the puppies this weekend. We'll have a new addition to our family soon and can hopefully put this mess behind us.

The new addition

Yep, we got a new puppy. Meet Dash, a miniature Australian Shepherd that is 3 months old. The little cutie needed a home and he hit Tony's soft spot so Tony gave the A-OK for Dash to become the 2nd male in our house. He came to us last night and let me tell you what, the girls were EXCITED. When I got home from school they couldn't wait to meet me at the door screaming, and I mean screaming, that we got a new puppy that gets to live with us forever. So now we own a cat who's name is Baby. She's the one that you see at the top of the page. And a great dog. Let's just say the excitement from Baby wasn't near the level of excitement that came from the girls. Dash REALLY would like to get to know Baby and play with her. But Baby just isn't quite ready for a relationship like that. In fact, you'll notice in the two pictures (sorry about the pile of dirty clothes), Dash really wanted to play and all Baby was willing to do was puff herself up to look even bigger than she already is and then take the high ground out of Dash's reach. Oh, let's not forget all the hissing and growling that came from her too. Who knew that cats could growl?!

At any rate, our family has expanded and although we do have a lot of work ahead of us, we're excited. Anyone interested in a puppy play date, let me know!

Last night was the first chance that we had to carve our pumpkins for Halloween and the girls had a blast! Thankfully the weather was nice enough to do it all outside. Emily really enjoyed pulling the guts out of the pumpkin and Maddie was completely content with letting Daddy do all of the work.

BUBBLES!

So you know how some kids get soap in their mouths as a form of punishment when they've been naughty? Well, I've got a feeling that it's not going to work with Maddie. This is what happens when you turn your back on her and Emily in a tub full of Strawberry Shortcake bubbles. I kid you not, the child kept eating the bubbles until we got her out. Sicko. But that's our Maddie! And let's not leave Em out of this either. She was the mastermind behind this and loaded Maddie's face up with the bubbles. They're a funny team.

Real Fans

This is what true New Kids On The Block fans look like when the group is singing "Hanging Tough"
















This is what I look like as a loving fan of Joe McIntyre. (Yes, that is one HUGE pin from back in the late 80's). And ladies, he's matured into one FINE man.















This is what Tony looks like as a Chemic Fan. He's not one.















And this my friends is what true Chemic Fans look like at the MHS/DHS game (before we got rained on and looked like drowned rats.) Check Erin's blog if you want to see what she thinks a Chemic Fan looks like.

Growing up.....

This past weekend we went to my cousin's son's 1st birthday party and in the girls' goodie bags, they got a page of princess sticker earrings. Both girls fell in love with having them. Emily put them where they belonged, on her ears. Maddie had so much fun with hers that they went all over her face and hands as well as all over Grandm'as face. Later that night, out of the blue, Emily said that she wanted to have her ears pierced for real. I said no at first but then Tony said that we should let her. Emily isn't one to make hasty decisions so we talked about it and told her that it'd hurt and that the decision was up to her. On Monday she came up to me and said that she'd made up her mind to get them pierced. I told her that was fine but that she'd have to wait until Thursday after school to get them done. I did this partly because our schedule wouldn't allow it until then, but it'd also give Emily time to change her mind.

Well, yesterday morning Emily woke up before 7 am with a HUGE grin on her face because she knew what day it was and that after school she'd get to get her ears pierced. I had my sister meet me at work with the girls and off we went to visit Claire's in the mall. Aunt Amy, Nicholas, Aiden and cousins Kevin & Sarah all came as well to watch this big event.

Emily did fantastic. She was excited to pick out the earrings that she wanted which happened to be flowers with a blue center (her favorite color) and diamond (cubic zirconia) petals. She was in a bit of shock once it happened because of how much it hurt but all she did was shed some tears and needed a few hugs to get her through. By the time we left to go stop at Daddy's football practice, she was all grins and excited about her new addition.