attention starved puppy

It's been a really great holiday spending time with my kids.

It's also been a really long holiday trying to spend time with my kids and keep up with the pup.

I've figured out that he doesn't like it when I'm not giving him 100% of my attention.

Last week he did this while I was making sandwiches at 6:30 in the morning (it took 2 seconds I swear!)



Then he's been busy doing this.....


It seems Nae has a hard time remembering to close doors so we've had this scene played out multiple times the last couple of days.


But this is what really made me mad. The pup did this while I was playing a game of Bananagrams with the kids. He chewed the Christmas lights.




He also chewed the tassels off my pretty tree skirt, peed in the house too many times to count, and learned how to go down the basement stairs and ate cat poo out of the litter box.

Yum.

Puppy for sale....

Attention Fellow NaNoWriMo Flunkies:

The new blog for us losers those of us who failed the NaNoWriMo challenge is now up and running.

I'm really excited about a support group for slackers like me.

And I think about my poor little novel almost everyday. I'm looking forward to giving this thing another try...

Go here to check it out if your interested!

our one thanksgiving tradition

My kids love holiday traditions.
They actually get really mad if I forget one.

And it's actually gotten worse since they've gotten older.

Or maybe it's that they are teens and they are just

better at communicating what a loser I am if I forget one.

We only have one Thanksgiving tradition

and I wanted to share it with you.

Our Thanksgiving table cloth.

I realize that you will see some of the real names of my kids

but it wouldn't be the same if I photoshoped their names out

or tried to change the pictures

and I don't really have the computer skills to do that...

it's just a white table cloth but each year everyone

has to write something they are thankful for on it.

sometimes the kids traced their hands.

which I loved.

sometimes I giggled at what they are thankful for

at least mom and dad are included with the gameboy.

and there's record of what they loved that year.

or some sweet things...

this one is during my oldest daughters first year of college.

Some record big life changes....

this is from the year we got transferred back to our home town.

and some record things we will never be able to forget...

this was after 9/11.

Whenever anyone is with us for Thanksgiving they have to write on it too.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

shopping with hormones

www.clipartguide.com/.../0003-0702-2115-3616.jpg

I went to the grocery store yesterday to finished up my Thanksgiving dinner shopping.

I tried to plan ahead. I really did. But planning ahead is not one of my strengths.

I did my "big" shopping last Friday afternoon. I thought that I would get everything I needed and then just pop in and pick up some of the fresh stuff I didn't want to buy so far ahead of time. You know, lettuce and fruit and stuff.

But over the weekend I started realizing there were other things that I didn't realize I was low on. All big, heavy things like kitty litter, puppy food, and cat food. Hubby also asked me to buy some pop "cubes" to restock his work fridge.

The reason I'm pointing out all these heavy items is because we all know what it's like when you have a heavily loaded shopping cart and how hard it is to try maneuver it through the store isles. Then add 20 million other people who are poor-plan-aheaders like me; a bunch of insane mothers with at least 2 or 3 young children who all need naps but instead decided to bring them to the store; a few dozen old people who can hardly walk' pushing carts instead of their walkers as they shuffle along slower than a crippled snail; and my hormones.

Yep, my hormones played a big part in this shopping trip. I've decided that has got to be what is wrong with me, because I wanted to rip every one's head off at that store.

It's a good thing I wasn't carrying a loaded weapon.

I'm thinking that people should have to get a grocery shopping license just like a drivers license.

It's obvious that people need to be taught the proper way to grocery shop.

Just like anything in life, there are some rules of etiquette even for grocery shopping.

For example, the person with a bigger cart always has the right away (have you ever tried to steer one of those double-child-carrying-double-long-cart jobs?). And if the shopping carts are equal in size, the person with the largest load of items should always be yielded to. When my cart is over flowing and heavy (like yesterday) and I'm struggling to keep my momentum going and someone with one those half cart steps out in front of me, I'm tempted to pick up the speed and run them right over (and scream and "yeeha" while I do it).

And how frustrating it is when someone abandons their shopping cart in the middle of an isle to go to another area to grab something or compare prices? When I see people doing that, I like to to add a few items to their shopping cart. Let them explain to the check out lady that they really didn't want those condoms and hemorrhoid cream and aren't sure how they got in their shopping cart.

I appreciate the fact that when all these "older" men retire they want to help their wives out at the grocery store, but they are the worst of them all. They have no idea what they are doing. They block entire isle while they compare the fiber content of different brands. They walk slow, with their eyes on the shelves, banging into people, cutting others off- basically having no clue that others are in the store shopping too. At my Meijer back home "senior day" was on Tuesday and I avoided that place on that day like the plague! Yesterday they were out in full force (maybe "senior day" is Tuesdays here too hmmmm).

By the time I was weaving my way to the check out lane I felt like my blood pressure was at blow-the-top-of-my-head-off levels. Like a giant spring was twisting in my chest and ready to snap from being wound so tight. I wanted to scream, not at anyone in particular-just scream.

One solution that would be helpful, besides the grocery shopping license, is if you don't have at least 10+ years of grocery store shopping experience then you are not allowed in the store within three days of a major holiday.

And passing lanes in all isle of the store. And blinkers on shopping carts. And maybe some Valium handed out at the door. And maybe a little better planning ahead....

fighting kids

I'm not talking about human kids.

I'm talking about the four legged kind.

Yeah, we've all heard it before, puppies are worse than babies.

Can't take your eyes off them even for while they are sleeping.

Sometimes I wish I could stick a diaper on him.

He is sleeping through the night thou...most nights.

But now he seems to be at that age fighting constantly with his "siblings".

I feel like I have a couple of 5 and 6 year olds.

Kitty moews "Mommm he's touching me again!" every time the puppy tries to even sniff him.

"Mooommm he looking at me!" the kitty growls when puppy just enters the same room.

Come on kids! I want to scream. Unfortunately I can't make them sit on the couch and hold hands until they can be nice to each other.

And kitty acts like the proverbial little brother. Taunting, sticking out his tongue whenever I have my back turned.

Does he really need to sit just out of puppy's reach and stare at him like that.

Or walk by puppy's head and meow when I just got puppy to sleep?

I swear kitty is giving me the "Mom! Ace just bit me!" meow when Ace did nothing of the sort. Just to get him in trouble. Then he struts around with his nose in the air, turning and giving Ace the butt view, just to say "neener...neener...neener!!!" while Ace is dealt his punishment.

Look out kitty! I'm getting wise to your shenanigans!

I was a little sister once too!