Buddy Boy & Butterflies

Our little dog is starting to fit into this family. We’re learning more about each other and I’m watching a lot of Dog Whisperer. Cesar Millan is a genius. He’s helped me get Buddy to actually be walked by the kids instead of Buddy walking the kids (okay, and the adults too). Big difference.

Here are a couple of cute puppy photo shoot pics from this weekend:

I never thought I would do this, but I did. I bought the dog a shirt. A really, really cute shirt. Besides – everything I’ve read about this breed of dog suggests that they wear sweaters in the fall and winter. (the dog will probably end up with a better wardrobe than me)

We also found some new friends while in the front yard:

They were so calm – flitting around from the bushes to the fruit trees (the one time I’m thankful for those darn fruit trees… with all their fruit… that FALLS on the ground all the time and smushes into the ground… those fruit trees) and landing on the smushed fruit on the ground. So pretty. (not the fruit, the butterflies)

I’m such the nature girl now… (as long as I don’t have to touch it or clean it up)

Unexpected Disconnect

I knew I was taking a vacation from work – I was super-excited about that!

Here’s what the dog did this week while on vacation: (I don’t know what cracks me up the most about this photo… the size of my girl’s feet, the dog konked out in her lap, or the meerkats in the far left that my son is holding.)

I did not, however, anticipate taking a vacation from the internet. I could not have imagined that it would only work intermittently. I was not prepared… no emergency kit…I was lost…what could I do? Where should I go? (you mean, like, leave my house?) What should I do with my time?

I went through all the stages of grief:

• Denial: “This couldn’t possibly be happening to me! Not now! Not when I’m on vacation! Vacation!! For crying out loud!”
• Anger: “How dare you leave me during such an important time in my life! I needed some quality time with Perez Hilton and my scrap blogs!”
• Bargaining: “Okay… if I could just have an hour or two online, I promise I won’t take you for granted again… come on… I need you! Please!”
• Depression: “Whatever. Who needs the internet anyway. All I need is an encyclopedia and  a subscription to the Enquirer… that’s all I need in my life. Stupid internet.”
• Acceptance: “It’s all right. I’ll be okay. Maybe I don’t need the internet every day. Maybe I can step away from it once and a while.”

I’m still without an internet connection at home… and my internet provider (coughBELLSOUTHcough), can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong. The earliest a tech can come to the house (for the SECOND time) is Saturday. SAT-UR-DAY. Grrrrr.

Thank goodness I have work and the Olympics to keep me occupied. I. LOVE. THE OLYMPICS.

Oh – and since I couldn’t get online, I did discover some TV that I had missed out on… anyone else seen Mad Men on AMC? Wowza. Good stuff. I am now caught up with the entire first season & the first three episodes of the second season. Thank goodness I found something productive to do while I was out!

Here are some other things that happened this week:

We celebrated a birthday! My sweet niece turned 5! (are these kids related or what?)

Did I do any scrapbooking? Not until last night at 7:00pm. That’s when I finally got in the mood to head down to the guest scrap room. That figures.

So… my vacation is over, I’m back to work and the kids have started school. I still have no internet, barely scrapped a thing & now I’m addicted to a new TV show.

Not too shabby…

At least I stopped talking about my hair.

We’re on vacation this week! And we are SO EXCITED!

See! Our tail is wagging so fast you can barely see it!

The kids and I have the last week of summer together before school begins. To start this fantastic week of vacation…we’ve…well, we… just got back from taking the dog to the vet.

Yep.

Pretty crazy stuff, huh?

What can I say… I start slow. I wanted to start off with a do-nothing day.

We’ve also watched more than our fair share of Hannah Montana. Seriously, people. I don’t know if I can take much more of her. I woke up with her songs in my head. I’ve had no less than two shows put on for me to her music. (which were totally cute, but come on!) Just this morning the girl discovered her favorite Hannah Montana episodes are ON DEMAND.  

Buddy doesn’t seem to like it much either.

Can’t you see that he’s about to lose it?! He’s hanging by a thread!

Okay, not really… but how cute is this face?

Happy Last Week of Summer!

I’ve turned into Sharon Osbourne.

Last night at dinner my son asked me this question,

“Mommy, why do you use baby talk when you talk to the dog?”

I was like, don’t be ridiculous… I would never do that. That is so not me.

Then I saw the dog and I said (with a high-pitched sugar sweet voice), “Who’s a good boy? You are! Look at you! You’re so cute! What a good doggie!” 

O-M-G. He’s right. The only thing missing was the British accent.

This has to stop. I don’t have nearly enough tattoos or piercings or to be an Osbourne!

Bits & Photos

When Mack was about 2 1/2 years old, she and her brother talked non-stop about getting a dog. We told them no, we couldn’t get a dog. Someone has allergy issues (the old man) and plus, we didn’t have a yard. We were renting a townhouse.

Fast-forward to February 2008 – more than four years after the dog converstaions -  we put a contract on this house. The little elephant that lives with us..the one disguised as a seven year old girl, said, “Can we get a dog now?”

What?

Crap.

How in the hell did she remember that conversation from almost FIVE years ago?

So… we talked about it for a few months. Looked online. And because the old man has allergy issues, we decided to research those dogs that are hypo-allergenic. There’s a long list of them.

We printed a list of places where shelters were having adoptions. We also brought along a list of the allergy-friendly pups. We prepped the kids with things like, “we may not get a dog today” and “we have to find the right one for us” along with “don’t be disappointed if we don’t find one that fits our family.”

They agreed and we drove to our first stop.

Where we saw him:

And now he’s at our house. Right now he’s sleeping on the couch next to me.

Hypo-allergenic? Um, I have a feeling he’s not quite so allergy-friendly. 

(oops)

He’s a 14 month old Miniature Pinscher. Well… Doberman’s are considered hypo-allergenic, so a miniature pinscher should be good too, right? (it made sense to us at the time)

After doing some research, come to find out, they are no where near related to Dobermans.

But – look at this face:

And those ears! How can you not fall in love with those ears?!

(better photos to come later – stupid flash)

Anyway… he came with the name “Bits” – clearly, he is not a Bits. I think the shelter was trying to call him “Dwyer.” I’m not so sure he’s a Dwyer. Right now we don’t know what to call him. Can we change his name at this point? I feel bad doing that… I mean, what if people started calling me Betsy or something? That would totally get on my nerves.

Speaking of Betsy – I keep calling him “Bitsy” which makes him sound like he should be wearing an Izod shirt and carrying a tennis racquet on his way to lessons with Blaine.

Am I right?

Right now he’s ignoring me calling him either Bits or Dwyer. But – kissing sounds got his attention. Totally a guy.