Life with a DOG

Ok, I admit it. I'd forgotten how much work puppies were.


It's just like when you have a baby. Usually, the first few days in the hospital are so easy. There are nurses to help you. You're still recovering from birthing an entire new being into this harsh world. And, typically, the baby is still in that newborn sleepy state. Tell me you moms out there didn't think, at least once, this is easy! What were those crazy people talking about?? And then reality hits when you're home alone, bleary eyed, fighting exhaustion, not even able to comb the knots out of your hair.

Was that just me? I digress......

Puppies have that too. For the first few months, they just sleep. And when they are awake, they have all their brothers and sisters and mom to play with. Oh yea, that, and they're not at your house. Seriously. Visiting your soon-to-be-dog is not the same as having her in your home. Even if you visit often. Which we did.



Winnie is a ball of energy.

Or a ball of fluff that won't get up off her bum to do her business.

Depending on the moment.


Doesn't she look innocent? Don't believe it for a minute. Not one little minute!

At 6 am she's full of energy and bark. Ready to jump and love and eat and gnaw.

At 7 pm she's a slug. Nearly too heavy to lift at 25 pounds, it's hard to get her to anything she doesn't want to do.

Fortunately, we're all a little nuts about her.

It's that time of year again

It's something that's been going on for the past 10 years.
We should remember, but I think we've officially forgotten more than we've remembered.

I even posted something else on the 19th, for Pete's sake!
There's just too much going on this time of year.

This year was the worst, though. We didn't even remember that we forgot till late in the morning of the 20th!
And, let me emphasize the we here. Both of us forgets.

I took these pictures for our Christmas card. Adam was so cooperative, as you can tell. These are posted in order of take.
Happy Anniversary, my Love! 10 years! Woo hoo!!

Maybe next year, we'll remember.
Riiight.

Summer is a distant memory

Holiday Concoctions

The scents of cinnamon, pumpkin and chocolate have been floating around my house lately. Baked goods crowd our counter top. It's just that time of year! I discovered the delights of cake balls for the first time this year.

I also tried my hand at pumpkin chocolate chip biscotti and my Mom's toffee recipe.

This is how I packaged them.

Got the baking itch? Check out what's going on From the Stovetop!

Sunrise on the mountain

The chicken and the Egg

Owen was watching me make cake for cake balls. I was cracking in the eggs. Conversation is as follows:

Owen: "Mom, how do you make gwhite?"

Me: "Gwhite?"

Owen: "Yeah, the gwhite of the egg."

Me: "Oh, you mean egg (pause) white. It's not "gwhite" it's egg-white. And you can't make it, the chicken makes it."

Owen: "Oh." Thinking. Then, "Why aren't there chickens in there?" pointing to the shells.

Me: "No, honey, chickens don't come from eggs, eggs come from chickens." Pause. "Wait, no, chickens do come from eggs, but those eggs don't have chickens in them."

Another thoughtful pause as the mixer runs.

Owen: "But the chicken doesn't hatch the box at the same time."

Me: "Hmm?.........What box?" I'm obviously not really paying attention to my 4-year-old right at the moment. I'm surprised I even remember any of this conversation.

Owen: "The box the eggs come in. She hatched that after the egg."

I just nodded and smiled at this one. We'll get into the laws of egg-crate making another day. My brain was tired.

Fuzz and Fluff

We're helping our friend, Penny, by having puppy playdates at our house.
It's to get them used to going to other peoples houses. Mm hmmm. Yeah.

That and....we love them!

How cute are these gals?

The love, the love!
The fuzziness of it all!!

Have you ever seen cuter puppy paws? Have you?

Oh my.

These eyes speak volumes.

I'm alone this weekend. Adam is on a hut trip, Emma's at a birthday party and Owen got to go skiing today with friends. He, obviously, is doing better today. (See here if you need an explanation for that one.) It's just me and Addison in the house, and it's his nap time. I have been playing with my blog, as you can see, when I should be picking up my messy, messy house!

An extremely rare shot of Addi sleeping. I don't take chances with his sleep.

Sleep has never been Addison's friend, really. When he reached a year old, things got better. But the past month has been exceptionally trying. 6:25 am on the dot is his wake-up time, which wouldn't be too bad, except it's not even light out yet! Not even close! But it's better, he was waking up a few times a night and not even going to bed without a fight. Whew! We're tired.

Today's wake-up was at 5:30am, which isn't a wake-up time at all, is it? After checking to make sure he was ok, we told him "Nite-nite" and shut the door. He cried for 2 mintues, half-heartedly. This afternoon for nap, he woke up sort of early, so I let him call, "MOM! MOM!" over and over, just to see how long it might take. He stopped short of half and hour and it was quiet.

So what did I have to do? Tip-toe down the steps to make sure he was really quiet. Who does that? A mom, that's the answer, I'm sure of it. And to top it all off and make me pay, as soon as I put the tea pot on, "MOM!"

He wasn't asleep afterall. BIG sighhh...........

Would you believe it if I told you?

This little cherub hit both his brother and sister today! Unbelievable. And, almost more unbelievable, to my own ears anyway, was what came out of my mouth as punishment.

"You can't go skiing today."

I mean, really? Yep. That's where we live. And you know what? I think it actually sank in. He cried. Hard. And continued to remember for the rest of the day. I can only hope it's a lesson learned.

Bonus: I have a new, useful punishment. HAAaaahaa!