Tuesday, November 30, 2010

A little Dancing?



Last night we had a baby shower for my friend Shar.  It was much fun. ~(only 6 days until baby Baze gets here!!)
My niece Emily helped me with cupcakes, and with decorating the room for the shower and cleaning up afterward.  She was so much help, and so much fun!  But these bears....they are not all facing forward like I would have had them do.  I mentioned it to her, encouraging her to 'fix' it.  Then she pointed out they may be dancing.   Silly girl, but it was enough of a reminder to relax and take each moment as it comes that I had to agree that perhaps I should let go.  Let go and just let them dance.  That is something I'd like to embrace in each area of my life!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Baby gifts from wonderful friends


Just thought I'd post pictures of a couple of favorites so far.   Auntie Liza made the kimono style jams, aren't they cute?  I love love love them!
This past weekend my friend Janice gave us a baby gift (a chair for baby) and in the bag we also found a Spencer gift.  He was so excited!  It was a card with a wonderful handwritten note about how lucky this baby is to have Spencer for a big brother, and a sum of money for Spencer to buy 1) a book and 2) something else he thinks would be fun.  I so appreciate that some of our friends are including Spencer in all the baby excitement hoopla that is going on. 
I'm doing all I can think of to make him feel included and make the transition from being essentially an only child for ten years to having a brother living here as smooth as possible.  Thoughtfulness from friends and family is wonderful and helpful! 

Friday, November 19, 2010

Too adventurous. Stop, come home instead!

I'll apologize in advance for the mood of this blog post.  I realize it is kind of a downer, and that is how I feel about it, pretty down.
It looks like we're having to say goodbye to our Molly this week.

Molly is a dog who likes, maybe even needs, to run off and explore the unknown.  This is a problem for a family with no fenced yard.  Or at least this is a problem when you are in a rental and John says no to building a dog pen at said rental and your dad says he'll do it but your dad really just doesn't feel good so when he's able to rest and have a day off you just don't want him to worry about it.  And besides, between you and the ten year old there are plenty of walks with Molly on a leash going on so it should all be fine, because she's proven that she'll cry and yell and eventually wriggle her way out of her collar and be gone if you try to tie her to the tree in the back.  Then temporary bed rest happens and so the walks are much much shorter and not as often as you try to balance taking care of the human you are growing and the needs of this pesky little dog that lives with you.  (by you I may mean me).

And given all of this, Molly's personality is still such that EVERY chance she has off the leash she takes off, for hours, at least.   We like to think she just has a strong sense of adventure (it keeps us from wanting to pull our hair out that our dog is so naughty).

So just the last month has seen Molly disappear a number of times.  Once she was gone for one night and came rushing back shaken and happy to be home the next morning, sans collar.  Our neighbor brought her collar to us about an hour later saying he thought it was our dog who rushed out of his shed when he opened the door.
Then a couple of weeks later she was gone for 3 days.  This began when she was outside with 2 of the kids playing football, she seemed pretty happy to be running around with the kids and the other dog and getting all sorts of attention from them so she was off leash...then once she had sufficiently fooled them into thinking she'd stay with them, off she went.  They  chased her and called after her and she just kept on going, looking over her shoulder at them thinking "suckers!".  So we spent days driving around, walking around, talking to neighbors and to the shelter and putting it in the paper and worrying and crying.  Then day 3~the boy and I are on a walk with the other dog and we hear crying, we are a couple of houses down from ours on the same street and the crying is very sounding like Molly.  So we investigate, Polix dog seems oh so excited about the barn and that sure seems logical because the crying sounds so much louder there.  We couldn't see her, just hear her, until...up above us peeks out a little head from the loft window.  There is no one home so I decide to forgo asking permission to go into the barn and just get on with getting the dog down.  Problem.  NO stairs.  How'd she get up there?  Sheesh, so the boy had to climb up to the rescue and climb back down.

This whole experience made us think "gee, she's been through a lot, maybe she'll decide to stay home from now on where life is easier".  Oh, no.  We obviously had underestimated her "adventurous spirit".  The next week brought 2 separate days where she was gone for hours each time after escaping once while the boy carried in firewood and once when John took her out to the garage with him thinking she'd happily hang out there and keep him company while he worked.  (again she was just thinking to herself "suckers!!")  Both times after hours and hours she came home exhausted, shaking, soaking wet, stinky and in need of a bath, once covered in blood and while cleaning her up we realized much of that blood was hers from some scratches on her face and neck (a cat maybe?).

Really, why would she want to keep running off?  Seriously? Grrr.
Then comes this past Tuesday morning.  I wake up, get the boy up to get ready for school and Molly is crying and whimpering and in my sleepy stupor I think about how much I'd like to NOT be cleaning a puddle and I better let her out NOW.  But my shoes were in the other room, that is where the story goes downhill.  I made the error in judgement to think that I could let her out the front door, walk into the next room to slip on my shoes and grab the leash and meet her outside.  Less than a minute, surely she'd still be taking care of business close by.  Nope, she was long gone when I went out less than a minute later.   We haven't seen her since.  We've driven around looking, we've walked and called and questioned neighbors, she's in the paper again and we've checked the shelter and she's on their list of missing animals.  Today flyers will go up.  But its cold out there, oh so very cold and snowy and she's so tiny.  And its been days.

My  mood about the whole thing swings from sobbing and worrying and just wanting her home, to rage.  Dummy head dog!  Why can't she just stay home?!  But mostly just crying and worrying. 


If you see her, send her home.  Her people are worried and miss her.  Polix may have a nervous breakdown without her.


****UPDATE***   Obviously Molly reads this blog.  Within an hour of posting it she came knocking at the door.  Crazy dog, I'd beat her if I weren't so happy she's home!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

List it Tuesday 11/17

I've been meaning to play along since the first Tuesday Aimee started List it Tuesday.  Somehow Tuesday always ends before I get around to it!  Not today though.  Here is my list.  And here is the link to Aimee's blog, Artsyville,  to go read her's and follow her links to see everyone else's lists today.



Indecisive?  Who, me?  Ok, perhaps.  Now and then.  It feels like a time for 'to do' lists, as there is a lot I need to get done.  Just one?  Which one?  So here is my to do list of more to do lists needing made.  I couldn't narrow down a list but thinking about it made me realize there are a lot of lists yet to be made to organize all that is going on in my brain!  Already I realize there are even a couple more I should make.  Hmmm, off to make lists maybe?

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Baby Shower, Baby Cousins



This past weekend my mom threw a baby shower for me.  It was so much fun,  so many people were able to come, lots of laughing, good food and beautiful gifts.  Sadly 99% of the pictures from that day are pretty blurry, the ones that aren't are not ones people would appreciate me posting. 
These are a couple from the end of the shower, my 2 sisters-in-law and I and our babies.  Evidently Leda was feeling left out, not being pregnant anymore and all and decided to pretend it was a couple of months ago and have Gavin be back in the belly. 

Monday, November 15, 2010

My little nest



Here is where I've been spending much of my time the last week.  After a little car accident (with a deer) there were more contractions going on than there should have been.  So for a few days I camped here and tried to stay down and be cozy so baby would stay where he should for a bit longer.
Much knitting has been completed for Christmas gifts this week!  That feels good to cross off the 'to do' list!
Ready to get up now!  Wish the car was as ready as I am to get away from the house.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Finding ready



Only 7 1/2 weeks to go.  I am not feeling ready.  I need to find that ready feeling though.  I'm feeling more displaced right now.  Not where I feel my nest should be.  Still need to gather a few things.  Still need to come to peace with a few things.


Not wanting this pregnancy to end.  I'm loving it, I'm going to miss being pregnant.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Capitol Christmas Tree 2010








Yesterday we were lucky to be able to participate in the festivities as the 2010 Capitol Christmas Tree traveled through on its way to Washington D.C.
The tree was only here during daytime/school hours but I decided to let Spencer miss an hour of school so we could go.  Really how often does something like this happen?  It is a little piece of history he'll be able to say he participated in.  Over the summer with both 4H and at home he worked on some of the ornaments that were sent from Wyoming to decorate this tree.  I think it was fun to see the actual tree our ornaments will hang on.
It was a really neat celebration to be part of.  I loved that one of the bands from the high school was there playing, between the music and the snow falling, the hot chocolate stand and the tree it really was a Christmas feeling in the air!  There were different tables set up selling food and treats to raise money for different programs here in the valley so we had lunch while we were there. We saw friends and visited, we were able to get a few pictures and appreciate being part of our country's holiday celebration.  A fun fun time.
We signed the banner and Grandpa bought Spencer a Wyoming Forever West hat that he was totally excited about (and me a giant hot chocolate mug :)