Tuesday, July 29, 2008

HOME!

MY BOYS WILL BE HOME TONIGHT!! :-))

Updates and Pests

Just as a quick update... None of my trained dogs will be going anywhere. I've come to the conclusion that it is the summer weather, and not my job that is keeping me from working my dogs! Yes, it's true that most nights I'm off to work at 5:30 when I could maybe work a dog or 2 at 8pm, but that's a seasonal thing. Deal is in "heat" and pretty weird. She is not a bitch that cycles right. She will come in and go right out, only to come in a few months later. She should have been in in May with all the other females, but she started and went right out- only to come in now 3 months later. She's also not a bitch I can work very well when she's in- she's very affected by her cycles. She will be spayed the next time the PETA (yes, I know PETA...) van comes to Surry. She's had 2 nice litters with Toss, and that's plenty. I need to tone down my hours at work and not feel so obligated to stay late when there is so much to do. I worked 12 hours on Friday night, 11 hours on Saturday night, and went in on Sunday which was my day off and worked a full shift... Ben was beginning to question my reasons for being at work. When hours at work begin to affect your homelife you need to step back and look at what you're doing...

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Things are improving between Ben and I. He is making some real efforts.

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Flies.... we are over-run with black flies! It's just crazy! I bombed the house today and although it's better, there are still some left. Not sure what's up with that. We've been here since 2001 and never had this problem. I'm also going to have to buy expensive flea poison for the dogs, as Cruz, Maddie, and Edge have fleas. I gave all 13 dogs a flea/tick bath today and the 3 of them had fleas. The outside only dogs seemed okay, but Maddie had a few and Edge and Cruz had them heavily. The bath will kill the adult fleas, but I will have to buy some Advantage for the whole lot. Frontline does not work in our area anymore. I hate summer. One more reason I want to head back to the mid-west! I've honestly had just about enough of the south-east heat and humidity and un-usable weather! I'm ready to go back to 10 below and 4' of snow! You can always put on more layers for winter- but not much you can do with the summer 100 degrees and 100% humidity!! There's something to be said for a winter freeze!! The 60 acre lot in Wisconsin, 1 mile from my "sister" (cousin) Lisa is still for sale....

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Motivation

This is the '93 truck I have right now (mine's blue and white). I have a little bit bigger tires, but you can't have very big tires without a lift.



This is a 74 (we have 79 just like it in the driveway) that has about a 4" lift and on/off road tires. This is what I want on my truck. A 4" lift and a set of Mickey Thompson BAJA tires! My country girl truck!! The coolest thing about my truck is that it's a crew cab and a standard transmission. I think a real trucks require a clutch! :-) I need about $2000 to get this project done on my truck. The tires are spendy!

And in case I need more motivation to get debt paid off, there's always the '68 Firebird! I've always been a muscle car kind of girl. New cars don't impress me, nor do the expensive luxury cars. But pull up in something goin' "blub, blub, blub" and built before 1970 and oh man!!! Buying a car like this mint would probably never happen for me, but buying a project car is something very doable. Ben can (and Charlie is right on his heels) do anything with a car motor-wise. I'd drive this car everywhere in nothing but bond-o and primer if the motor was tight! :-)












Headway

Man, I am about over summer and this heat. I'm tired of not being able to do much more than just throw the ball a little for the dogs. My work hours keep me from being here during the 2 cooler hours in the morning and the evening- if it's even cooler then! Some mornings I walk out to my truck at 3:15am and it's as hot as it was at 6pm!! Just crazy!! I was approached by one of the assistant managers at work about a new position opening up. It's a new position for the store. I don't want to think I'll get it, but it would be nice. It's full time and a better shift for me. It's overnight, which is 10-7am. Working that shift I will be here for homework, dinner, and the couple hours we have with the kids in the evening once school starts. I will also be able to do a few things in the morning without first having to wait for it to be light outside. I can stay up until about 10am and sleep until 4pm. Six, solid and regular hours of sleep is enough for me. The new position is also a little more of a "career builder" kind of position. Basically it's inventory control for all the outside vendors that come in. So we'll see. I'm hopeful, but not expecting anything. I only told one person at work about it- a manager friend. He said if she came to me, then it's because she wants me for the job. But that's only his opinion....
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I was finally "brave" enough last night to have a talk with Ben about my frustrations with some things around the house and in our relationship. It went about like I figured, but ended well (at 1:15 in the morning) and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. Ben told me to buy a dry erase board so we can list all our debts and have a visual plan on getting it paid off. Ben and I together make a heck of a lot of money- but our credit debt is just insane! We are no longer on that path- but of course we are still paying.... He promises me we'll get the drywall mudding done over the weekend. I don't think he had a clue how much living in a construction zone was driving me crazy. Actually I don't mind the construction, it's when it comes to a screeching (long term) halt that I become aggravated. I explained that I was so over always being embarrassed with how my house looked, and that I was no longer going to live like that and if I had to spend my paycheck on hiring out the job, I would!! Of course he was defensive and pissed- but we worked thru it. My next big decision is whether or not I need to sell a few of my dogs. It's a huge decision and one that is heavy on my heart. Not something I am going to decide quickly or on impulse. If I did sell a few it would be a business choice, not a personal one. I can care for and keep up with the number I have. I can't afford to trial all the ones ready to trial, surely, but that's not a big deal. Getting our crazy debt paid off is a serious issue and HAS to be the priority RIGHT NOW. The question I have to answer myself is whether or not selling a few of my dogs is worth the dent their price would put in the debt... I also need to remember what I enjoy doing. I 100% enjoy raising pups and getting a dog to the PN/Ranch level of work. But I surely cannot keep everything I train to that level. Of course I have some dogs here that will never go anywhere- never. But I also have some that I would be comfortable selling to the right home. I suppose I have personal dogs and "business" dogs. Anyone who trains animals for a living will understand what I mean. People that only have their personal dogs/animals will not. So anyway, as of today at least I feel like we're making some headway on getting things in our life a little more under control! Ben has thousands of dollars of comic hero statues and such that he is willing to part with. Like me and my dogs, he has some he will not part with, but has lots and lots that he will. He is a serious comic book and figure collector, but recognizes the seriousness of our situation and is willing to do what needs to be done to fix it. If we can just rid of our credit card debt we will be able to buy and do just about anything we'd want- in cash! What a foolish thing- credit cards! You can bet our children will NOT make the mistakes we did!!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Work, Priorities, and Change

Well, it's Tuesday and I haven't had a day off since last Tuesday. The new lady that they hired to help me did not want to do the job alone after only working with me one night. So I said "okay" to changing my Mon-Tues off to Tues and Fri, which are the same days she has off. I thought I was also going to have to work tonight, but when one of the managers looked at the computer there was no truck scheduled for tonight. I've been staying late several nights a week. I have really ended up being the go-to girl at night. I get "my" job done and then go wherever they don't have enough people to get it done. I don't mind- as silly as it may seem, it feels good to know people can count on and depend on me. I can now take care of freight in just about every dept. Sunday night there was no HBA person, so after I did my job I did all of HBA's freight, then went to toys and got half of that freight done. (usually the HBA girl barely gets her freight and area zoned by 5am) I had to leave at 4:30 because I had Ben's car and he needed to leave at 5am. Same thing happened last night. The new girl got our job done, all of HBA and pharmacy break packs done, then went to do chemicals. The 2 of us got all 4 HUGE pallets before she went home at 3am. I like doing freight in chemicals. It's HEAVY, but it's not as tedious as HBA. After the new lady went home, I got the dept. completely zoned and helped get some extra bleach pulled to fill before having to leave at 4:30. No one even asked me, I just stayed... I think the night managers simply know now that if there is still stuff to do, I'll stay as long as I can. It's so weird that I enjoy working there so much. Who woulda thought! I like working nights, and have no desire to work days. I like the night shift people and the work we have to do at night. If it's done right you work at a pretty intense pace.
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I need to make some changes in my priorities. Maybe it's all this sorting and putting things away quickly and correctly, but I am so ready to do a complete over-haul on this house!! We have WAY too much stuff, and it's kind of everywhere. It's starting to drive me nuts! Being July, it's usually too hot to work dogs, so I need to take advantage of the natural break in dog work and get this house right! I have decided to not go to the trial this coming weekend. I will kill myself trying to do it- plus I have other things I should spend that $140 plus fuel on! Like a dozen or so tubs to start my mass sorting. I have to start somewhere, and that will be the hardest part. I also need to be relentless with Ben about finishing the living room/ dining room construction. It has been in this same stage for about a year. As much as I loved that he decided to build the pool deck, I was pretty irritated that he picked starting a new job over finishing the other one! I am SOOO ready for that area of the house be done so it can look pretty and like a home again. I want to get a new country style dining room set, put pictures and my collector's Border Collie plates on the wall, get some house plants, and some neat floor and table lamps. All he has to do is finish a bit of the mudding and then sand the drywall mud. A weekend's worth. Then I can paint, then we can do the floor, then he can do the trim. I'm sickened by still looking at drywall and vacuuming subflooring! I don't know how to do the drywall mud, or I'd do it myself. I have threatened to use one of my paychecks to hire the job out if he doesn't it get done right quick. If he doesn't, I will. I'm sure I could figure out how to do the mudding and sanding, but that just makes me so mad. I know he works hard, but he tends to only work around here when he has time off from work. I work 40+ hours a week and still do stuff here- why can't he? If he just spent an hour a night on it, it'd be done in a week I'm sure. Maybe I can get him to do it this weekend, although I suppose he's going to want to finish the pool deck.... rrrrr! My husband is fabulous at the projects he does. What he can do, and do as well or better than people that get paid for it- but oh the teeth one has to pull to finish something up. That's his MO for sure!! Like taking the doors off all the upper cabinets because they'd need to be replaced anyway... Well that was about 3 years ago. Old doors are gone, and no new doors are on. About 6 months ago he decided to rip out my big pantry cabinet because it was hooked the "next wall that needs to be done" (remember the ones there are already 2 rooms worth that are still half done). So now not only do I not have a pantry, right by the main door (the kitchen door- which drives me crazy- the driveway and walk way are on the side of the house, not the gorgeous southern farmhouse front side!) I have a big area of torn drywall and kitchen floor where the cabinet was.
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I guess the "changes" part kind of fit in with the new priority order. This house and how it's kept and how much time is spent on it is going to be a huge change. I don't feel like I am at a "crossroads", or anything quite that life-altering, but I do feel like I'm at the beginning of a huge shift in my day to day life and I'm super excited. Something happened to me in 13 years of marriage and 12 years of caring for my boys (who mean the world to me). I forgot about me. I forgot who I was and what I wanted. I've put my heart and soul into my kids and my dogs. I've come back full circle to remembering who I am, and that I'm not too old to still be that person. I've been working really hard at looking like I feel. I've lost 15 pounds and have 25 more I know I can lose. I'm 5'2", so 120lbs is a very manageable weight. I was 115lb when we got married. I'm already down a jean size (one more size to go) and back into Jr. size shirts. I usually like the style of the jr. shirts, but my arms and middle had gotten too big for them. It feels good to be caring about how I look again. I even found a new tattoo I want to go get. It's very cool and says a lot about my personality. It has 2 flowers and twisted in with the vines is barb wire. My wrist tat is a custom flower band. I'll get this one on the opposite upper arm. There are several girls at work that have very nicely done tattoos, so I need to ask them where they got them done. I paid $12 for the stencil and drawing of the new tattoo. When I lose the rest of my weight I am going to get a lower back tattoo. :-) There are some really neat Gemini ones made for your back. I'll post a picture of the arm tattoo when I have it done. Maybe next pay check.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Snap Shots

Sly, Clare, and Ivy 7 months.


Handsome Boy, Toss!

My pretty girls at 7 months!
Smilin' Mary Jane!
Jim is such a gorgeous pup! (and big!)


Can you believe how much Kit looks like her sire? (Toss)

Handsome Jack. Jack is Kit's full brother.
"Did you say go get 'em?"



I used this for size comparison- Jim and his mama, Gwen.

Hi Gwen! :-)
Another shot for size. Jim on the left and his sire, Cruz.


Whoosie.
Clare sure has her mama's dare-ya stare!

























Living "Single"

I got Ben and the kids off to the airport this morning. It's going to be really weird around here. No one but me and the dogs. Very quiet and no one to "worry" about but me and the animals... Very weird. I know I'll enjoy it for awhile, and then start to miss them horribly. Today on the drive home I was having near panic attacks about them on the planes. My whole life.... What I would do if I lost them- any of them- let alone all of them. I came home, fed the dogs and put them up for their afternoon nap then came in and slept, and slept some more. I had horrible dreams, but the extra sleep sure felt great! Ben called from JFK and they had already eaten lunch and had like 2 more hours. (Yes, they flew to NY to go to AZ from VA.... no wonder the airlines are going under! LOL!) Their flight from JFK to PHX is over 5 hours long, so they should be almost there. It's a very long day. I got up at 6am to make them all breakfast, then woke them up at 7, which is early since we're deep into summer break and Ben was on leave this week.
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Ben will only be gone for a week, but it'll still be just me during the day. Ben leaves for work at about 7am and is home somewhere between 5:30-6:30pm. I leave for work at 5:30pm... The kids won't be back until the 29th! I'm thinking while they are gone, I'll stay up in the morning and sleep in the afternoon. I can't do that with them at home during the day for obvious reasons. I'll have about 2 hours to work on the house before it's light, then spend about 2 hours with the dogs and a couple hours doing other stuff. That's the plan anyway. It's what I plan to do once the kids are back in school also. It'll be pretty good timing because the kids get home at 3:30. If I get my stuff done in the morning and sleep until 3:20, then I can focus on just them for the whole 2 hours I'm home with them... I'm hoping when the new lady starts working with me we can have alternating weekends off. I don't see why that would be any kind of problem. If they can't do that for us/me then I will go back to 4 days a week, two off in a row during the week, and Saturday. I'd rather be full time, but not at the expense of hardly seeing my family.

Rain and Cooool Evening

Gettin' dark and the thunder was just starting to roll. (note the pool deck progress)


Rain was comin' down in the tree line- time to put dogs up and head inside.
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We had quite the series of storms this afternoon. It was so wonderful to watch the rain come in and just pour for about 2 hours! It was lovely- I enjoy storms! It was pretty wicked for awhile, but no damage here at home. We actually have standing water- which hasn't happened since I don't know when! I played with the dogs for about an hour before the weather got here. It's so nice and cool now this evening- like low 70's. I opened several of the windows. The sheep are out eating grass, and I'm sure they'll have a very enjoyable evening eating in the cool and the damp. I'm going to get up nice and early and work dogs before the 90 degrees is back. I'll sleep for a few hours in the afternoon before work. I could work dogs this evening, but I just don't have it in me. I worked several of them again yesterday. Jack's planned session of walking up at a pen/chute turned into a sending session.





Sunday, July 6, 2008

Rain and Keeping Up

One more night, and then two nights off! Last week I did not have 2 days off, and that is clearly not something I am going to be willing to do. Just not enough hours to get caught up and get things done. I very much enjoyed my entire day at Carol's with the dogs, but it did not give me a day to get caught up on other stuff. Supposedly, officially hiring me full time (I'm already doing the hours, but being hired full time means I get a week's paid vacation and profit sharing- don't need the medical) is in the works. They also hired someone to work with me. (takes awhile before they actually come to work) I like working alone, but some nights I'm swamped, plus it's just me- if I don't come in they have to find someone not busy to do the best they can sorting the merchandise I get in. This results in someone not doing their usual job and it taking longer for the over night stockers to put it away, because it's not as separated as I do it. Like pharmacy and HBA. They each have about 6 carts. When someone else does it, they just throw all of HBA in one cart and all of pharmacy in another. When it's done the way they want it, it's separated by aisle- deodorant and razors in one cart, hair color in another, expensive lotion in one, regular lotion in another, etc.... I hope this new lady works out and will stay. I'm hoping we can each have 2 days off per week and we can swap weekends. That would be very doable!! Not sure they'll give her 39 hours right off the bat, but maybe. When they pull me in to do the full time paper work I'm going to be clear that my 2 days have to be back to back and that I need every other weekend off. If they can't do that for me, then I'll go back to 4 days a week. Places like wal-mart will take what they can get from you, but will also generally give you what you want in order to keep you, if you're a decent worker. When it's a huge truck night I hardly even get asked if I'll stay late, it's pretty much a given- they know I will, and I don't mind doing that, as long as it's remembered...
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I worked Jack, Deal, Gwen, and Cruz yesterday. Deal was very hard and pushy- both to me and the sheep. All the dogs gathered around her puddle of pee this morning, so I'm guessing she's about to come in. She didn't come in in May with Maddie, Gwen, and Mary Jane. We worked on shedding along the fence. She did better at staying honest on her flanks and stopping, but was not always listening to where I wanted her to come in.
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I worked on walking and not zipping from one side the other with Gwen. I had her driving the sheep thru the fenceline chute. I was only 20-40' away from her. She did okay but not great. She does not like to stay behind the sheep when she's driving. She wants be up just far enough that she is stopping the motion, not moving it forward. I feel that the fenceline chute is a good place for her to learn to push them on/thru. Once they were thru it, I would make her continue with the drive down the fence, rather than let her swing them back to me. The "walk" command is becoming useful. I am teaching her the skill in a fetch, then applying it to the drive. It's working better than the "shhhh-shhh" or the "get up there Gwen", as both of those can mean go ahead and do what you need to do to get them to move. She was beginning to blow in too often for my taste. Now that she is learning what "walk" means, I can use it on the drive. I will have to make a special for it.
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I worked Cruz just for a few minutes and did about 4 sheds- 2 taking a single off the group of 9. We may end up being able to make up for some of our typical lost outrun points by being a very consistent shedding team! He's awesome and as a team we just have our *hit together! :-)
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I need to work Jack again today for a few minutes. It's VERY humid, but mostly cloudy. Jack does a very nice job. He needs a walk up command when he's a pen or a chute. This is a very practical command I know Greg will appreciate Jack have, so that's the plan for today's session. Of course he walks up on a fetch, and he'll come forward at a chute, but it's too quick. He flanks nicely at a chute and will stop off balance, so considering the amount of training he's had, that's wonderful. He's like Toss on a send, tight but tries to cover. He knows you want them all, so that's a good start. It won't take much time to show him where he needs to be I don't think. It's very interesting that both he and Kit sit on their stop command. Both of them will sometimes stand, and sometimes lie down, but usually it's a sit. I don't care, as long as the dog stops. My verbal "lie down" should really be "stop"- if dogs knew English. What it means to me is stop and don't come forward. If they're honest with a sit or a stand, that's fine with me. I've found that usually a honest stand doesn't come until later, but some young dogs will be honest on their feet.... I do like to have actual stand command, but if the dog naturally wants to stop on his feet, then I suppose he doesn't need a "stand" command. My whistle "stand" is a shortened version of a stop whistle. Cruz prefers to stay on his feet in a drive- which is better anyway. Toss stands quite often on his driving stop. Deal will not stand and be honest. If her belly is not on the ground, she is coming forward- and we can working on that!! Even Gwen will stay on her feet in a drive if I am short and soft with my stop whistle.
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We got a lot of rain last night, and with the chance of more the next few day!

Friday, July 4, 2008

Work, Training, and Trialing

I mentioned a few posts ago that I planned to go to a small trial on the 19-20 of July. I asked for the days off too late to get them off. So of course I was scheduled for 18-20. Poop. Last night one of the managers was trying to figure out a schedule between me and another lady that had hired to help me, but has since been mostly learning the over-night cash office job. As it ended up, I was able to get the 19th off. But I still work Friday (which means till 3am on Saturday) and Sunday (which means being home in time to leave for work at 5:30 and hang in there till 3am...) Ella is really excited to go both days, but I'm not sure I can swing both days. I do have Monday the 21st off, so if I could just pull out the weekend I'd have a day to get caught up. There is a little mom N pop type hotel very close to the farm the trial is at, so Ella and I plan to split a room Saturday night. With the price of gas it's worth it to stay over Saturday night. Also for my sake it will be 5 less hours on the road! Her trials are normal done by about lunch time, so I could go back to the hotel Saturday afternoon, take a good nap and then make a trip back to Verna's in the evening to play with the dogs and let them run around. I think I can do it.....
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I did get Friday and Saturday off for the August trial in Gladys. I only plan on going Saturday to that trial. At the July trial I'll be moving Deal up to Ranch. No reason not to. She has all the pieces. The only thing she may do is not want to give me a good flank right off the lift if need be- but she'll do that in ProNovice as well, so it's not a problem caused by moving up. It's a distance thing, and she's improving. She doesn't always want to give me a flank when she doesn't see the need. She's my 'hardest' dog, as far as "I'll just do this my way thank you very much". What she has going for her is that usually her way is also my way, because she's a very talented bitch. She was terrible about cheating during our shedding work at Carol's. She was really being pushy about not giving me a quick stop and then she was creeping. (Carol noted that Deal didn't seem to fully understand the task- so I should take it back to the fence with her for awhile) We all know that being overly pushy and not stopping on a dime doesn't work at a pen or a shed! She leans on her sheep something terrible. I asked Carol what I needed to do, and she told me I need to walk to her and let her know a stop is a stop and to also really get in her space if she creeps in. I told her I didn't want to put too much "back off" pressure on her, and she grinned and said that Deal is not going to have any problems. She said "you'll never take anything out of that dog". Meaning Deal's enough dog that she can take some serious pressure from me to quit leaning on her sheep at a pen or a shed. I'll do lots of penning and chute work with her to work on the backing off, and then go back to shedding work when she's more responsive to a verbal get back. Asking her to back off on the shed work is putting too many steps together in my opinion.
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Off to get some things done before work. Worked until 5am again "yesterday".............

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Dog Therapy

Today was great. I'm exhausted, but it was a good day. I slept till 8:45 (a whole 4hrs 15 mins) and got to Carol's about 11. Lots of dogs got worked and we had a good time gettin' all caught up. I took 5 dogs with me, and came home with 6. Jack (from my first Deal X Toss litter) was staying with Carol for awhile, and since she'll be out of town at a trial Thurs-late Sun, he came home with me. He's doing great and his owners just adore him. He's doing a wonderful job on their goat farm. Jack's owner just started coming to Carol (he lives just a few minutes from her) to get some "finesse" put on him. Right now he knows "get the goats" and "lie down" and that's about it for commands. The rest he just does. He's such a sweet young dog and quite handsome if I do say so myself. I'll take some photos of him while he's here.
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I worked hard on shed work today with all 4 dogs. I can do it, but I still feel fairly inept much of the time. I think shedding is what I need to do when I go to Carol's. I need some more instruction. I'm putting a lot of the pieces together, but it is far from second nature. Cruz and I did well both times we worked at it. We have each other figured out during the process and Cruz knows 100% what the job is. He is just waiting for his cue to come thru. Very different from just a few months ago when he was coming thru, but tentatively. Now he dives right thru and knows exactly what to do. Deal was not understanding today for some reason. Her drive work was stellar though. Carol had me take her to the fence line to do some shedding and that made it successful. Toss knows the task 100% also and is coming right thru, stopping quickly, and staying honest on his flanks- all the things he needs to do to hold up his end of the deal. We were working a large flock, so we could get 3-5 sheds per set. I worked on fetching without over flanking with Gwen, as well as assisted drivework. She did well.
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Ivy got a quick turn in the round pen, as did Keele. Both are lovely puppies. I hadn't planned on totting Ivy along on this trip, but she made sure she was not left behind. Once my truck door was open, she was in it. She'd jump when I walked by it, and jump out if I walked away. She was a very good girl today, she tied out just wonderfully, as well as laid by the golf cart on a line very nicely. She is such a love, is becoming a very special pup!

BW Keele 7 months (Cruz X Gwen)





































Just When It's Needed

The kids have been out of school for about 3 weeks and they've been very good. They've kept busy doing lots of different things. Friday night I spent $75 on some new arts and crafts things for them and a new 3 drawer-on-wheels container to put it away in. It was my "thank you" to them for being such good kids in the morning when I'm sleeping. They have also been doing a lot of big-kid stuff this summer like making their own lunches etc... (just several little things I have always done for them- it felt a little weird at first- like I was letting them down- but they're very proud of the things they've been doing) They were in hog-heaven for 3 days making all sorts of things nearly all day with the stuff I found for them. That's the kind of kids they are. They are both very creative and like making their own entertainment. Don't get me wrong, they do their share of video game playing and cartoon watching, but it's really not much. Most days the tv isn't even on until the evening tv time.
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Today was the first day since school's been out that the two of them were kinda at each other most of the day. Just pushing buttons like only siblings can do. I'm going to Carol's today (I need to type quick and then get a few hours sleep!) and decided to call my friend Amy who has 2 boys and see if she would exchange some dog boarding for kid boarding! LOL! They are going out of town for 4 days over the 4th, so their 2 dogs (she has a Deal pup, Sam) are coming here. The boys are very good at Carol's and just make themselves busy with things like they do here at home, but after about 3 hours they're about done being able to be alone together.... again with the sibling thing. Once I have to heavily "mother", the enjoyment of working dogs and hanging out goes down hill real fast. Naturally going to their friends' house with a pool and toys that are "new" is a lot more fun than a field. ;-) So I dropped them off at Amy's on my way to work tonight and will pick them up on my way home from Carol's. It's good to have friends! :-)
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On the 8th the kids and Ben head to the mountains of AZ to visit my parents. Ben will come home after 6 days and the kids are staying for almost 2 more weeks. My Mom is flying to VA with them, staying for just a few days, then flying back. Hopefully the airlines won't be too bad and it won't cost another ticket's worth in baggage check! My Mom keeps saying, pack them light, we can do laundry....
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So that trip will put a well needed change of scenery in their summer break. We'll maybe have time to go do one day-trip somewhere with my Mom- probably to a beach. Maybe to "Ella's" river. :-)