Common Mom

For 83 years! I read this article yesterday in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. This couple has been married for 83 years! Talk about a lifetime commitment!

On our 9th anniversary, Hubby and I got tattoos in the form of an infinity band around our ring fingers.

UPDATED: Due to popular demand - OK, all 2 of you asked, but still - here’s a picture of my infinity band. It’s difficult to take a picture of your own finger and get it focused!

 

He’s a busy pilot and I’m a busy mommy and we’re a busy family - we love the outdoors and sports and recreation and playing. Neither one of us wore our rings much because we didn’t want to beat them up or lose them. So we decided to get the tattoos. And we love ‘em!

On more than one occasion, I’ve been complimented on my ring tattoo. And on more than one occasion I’ve had people say “Wow, THAT’S a real commitment.” Wherein I answer “Yup. It is.” Then I hear “No really, a tattoo is permanent. That’s a total commitment!” To which I answer “Yes, it is. Isn’t that what marriage is? A total lifetime commitment?” To which I usually get no further response.

While I realize that not every marriage makes it, I also would like to believe that there is someone out there for everyone. It just takes some people more tries to find “the one” - my parents are an example. They still love each other, but they are not IN love with each other. I must say that I believe they have each found the right person for them their second (mom) and third (dad) times around.

And I truly believe that Dan and I are perfect for each other. Not only are we husband and wife, we are also best friends with many common interests, and our personalities complement each other very well. I can only hope that we are showing our children how much we love each other and how hard you have to work sometimes to make it. Just saying I Will doesn’t cut it. You actually have to make an effort after the To Have And To Hold part

I have no idea why two mid-30-something-year olds decided it would be a good idea to take snowboarding lessons, but we did it! We loaded up the Jeep and the kids and headed to the mountains last Wednesday evening to hang out in a hotel before our big day. Keira was beside herself with excitement and just HAD to try on her helmet and goggles in the hotel room - while wearing purple heart footie jammies

After a completely restless night of sleep in a tiny bed in a tiny hotel room with a loud and very crappy heater, we all got up bright and early Thursday a.m. to get ready, eat breakfast, and head to the slopes. Jason and Keira KILL me! They both HAD to wear their helmets and goggles in the Jeep “for safety” as they said It WAS snowing afterall, and you never know what could happen

I must say that Breckenridge has the BEST setup for families. We called them and asked where the best place to park would be, and they led us to a lot right across the street from The Village. We walked right in, dropped, the kids off with their instructors, and were off to our lesson. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! It was cloudy and snowing, but really, what can you expect up in the mountains? Here are Dan and I waiting for our instructor, Matt Peacock to show up

I must say that if you ever head to Breckenridge for snowboarding lessons, definitely request Matt Peacock - he was a ton of fun and an AWESOME teacher. We certainly look ready to go, don’t we? Oh ya - we are TOTALLY bundled up - liners in our jackets, 3 layers of clothing, warm snowpants, awesome gloves, fleece gators, helmets, goggles.

After introductions, and discovering that we were by far the oldest people in class (the closest ones were maybe 21 years old . . . the youngest was 14!) we were off to the mountain! We practiced skating first so we could actually get on the lift. Getting on a 6 person lift your first time on a board is a bit of a challenge . . . but not quite as challenging as getting OFF the lift! You can’t skate off because you’ll run into the person next to you; you can’t fall because, well, there’s another chair full of people right behind you waiting to get off - and besides that, the lifties think it’s quite humorous to see the first-timers bite it We DID get off without incident - woo hoo! And headed over to the slope reserved just for snowboarding lessons. How fun! There’s awesome music playing (Green Day - one of my favs!) and the slope is perfect. Here I am learning how to stand up on the snowboard. Think it’s easy? HAHAHAHA! Try again! All I’ve got to say is that I will NEVER have to go to the gym again. All I’m gonna do is strap my feet to a board, sit down, and try to stand up - over and over and over and over. Damn that’s good for the legs and the triceps! But bad for the butt until you figure it out A little tip - bend your friggin’ knees! Here’s me falling back onto my rear because I didn’t bend my knees:

Notice how my hands are nowhere near the ground? Um ya . . . that’s good for the wrists, but NOT so good for the rear! OUCH! 3 days later and I STILL can’t sit!

After figuring out how to stand up and traverse down the hill, you get the privilege of riding the rope back up to the top. Here I am - making it look easy!

But lo and behold, it is NOT easy! First you have to skate fast enough NEXT to the rope to be going as fast as the rope, or a little bit faster. Then you have to grab on to said rope and hold on tight while trying to keep your board straight, with only one foot strapped in. Then you have to make sure to hold the rope up high enough so others can grab on. Then, when someone else grabs on and falls, you have to hold on really tight because they pull the rope down with them, which means YOU go down with them. The lucky few can remain standing during this ordeal - I was not one of the lucky few. Face plant! I did manage to make it up the entire hill on the rope a few times - which I must say is much better than unstrapping and hiking up the hill at 10,000 feet! Oh, and remember all those clothes we were wearing? BIG mistake! Damn we were hot! At lunch I shed a layer of clothing, my coat liner, and my gloves.

While we were practicing, we saw our littlest on the same practice hill. It was pretty cool to see her on the mountian with us! She’s only 5, so she’s in a class with only 2 other kids . . . it’s spendy, but they get a whole day of pretty much private lessons, which is good for ‘em. They also do quite a bit of playing so they don’t hate the mountain their first time out Here she is using her powers to convince Steve, her instructor, that she needed to hold his hand.

Silly boys . . . he didn’t know any better and complied with pretty much her every wish Including when she used her Princess powers to convince him that she couldn’t POSSIBLY carry her own board!

Hey, if she can get away with it, who am I to say anything?

Our class was doing so well that we actually got to board down the green run twice after lunch! It was a ton of fun . . . and a BOATLOAD of work! OMG! We did get proof that we actually succeeded . . . here’s Dan

And here’s me:

I look happy don’t I! That’s cuz we went down as a group the first time and took it nice and slow. After going up the lift again (we were MUCH better at skating by now!) we were kinda on our own to get down the hill practicing. Yeah . . . about 3 minutes after starting I was PISSED! You see, when you’re 35, overweight, and out of shape, your legs tend to get tired after 4 hours of snowboarding . . . and do you know what happens when your legs get tired while you’re practicing connecting your turns on a snowboard? You forget to be patient and let the board to the work . . . and you forget to bend your knees . . . and you catch your heel side edge on the snow and FLY to the snow onto your ass at mach 1 without any time to react! Of course this means that your behind takes a beating, as does your neck and shoulders from getting WHIPLASH from the crazy fall (no, I didn’t actually get whiplash - but thank heaven for helmets!). And then you have to lay there cursing and cursing at yourself and this “stupid friggin’ sport” while some little shits on the lift above you whoop and hollar and tell you the spectacular wipe out earned you an 8 1/2 on their entertainment scale! Then you get up and try again . . . and start feelin’ good about yourself cuz you’ve connected some turns and all is well. Then you catch that heel side edge AGAIN and fall with such force that you think you might actually cause an avalanche! Then you get up lather, rinse, and repeat. And to make you feel oh so much better, while you’re laying there cursing this damned sport and wondering what the hell you were thinking, you hear this teeny tiny little voice yelling “Hi Mommy! Look at my S turns!” Then you look up, scrape the snow off your goggles, and see this . . .

Your 7-year playing follow-the-leader with his instructor - both of them zipping down the hill at mach 1 with absolutely no fear, connecting their turns with ease. Of course I did what any pissed off mother strapped to a piece of fiberglass would do - I reached in my jacket pocket and got out my camera

I must admit that I did NOT make it down the whole hill the second time. After some more great turns and 4 more spectacular wipe outs, my vision was actually a little fuzzy - like that periferal fuzzy you get when a migraine is coming on. So I unstrapped and walked down the last 1/4 of the mountain. Figured it was best for everyone if I didn’t try to board down the rest of the way totally out of control. Besides, at the end of the day, all the other beginners, including the little shits on skis and boards, are heading down, and I really didn’t want to flatten a 5-year old.

We all made it to the bottom, thanked and tipped our WONDERFUL instructors (really, all 3 of my family’s instructors were totally awesome!) and headed home. Here are our used up boards by the Jeep before we left the mountain - Keira’s was just so tiny and cute!

Her board was also snowless The results of our day? Keira’s leg muscles aren’t quite developed enough to actually get in to boarding . . . but she did well on her toe side and did have a lot of fun, which was our goal for her - to get our littlest out on the mountain and liking it. Jason got lucky and had his instructor almost all to himself! He’s in the 7-13 year old group, which can have up to 10 kids in it. But since it was a weekday, he had his instructor to himself for the first hour, and then another boy joined them. So it was a very small class, which meant they got lots of personalized instruction. The result? Jason passed levels 2 and 3! He’s now a level 4 boarder when we go back for our next lessons (there are 9 levels for lessons). Me and Dan? We had a GREAT time - a great anniversary - a great day - a great experience - definitely worth the money. We both passed levels 1 and 2 and will be in level 3 when we take our next lesson.

About Friday? Well, we both woke up a “little” sore - HAHAHAHAHA!!! My butt still hurt, my triceps were killing me from constantly pushing myself up on to the board (which yes, I did figure out how to do after lunch!), my neck and shoulders hurt from crashing to Earth. But really, what can you expect when you’re 35 and decide to take up a new sport?

We loved it . . . we had fun . . . we’ll definitely be going back!

Check here, here, and here to read about our travel to Maui, our meeting with Father Jack, and our wedding ceremony.

We officially began our honeymoon. And what did we do on our first day as Husband and Wife? We spent the day with 4 of our 6 parents. Yup, we actually spent quite a bit of our honeymoon with family, which was perfectly fine with us We had so much fun on our honeymoon . . . we went to Honolulu for the day and saw the Dole Pineapple Plantation and the beautiful sunsets on Waikiki Beachfirst. Here we are at the Dole Planatation:

Dan and I also drove the north shore in our rental car even though it said the contract was void if you did that. The road was so narrow and lots of spots it was one lane. You had to just go for it and hope nobody else was coming. It was kind of funny because we’re driving along this beautiful little road and we look up on the hills above us and there standing on the edge, looking out over the ocean, was a single cow. How lucky he was! We also made the 52 mile 4 hour one way drive to Hana and saw the beautiful black sand beaches and bamboo forest. It of course rained part of that day, but we didn’t mind

We hadn’t planned on it taking quite that long; so we figured we should eat dinner before we left to go back to Kihei. The only place we found that was open was this place that was offering a Valentine’s Buffet for $25. We were so hungry we were willing to pay that price per person! Turns out, it was $25/couple and drinks were included! Add to that the wonderful Hawaiian entertainment and we had a great dinner together. We couldn’t have planned it better if we’d tried.

Our honeymoon also included an awesome day trip of snorkeling and a sunset cocktail cruise to see the whales. Yes, you can see the whales from the road . . . and yes, the tourists DO pull over right on the side of the only 2-lane road in to Kihei, and effectively block traffic for miles, just to see the whales out in the water. They are amazing, but we chose to take a sunset cruise and get a little closer. We really enjoyed the cruise AND the whales

Near the end of our honeymoon, we went to the Old Lahaina Luau with my mom and Tony. We had heard many times from many different people that this was the best Luau in all of Hawaii, so we went for it. We were NOT disapointed!

You of course are given a mai tai the minute you walk in, and the food was amazing - just don’t eat too much poi In the middle of the show, they had everyone who was on their honeymoon or celebrating their anniversary to head down to the beach for a moonlight dance to some great music. It was SOOOOO much fun!

After all that fun and some really awesome food, it was time to head back to the chilly land of the upper midwest and back to reality. We had such an awesome time - I’d totally do it again!

We had a reception a couple weeks after we got back. I don’t have a lot of photos of that, but here is a picture of our fun cake - yes, Mickey and Minnie have again made an appearance

The reception was a lot of fun! We were relaxed and laid back and having a great time. I just can’t imagine how wiped out we would have been if we’d had a big wedding and the reception on the same day. AND, I got to wear my wedding dress twice! How many people get to do that?

Here’s to our Happily Ever After

WHAT ARE WE DOING TODAY?

We are celebrating our anniversary with the kids. Jason didn’t have school today, so I took the day off and we headed up to Breckenridge for a day of snowboarding lessons. Jason had a lesson last year and loved it. So we figured we’d all take one this year. We might as well all learn together as a family, right? Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!

Click here and here to read about our travel to Maui and our meeting with Father Jack

The big day had arrived! February 14, 1996 - the day we were going to get married. We chose this day primarily because it’s somewhat of a family tradition. My maternal Grandparents had gotten married on Valentine’s Day, and my godmother (their oldest daughter) WANTED to get married on Valentine’s Day, but it didn’t work out. Anywho, I really wanted to get married on Valentine’s Day to honor my grandparents. . . . Dan agreed so we did it! And really, what better excuse to get married in Maui? Who would ever want to get married in February in MN?!

Mom and I got up early and headed to get our hair and nails done. We were a little worried because it was cloudy and rainy - February is, afterall, rainy season in Hawaii. The lady doing my hair ASSURED me that by the time our 4:00 wedding rolled around, the sky would be blue and the rainbows would be bright. At 2:00, I wasn’t so sure! It was still cloudy and raining with no end in sight. Did I REALLY go all the way to Hawaii to get married on a beautiful island, only to have to have my pictures taken inside a church, with no sand, ocean, or palm trees in sight?

While Mom and I were getting ready, Dan was off with his family getting ready as well. They’d ventured out to get a Unity candle, the one thing we’d forgotten to get! They found a really fun one - I was happy as a clam with what they chose - a white and blue candle with Mickey and Minnie Mouse on it

After a successful shopping trip to get the candle, Dan figured he’d better start getting ready. He got dressed at the condo in a nice dry room . . . we’ve got TONS of pictures of him getting dressed - including this one, with his Dad helping him out:

 

How many pictures do we have of me getting ready? NONE! And why is that? Because if you remember from the previous post, the library at the church was under construction, so I couldn’t get dressed there. And I didn’t want to put on my dress and then cram it into the back seat of a car for a 30 minute drive so it would get all wrinkled, sooooooo . . . we drove to the church and I got dressed in the parking lot! Yup - I got ready for my wedding while standing in the parking lot of the church. And, it was still raining on and off, so I actually got dressed IN THE CAR! In fact, it was this car . . . as you can see, not really roomy

But it all worked out . . . and, just as 3:30 rolled around and we were getting ready to walk in to the church (I still hadn’t seen Dan), the rain stopped, the clouds broked, and the sun came out - resulting in the most beautiful rainbows you’ve EVER seen! It was PERFECT!

The ceremony was awesome - it was so nice to have such a small intimate ceremony in a beautiful location. We got to really enjoy the big step were taking, rather than worrying about guests and food and flower girls and cake and limousines. And, I think if my Dad had to walk me down the aisle of a big church with lots of people, he might have actually fainted He’s not a real big group type of person!

Here we are during the ceremony. If you look closely, you can see that Father Jack is once again sporting his Burks

My Mom and Dan’s brother Bob are standing in the background. My maid of honor couldn’t make the trip to Hawaii because quite frankly, we’d just graduated from college and nobody had any money. So, my Mom stood up for me at the actual ceremony. It was REALLY special! 

Our singer, Al, is also in the background. He was such a wonderful traditional Hawaiian singer. We had no clue what he was going to sing. We’d talked to him on the phone and he said to just leave it to him because he’d done this many times. He was right - it was BEAUTIFUL! He sang a traditional Hawaiian song, then he sang the Hawaiian Wedding Song in both English and Hawaiian - amazing! We were so happy Here’s a photo of us and Al.

 

Here are me and Dan after the ceremony. This is one of my favorite photos - it’s totally candid and we are so happy!

When we walked outside, it was BEAUTIFUL! You would never had known it had been raining. The sky was beautiful, the ocean was beautiful, and everything was soooo green! Our photographer was hilarious! He owned only a tiny little motorcycle, which wouldn’t start after we left the church. Our videographer didn’t like our photographer, so he refused to give him a ride. As we pulled away in our car to head to a really nice hotel for some pictures, we looked out the back window and saw our photographer pushing his motorcycle down the road trying to pop the clutch and start it. Hilarious! He did get it started and all was well with the world. Here’s a photo of me and Dan on the beach after the ceremony:

After the pictures on the beach, we all headed to the Chart House restaurant for our own little reception. We had our own menu and everything! They made it just for us - it was wonderful. The service was great and the food was amazing! After dinner, we all headed to a local bar/restaurant type place. Our singer, Al, had told us his band was performing there that night, so we went to check it out - we ended up having our own little dance reception. They introduced us and played the Wedding song again for us and everything - it was soooo awesome!

Then off we were to our OWN condo, to spend our first night as husband and wife Check back tomorrow to hear a little bit about our honeymoon.

Check here to read about our uneventful travel to Maui!

On Tuesday, Dan and I got up early and headed in to Kihei to find St. Theresa’s Catholic Church and meet Father Jack. My Mom had worked so hard for the past year trying to plan a Hawaiian wedding on a limited budget, and she did GREAT! We were so happy with everything. When we got to the church, we were so happy. It was a simple little church, but amazingly beautiful. And since it was the Lent, it was decorated beautifully - we didn’t have to do a thing.

 

The meeting went very well. When we’d talked to the church manager on the phone a couple weeks ago prior set up the meeting, we’d asked if we could write our own vows. She said she didn’t think so because Father Jack was very traditional. We were OK with that; so when we got there, we expected to see Father Jack dressed in traditional Catholic Priest Wear. Um, not so. He came out in a white tank top, khaki shorts, and brown Burkenstock sandals. He was SOOOO laid back - it was awesome! We immediately liked him. The only bummer was that they’d had to start doing some rennovations on the library - which is the room where I would normally had gotten ready. But, that wasn’t the end of the world, so we went on our tour of the church and talked about the ceremony. When we told him that Al was going to sing at our wedding, he was very pleased and said Al was awesome and we would love him.

All in all, we left the church very happy. Then we headed to the government office to get our marriage license . . . had to show proof of the blood tests and everything and write down what I wanted my new name to be (it’s got more letters than the alphabet!), and all that jazz.

Off we were to enjoy our last afternoon as fiance’s . . . the weather was beautiful, everyone we were expecting had arrived, and we relaxed and had a nice dinner. Then we were off to our separate condos for the night. Even though we’d lived together for about a 8 months, I stayed with my mom and Dan stayed with his parents.

Check back tomorrow for details on our ceremony!

12 Years ago today, Dan and I joined my Mom and stepdad, Tony, at the airport in Minneapolis. What were we doing there? We were leaving -35 F temperatures (-60 with the windchill!) and heading to beautiful Hawaii! Yup - Dan and I were getting married on Maui Travelling to Maui takes a long time from MN . . . but man was it worth it! We had a slight layover in LA at their “lovely” airport. Here we are waiting patiently for our plane to leave to head across the ocean:

We wanted to make sure I had my dress for the wedding - didn’t want it to get lost travelling - so we dragged that dang thing in a dress bag as a carryon. All the cabin attendants were so nice and more than accommodating when we got on the plane - they offered to hang it with the pilot’s jackets so it would be safe. They were wonderful! 

It was -35 when we left, but we still wore shorts because by golly, we were headed to Hawaii! That was the February that the entire US had weird really cold weather . . . so when we finally got to Hawaii and balmy 65 degree temps, we had to giggle at the Hawaiians working at the open-air airport . . . they were actually wearing parkas! They thought we were the weird ones in shorts and sweatshirts We hung out at the Honolulu airport for a while waiting for our plane to Maui to leave. When we got on that plane, we were 4 of about 15 people total on the plane. The cabin attendant was so nice and brought us a bottle of champagne. Then he sat down in a regular seat by us and said “Here’s the spiel . . . this is a 15 minute flight. I’m the cabin attendant. This is the emergency door. If this plane goes down, grab on to my coat tails because I guarantee you I’ll be the first one out the door!” HAHAHAHAHA!!!

When we got to Maui, we all headed to the rental car counter to get our two vehicles . . . the slight problem was that they wouldn’t let Dan and I rent our car because neither of us were 25 yet! They wanted a HUGE deposit to let us take it with our name on the rental slip. My mom was MAD . . . and really, when my mom is doing “business” you do not want to cross her. She went off telling them how ridiculous it was that Dan could fly $6 million planes, but they won’t let him rent a pice of *^*& rental car. Then she told them that she was going to drive it and that was that . . . then we walked out the door and she gave us the keys I LOVE my mom!

Off to the condo where we got settled and waited for the others to arrive. All in all we had about 20 people at our wedding . . . some family and some friends . . . what a great excuse to leave MN for a week in frigid February!

Check back tomorrow to hear about our first meeting with Father Jack, the priest who was to marry us

Hubby: Hey - does anyone want tea or hot chocolate?

Jason: Yes, please. I’d like some mint tea.

Keira: Oh ya! Can I please have some hot chocolate?

Hubby: Sure.

Jason: Thanks - this is yummy!

Keira: Oh yummy! Thanks for the whipped cream on top! But I can’t see inside. Are the mushrooms in the hot chocolate?

Hubby: Yes, Keira. The marshmallows are in the hot chocolate.

Thanks to Leeann for this meme! It goes perfect with my “theme” week of posts . . . what is the theme you ask? Check back tomorrow to see

What is his name? Dan Phillip

How long have you been together? Together for 16 1/2 years, married 12 years.

How long did you date? 4 1/2 years (We met the summer before I started college . . . I was NOT getting married before I graduated college!)

How old is he? 36 1/2

Who eats more? Depends on what it is. If it’s cake or sweets, definitely me! The dude wouldn’t even eat our wedding cake! If it’s something yummy that he cooked (which he ALWAYS does) probably him. But, if we actually competed, I would most likely win.

Who said I love you first? Ya know, I really don’t remember. Really, now it’s bothering me, because I remember EVERYTHING. But I’m trying to remember this, and I can’t. Hmmmm . . . we’ll call it a “tie” on saying this.

Who is taller? Hubby. By an entire 5 inches . . . he’s a whoppin’ 5′ 7″ Yes, we’re a bit vertically challenged in our house . . . our kids have no chance!

Who can sing better? The dog.

Who is smarter? Hmmmmm . . . we’re pretty much overachieving freaks when it comes to brain power. Flying airplanes? Him. Any sports-related topic? Me. Holding their temper? Him. Driving? Me Raising the kids? We’re both doin’ pretty OK with this one.

Who does the laundry? Both of us. When Hubby is gone flying, it’s me . . . otherwise my kids would go to school naked, and I’m sure that would earn me a call from the DCS. When he’s home, he does it, because quite frankly, I need a break.

Who pays the bills? Hubby.

Who sleeps on the right side? I do . . . cuz I’m always right! HAHAHAHAH! But seriously, when looking at the bed, I do.

Who mows the lawn? Nobody - we don’t have grass. We have a natural yard full of ponderosa pine. But, when we DID have a lawn in our previous life, I mowed. I LOVE mowing the lawn. It means I get to be outside, I get exercise, AND I get the first whiff of that awesome just mowed grass smell.

Who cooks dinner? Both of us. Again, when he’s gone, I really have no choice. I don’t like to do it, though . . . Dan loves to cook and he’s awesome at it. So the kids and I are REALLY happy when he comes home so we can have some real food!

Who drives? Me. 99.9% of the time. See photo at top for proof. I LOVE driving. Dan does not. He’d rather hang out and ride.

Who is more stubborn? Me. Hands down. No question.

Who asked out who first? Hubby asked me. And I turned him down (hey, I was dating someone else at the time!). But we ended up together and the rest is history

Who proposed? Hubby. It was awesome! He flew me to Colorado for spring break. We drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park. He walked out on to a huge boulder overlooking the park and proposed. Here’s the place - except we were on the OTHER side of this big rock . . . about 7 years earlier

 

Big deal since the guy is afraid of heights! He’d written down 10 reasons why we should get married . . . the last one he had printed on a t-shirt that he was wearing . . . it said “Marry Me Fly Free” He’s a good one!

Who had more friends? Probably even . . . we were both very social and had lots of fun in high school and college Heck, we still DO have tons of fun even now that we’re all grown up and have responsibilities and stuff! Here we are getting ready to have fun with some friends last summer:

Who is more sensitive? This is a tough one. Hubby is very sensitive - he’s in tune with pretty much everything that’s going on. Me, I cry at the drop of a hat, or a Hallmark commercial. I didn’t used to be like that . . . it’s amazing what becoming a mother will do to you!

Who has more siblings? Biological or step? Dan has 2 older brothers. I have 1 older brother and 4 younger step-sisters.

Who wears the pants? Both of us . . . I don’t do dresses.

So I wrote a couple weeks ago how Duma HATED the crate. She cried and cried and shook and put her tail between her legs every time we put her in there. So I went and bought her a 4×4 kennel to put in the office. She LOVED it . . . stopped crying, slept through the night - all was right with her world (and my sleep!).

Then the time came when Hubby went back to work and I had to work. Figured if she could go all night without going out, she could make it 3 hours - so I hired the neighbor girl to come over at lunch, let her out to go potty, feed her lunch, and take her on a short walk. Then 3 hours later my dude would come home from school to take Duma out to do her business again.

Apparently, I was wrong. Duma was M-A-D that we left her alone all day, even with the visits from he neighbor. She even peed in her kennel! To try to make that not happen, I boxed in all of her kennel so there was just enough room for her pillow - cuz dogs won’t pee where they sleep, right? Um, wrong again. Yes, I’m a dumbass. The following is what her kennel configuration looked like:

Notice how I so neatly made her “steps” in there. Amazingly, she didn’t jump out on to the futon, but she did let me know EXACTLY how she felt about being cooped up in there all day and EXACTLY how she felt about that crate. Take a close look at the top of the crate:

Hey - at least she didn’t pee on her pillow!

The kennel is now again empty except for her pillow. And after a conversation with the vet, I am working at home a couple more days until Hubby comes home again, then he’ll be home for 2 weeks. And THEN she’ll be big enough that we KNOW she can hold it for 3 hours at a time - and it’ll be back in the slamma for the puppy!

I think the whole men listening but not always hearing what we say is just part of being a man. Case in point - on Sunday, the following conversations occurred between my 7 year old son, me, and Hayden’s mom:

Jason: Hey Mom - can I go see if Hayden can play?
Me: Sure. But I’d like you to not play at our house today.
J: Why?
M: Because Keira needs a nap.
J: We’ll be really quiet.
M: Uh huh . . . I don’t believe you. Especially with the way you guys run around with Duma. Besides, Hayden was over Thursday and Friday after school, and you and Keira had Josh and Katie over all day on Saturday to play. Today, I need a break from having extra kids in the house.
J: OK.

And he’s off . . . and Keira takes a nap . . . and I do laundry and work on updating my Web site and clean the bathrooms and vacuum and dust and scrub the kitchen floor and all is well with the world. 4 hours later, Hayden’s Mom calls (she has 3 boys - 5, 7, and 11).

Me: Hello?
Jolin: Hey Jodie. Bill is going to take the boys bowling and they wanted to know if Jason could go with.
M: Oh thanks for offering, but we have ice skating lessons this afternoon, so he won’t be able to go bowling.

30 minutes later Jason shows up at home.

Jason: Hi Mom. I’m home.
Me: Hey dude. How was Hayden’s house?
J: It was good. We just played a lot and had fun.
M: Cool. Was Hayden bummed he couldn’t come play with Duma today?
J: No. He didn’t even ask. When I got there, Hayden’s Dad answered the door and I asked if Hayden could play. He said sure. Then I told him that I had to play at their house because you needed a break from me.

OMG! No wonder they fed Jason lunch and asked him to go bowling! I can only imagine what they thought . . . I sent my kid to their house and told him he couldn’t come home because I needed a break from him!

Boys.