Common Mom

FINALLY! Whew . . . I can’t believe I made it . . .

Last Saturday was another “beautiful” day for spring soccer in the Rockies. Dude is wearing a rain jacket under his jersey; however, it could have been a t-shirt or parka at any time . . . we had snow, rain, sunshine so warm that everyone took off their jackets, and then hail, all in the course of a one-hour game. Here’s dude playing in the hail

After the soccer game, the kids and I cruised to a birthday party with Queen Taunya. Then we headed back home to set up for Hubby’s birthday party - about 20 people came over to grill out and celebrate with us. A good time was had by all!

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Mother’s Day was great! Jason just couldn’t wait for me to wake up. The minute my eyes opened, he ran out to the living room and came back with a handwritten menu from his restaurant - Chef’s Choice. I’ve eaten there before - it’s very good! All kinds of good things were on his menu - eggs, waffuls, blueberry muffens, pancaks, milk, oringe juce, white grap juce, sasage, bakun - and of course all of it was free for Mother’s Day He even brought in a little ordering pad on a tray so he could take my order in bed. Here he is making my muffins:

Keira came to help out later. She was still sleeping after a late night partying at Dad’s party - and you do NOT want to wake that sleeping giant! Anyway - I love that he’s wearing his apron, and you can see his ordering tray right in front there - yes, he’s conveniently covered up the princess on it

We had a great breakfast! Hubby had to go to work (boo hoo), so the kids played outside all day while I tried to get some work done. Jason informed me that he and Keira were taking me out to dinner, so we cleaned up a bit and headed to BW3 . . . one of my favorite places, and surprisingly (um, not!) not full of Mothers on Mother’s Day We had a wonderful meal and Jason and Keira even paid with the money Hubby had slipped them. Jason realized we had enough left over for ice cream, so off to Maggie Moo’s we went - yummy! A great Mother’s Day!

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Then Monday came - and back to work. The sleeping giant was N-A-S-T-Y! But we got out the door. Right after school we took Duma on a quick walk, packed some lunches for dinner, and headed off to my volleyball match. It was the last match of the season - we won!!! Yeah!!! But, alas, volleyball is over until next fall.

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Tuesday came and was another wonderful day getting Princess out the door. I have no idea what her problem is this week, but if she doesn’t fix it, she’s gonna be grounded for the rest of summer - sheesh! Miserable to live with that one is right now! I had a haircut after work, so again, rushed home, grabbed the kids, and ran to the haircut. Dinner, playing with dog, and rushing to bed ensued.

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Wednesday rolled around a bit too early as always. Dude missed the bus - partly because he was messing around and partly because Princess was being a nightmare and wouldn’t let him brush his teeth. So we take Dude to school, drop Duma off at doggy daycare, and take Keira to school. At approximately 12:00 noon, a sigh of relief was heard from my cube - the house cleaners had arrived at my house and I could feel it from 15 miles away! My wonderful MIL has gotten me a house cleaner once a month for the rest of the year - am I the luckiest person or what?! That’s why I took Duma to doggy daycare - so the ladies could have their way with my house. Soooo nice to come home to a clean house! At lunch I ran to the grocery store and got ingredients to make 8 chicken pot pies with. Dine in Divas is this weekend and Wednesday was my only “free” night to make them. So I stuffed the groceries in the fridge at work (sorry everyone!). Picked up Princess, went home and started making chicken pot pies, picked up Duma, ran through McD’s for dinner, and finished making pot pies around 8:30 p.m. Whew!

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Thursday finally rolled around and it was back to work! Nothing new there - lunch with some ex coworkers was a lot of fun! Pick up Princess, head home, kids head out to play while I box up books and posters to ship for Hubby. The kids thought it would be fun to make a water park in our back yard - a waterpark for lego men that is. We have no grass. So water and our yard makes - mud - and lots of it. Duma, who had just had a bath at doggy daycare Wednesday and was squeaky clean, decided to play with them. The result?

Um ya - you can tell how deep the mud was by the line on her nose If she didn’t look so friggin’ funny I woulda been mad! She was hilarious - it’s like she’s never seen mud before, and actually - maybe she hasn’t! She would dig in the puddle and dig and dig and dig - then she’d stick her nose in it - then she’d stand there and stare with her head cocked to the side, wondering why she couldn’t dig a hole like in other places of the yard - this hole kept mysteriously filling up with water! Thankfully, she’s a lab and water-resistent - so I made her stay out there to dry off so the dirt would just flake off of her fur.

Off to soccer practice after dinner and back home by 7:30 p.m. for jammies, homework, an bed.

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Friday is finally upon us . . . work, soccer practice, and RELAXING after that. Our last week of soccer is tomorrow - kind of a bummer - we’re having so much fun with it this season! But, after that do you know what we have going? N-O-T-H-I-N-G! Really, volleyball and soccer are over, we’re taking a break from gymnastics, and baseball doesn’t start until June 11. So until June 11th, we have not one single solitary weekly commitment on our calendar - a first in, well, ever - I’ve always played volleyball or softball and the kids have had gymnastics and stuff. But nothing until June 11th. We are all SO excited.

So - the week in a nutshell. Next week I get to chaperone Dude’s field trip and pack for our trip to The Black Hills over Memorial Day Weekend. Fun times ahead!!!

Happy weekend to everyone!

As Princess and I pull into the driveway yesterday, Dude is out front with Duma on the leash, just like every other day. I get out of the Jeep and he says “Hi Mom! Duma has a bone in her mouth and it has meat on it and I can’t get it out of her mouth.”

So I get out of the Jeep and command Duma to drop it . . . blank stare . . . whatever it is that she has must be good, because 99% of the time she listens to me. So I reach into her mouth to get it out - I grab a hold and almost have it out, but she gets it away from me. Usually she’ll just let it go, but not this time, she kept trying to keep it in her mouth. So I went in the house to put down my stuff so I could grab her mouth with both hands . . . and when I came out I saw “it” hanging half way out of her mouth. What did I see?

Whiskers, two tiny buck teeth, one teeny tiny black nose, and two beedy black eyes!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH ICK YUCK EWWWWW ACK GROOSSSSSSS OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!

So I go in the house and get an old towel that I obviously have no plans of ever using again and reach into her mouth with it to pull out “the head” - and attached to the head was about half the body bone . . . the rest, gone. One can only assume momma fox was out hunting for the babies that live under the neighbor’s driveway and decided that decapitating this wonderful little rodent was a good idea.

Dude and I washed our hands a gazillion times with hot boiling water, soap, and a scrub brush. And now, I think I need to go wash my hands again . . . YUCK!

Or should I say “Duma will play, while the Mom’s away.” I guess I wasn’t really “away” - just away in the other bathroom taking a shower. I came out to the hallway to find this . . .

 

I decided it would be a good idea to turn on the light and check it out . . . wasn’t too bad . . .

I went to scold the kids for not watching the puppy  get a trash bag to put the paper in. When I came back, I found this innocent little thing:

“What?! I have no idea who did this!”

It’s Mommy’s Brain is Mush Friday!

This morning, Keira decided to throw an absolute fit because I wouldn’t get her heavy winter coat out of the closet to wear to take Jason to the bus stop. It’s 50 degrees out people! Apparently her medium weight one that she already had on her body just wasn’t gonna cut it. So she screamed and cried and yelled the entire way to the bus stop, and I’m sure she woke up every neighbor who might have been sleeping. On the way back home, she was freaking out because she was freezing to death . . . she couldn’t possibly go on with the medium weight coat she was cuddled up in. Half way up the hill I told her to walk faster and she’d warm up. Of course that was not possible. So she continued to complain. Then I asked her what I could possibly do to help her at this exact moment - she said “I don’t know. Nothing!” My response - Suck it up, deal with it, and get home.  Whine whine whine cry cry cry scream scream scream. So when we got back home, I sent her to her room for the 20 minutes before we had to leave to take her to school.

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Apparently while she was in her room, she taught herself how to tie her shoes. I’ve been working with her on and off for a while now, but (bad mommy!) we just haven’t spent enough time on it. I told her it was time to go so she ran downstairs to get her shoes on. I took Duma out for her last potty break and walked back in to the mud room to help her tie her shoes. But, um, there she was, sitting on the floor, with one shoe tied perfectly and tight (woo hoo - my 7 year old still won’t tie his laces tight enough so they last more than 5 mintues!) and she was working on the second shoe. I told her how awesome it was and she was so proud . . . “Now I don’t have to ask you or Daddy or Jason or Ms. Lupita or Ms. Amy or anyone for help. I can do it all by myself!”

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Jason has a music program tonight - at least I think so. He got a flyer sent home in the middle of January that said the 2nd grade music program would be February 29th at 6:30 p.m. Being the keeper of the Mommy Calendar, I wrote it down immediately. Wednesday I asked Jason to find out what time we had to be there and where he was supposed to meet his class. He came home and said “We’re supposed to meet in Mr. Krich’s room at 2:30 and he’ll take us to the cafetorium.” Um, Dude? 2:30? That sounds like it’s for your practice. He gets this weird look on his face . . . oh ya, you’re right. That’s for practice tomorrow afternoon.

So, he comes home Thursday after school and says that we need to be there at 6:10 and meet in Mr. Krich’s room (Mr. Krich is his teacher). Groovy I say. Then he says “Well, we better eat dinner and get going so we’re not late.” Um, WHAT?! Dude, it’s only Thursday. The program is tomorrow. He says “Oh nope - it’s today. Miss Erickson said it was today.” I’m like Dude . . . we have a birthday party tonight and Duma’s puppy kindergarten class . . . and the calendar says it’s tomorrow. Are you SURE she said tonight? He thinks about it for a while then says “No. I’m sure she said the 29th. So it must be tomorrow.” He called a friend to make sure - but the friend wasn’t sure.

So, we’ll see if we show up tonight with cupcakes in hand and find an empty cafetorium! I may end up being the bad mommy who’s kid misses his first music class performance! And he even had a special line to say!

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Tomorrow it’s supposed to be 70 degrees here! WOO HOO! I’m an outdoor freak - so I’m sure we’ll go hiking or bike riding or something . . . or maybe we should clean the garage or build Duma’s outdoor kennel or rake pine needles in the backyard to get rid of Duma’s poo poo . . . or maybe we’ll just stick to the hiking plan Really, as long as we’re outside, I don’t care WHAT we do!

We’re also going to the Air Force Academy hockey game with some friends tomorrow night. It’s their last home game . . . should be a blast!

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On Sunday, it’s supposed to get back to “normal” and be 30 with snow . . . so we’re getting up at dark:30 to head up to the mountains to try our hand (um, legs?) at snowboarding again. No lessons this time - we’re just gonna go practice. Well, at least Dan, Jason, and I are. Keira is going to take a skiing lesson. She’s a bit too small for snowboarding, so she wanted to try skiing, which is just fine with me. We’d have to do something with her all day, so she might as well be out on the mountain having fun in the snow I’m sure after being out until 10:00 p.m. Saturday night, and getting dragged out of bed at 0-dark-30 on Sunday morning, the kids will be a joy about half way through the afternoon . . . that’s the price ya pay for some fun, man! At least we’ll be home early enough Sunday to order pizza for dinner and relax before heading to bed to start a new week.

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What do YOU have going on this weekend?

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!

How is it that a tiny little puppy can be outside with you for 15 minutes, poop and pee in every place possible in the yard, yet 5 minutes later decide she just CAN’T wait to go again and has to pee on the floor?

Life with Duma is fun But I’m a total zombie because quite frankly, having a puppy is WORSE than having a baby in the house.

Babies - feed them a bottle and they go in to that milk coma and take a nice long nap.
Puppies - feed them a meal and they become something akin to the Tazmanian Devil. Not so much fun when you’re house training and HAVE to have them in your sights at all times.

Babies - are toothless when they are born and even though they like to put things in their mouth, they can’t bite.
Puppies - come with a bunch of tiny needles attached to their gums! They especially like to chew on little fingers and antique rocking chairs. (I immediately moved the chair downstairs to the guest room - that thing is NOT getting ruined!)

Babies - stiffen, turn red, and pee and poop in their diaper.
Puppies - get up, walk around the room 3 times, sniff everything except their own behind, turn in 3 circles, then sit down - psych! They let you take them outside anyway, and they just sit there and stare at you like you’re crazy for making them freeze their paws off in -5 degrees. They oblige by peeing a bit so you’ll take them back inside. 10 minutes later, without any warning, they squat and do their business.

Babies - lay on the floor on a blanket and love it when you lay next to them and talk to them.
Puppies - lay on the floor on a blanket and love it when you lay next to them and talk to them, because that’s the signal that they can jump on your head, bite your hair, and try to run down the hall with you in tow.

Babies - wake up at night because they’re hungry or have a messy diaper. You walk across the hall into a warm bedroom, pick up a warm cuddly baby, change its diaper, feed it, put it back in bed, and walk back across the hall to your warm bed.
Puppies - wake up at night because they have to go potty. You get out of bed, walk down the hall, down 2 flights of stairs, into the office, pry open a kennel door, try to wrestle a collar on a 13 pound ball of fire, stuff your bare feet in snow boots, put on a flannel jacket, head outside in to 2 feet of snow and -10 degree temperatures, and follow your dog around the yard for 10 minutes until she finds EXACTLY the right spot to go potty while you keep an eye out for coyotes and the occasional mountain lion. Then you high tail it into the house, wrestle said puppy back in to the kennel, and race upstairs to your own bathroom because cold weather is not a good thing for a full bladder.

Ahhhh - good times, good times.

Duma hated her crate, so I bought her a 4×4 kennel. Unfortunately, the kids have thumbs and can open the door

Guess I’ll have to keep payin’ the sitter.

Happy Thursday!

Last May, we had to put our first “child” Maggie down We were soooo sad, and still miss her every day.

But, last Friday, we finally found a new family member. We got to pick her from a litter of 9 pups . . . 7 female! It was tough to choose just one, but we did it - we wanted a female, so that disqualified 2 right away. Duma actually chose Dan . . . she ran up to him the minute we walked in (this was our second trip to this home to see the litter and the second time Duma pounced into Dan’s arms) and he never let her out of his site. Here’s Duma with Dan, Jason, Keira, and some of her siblings.

 

Wondering where the name Duma came from? There’s a movie called Duma. It’s about a boy and a cheetah. We were watching it and we all kind of thought it was a good name for a dog. Duma means “cheetah” in Swahili.

Anywho - the people we got Duma from were soooo nice! Duma’s mother, Mandy, is a 1 1/2 year old hunting yellow lab. Duma’s dad is a 2 year old field lab - so lots of brains in the family. The litter owners asked us to come in to the house to meet Mandy again and let Mandy see Duma one more time before we left. This gave us the perfect opportunity to rub a teddy bear on Mandy so Duma could have it in her kennel. Here’s Mandy, Duma, and Dan.

Duma was NOT fond of the car ride home, but she did great once we got here. She was a bit timid, but did enjoy herself once she started poking around the house. It’s probably the first time she’s ever felt carpet! Jason and Keira were in love with her from the first minute.

She’s such a sweet puppy. She’s very playful! It’s so funny how she’s just playing and playing then stops mid-jump and lays down to rest.

Keira would much rather have had a baby sister than a baby puppy, but she’s adjusting well. I give her 48 hours until she’s pushing Duma around in one of her doll strollers!

Duma got worn out pretty quickly from all the stress of leaving her family and figuring out a new place. Didn’t take her long to settle in and take a nap!

I had an old scrap of fleece from some blankets and hats I’d made for some friends who were having babies. It was the perfect size for Duma. Duma has already adopted it as her own.

Duma was so good and quiet the first night in her crate. She didn’t cry at all. I got up every couple of hours to take her out to go potty - she did very well! But, since she was sleeping every time I came down to get her, we decided to go every 4 hours the 2nd night. Oh MAN did her mood change night #2! She cried all - night - long. No need to set an alarm, that’s for sure! She was great during the day - she’s had a couple of accidents, but it’s been our fault for not having her in our sights constantly. We need to be 100% diligent with this potty training thing - I’m hoping in a few weeks she’ll be totally trained - wishful thinking? I guess we’ll see

At this moment she’s sleeping quietly in her crate . . . I’m hoping we’ll have a repeat of night #1 and not another night #2 . . . but I’m expecting a night #2!

Wish us luck with our new family member! We’re so excited to have her in our house . . . she’s already a total furball of fun