Ummm...yeah...

So apparently I can't eat cheese...

Pet Names

Pet names are a funny thing. My first dog was a beagle (I think). Her name was Heidi. I was too young to remember if I helped name her or how she got that name. Besides she didn't last for very long. She was hit by a car or something. I have one picture of her and every time I look at it, I want another Beagle. She was so cute...

Later we got the sweetest little springer spaniel mix. We wanted to name her Spot...yes it's true! I think I was only 6 or 7 though and all my siblings were younger. My parents wouldn't let us. So we named her Candy..."because she's so sweet!" We also had a gray and black cat, you know the kind with the stripes. Are those tabbys? Anyway, we named her "Zeba"...like Zebra, but not. Our parents were really nice to let us name our animals I guess.

We also had an orange tabby growing up. We named her "Esther" until we found out she was a HE. But you know what is so sad? We never changed his name....I've always felt bad for Esther. She lived a long full life, but ended up drinking some antifreeze or something. I remember her lying on our front porch unable to move. I just thought she was being a lazy stinker and so I shoved her with my foot trying to get her to move. (See...I still call the poor fellow her!) I feel bad about that to this day. Poor guy was probably in so much pain and there I am kicking the poor thing! We had to put him to sleep.

We also had a Malamute named Nikita...she was one of those purebred types and was really "Princess Nikita the 25th" or something, which is why her name isn't nearly so cool as our others. She had a litter of pups that were ADORABLE.

There was Joe...he didn't last long because he came after Candy. Candy was the best dog ever. She didn't bark or jump, unless someone she didn't know came in the yard. She was the perfect size. And she was quirky. She would sit on our fence and watch the cars drive by...just like a cat! I think they got Joe after I left for college, but he was a stupid dog, according to my dad. I don't know what happened to him.

There was also Dartanian, which I've since learned is totally the wrong way to spell that...he was a CUTE little stinker. He was a yellow lab mix and yes I named him after Chris O'Donnell's character in the The Three Muskateers. I love that movie and he's SO dreamy... I talked my parents into letting me get him. They made me promise I would take care of him. I don't know what happened, but one day he was just gone, with no warning at all. Maybe it was my crazy teenage brain, but I seriously thought I was doing OK. They gave me NO warning..."hey you need to do better with this dog..." Nope, he just disappeared. I was sad and have wanted a yellow lab since then, even though I'm not really a dog person at all.

(Dartanian with Kember)

My parents now own a pair of cats named George and Patsy. My sister's dog is Vince. The birds are Kelley and Gus Gus. We have Koko, which is an Indian name for night.

Princess Madeline the cat was named by Kelley (of course):

I like pet names because they can be so fun. It's not as big a deal as a child's name. Any of you have funny names for your pets?

I can relate

So I have this cute little 5 year old girl that comes to the daycare every day. She is an absolute sweetheart and does really well with the kids most of the time. One day one of the boys was bugging her, probably Tyler....

Anyway, she says to me in the saddest, most frustrated voice: "He's making me CRAZY and I don't wanna be crazy!" It was everything she could do to hold it together and you could see it physically.

Oh honey...I understand where your coming from!

Can any of you relate?

The "fauxhawk"

I always hate to do more than one post on one day because I'm afraid you won't read or comment on my older posts. But I get on a roll and get excited about things I want to blog about and if I don't do it when I think about it...it doesn't usually get done. So read my other posts from the past few days...

So I've tried to do this a few times with Tyler and he doesn't really like it. Last Sunday I got him out of the bath and did this "do":


He looked in the mirror and said "Mom I don't like fauxhawks....I look like an Indian..." Seriously don't know where he made that connection...Peter Pan maybe?

So he ended up with this darling do:
If you know Tyler, this is a little funny because he's such a crazy little tyke. Far from the demure little Church boy he looks like here.

His favorite is "spiky hair", but most days because of mom's lack of initiative, he ends up with whatever he rolls out of bed with. It's sad but true. The other day I was gelling his hair and he asked "is it church day mom?" No son, mom just decided to actually put some effort into life today :)

And finally a recent picture of the cutie pie, Miss Maren. I really need to do an update blog with all the fun things she's doing. She is such an angel though...seriously the best baby in the world...not kidding! Guess I'll go find her and get a little cuddle time in before bed.

I figured it out

Have you ever noticed that a lot of families that have new babies also get new puppies? I always thought people like that were CRAZY! I mean come on...do you know how much work a baby is????

Today I had an epiphany and came up with a theory. I think Dad's sometimes have a harder time connecting with new babies at first. It's not that they don't like them, they just don't get as much joy from just sitting and holding and cuddling with them. At least my husband is like that. He really enjoys it when they get a little older and are more interactive with him. It's not that he doesn't enjoy holding her, but it's just different for dads. Besides that moms are usually doing the feeding and changing, etc. In addition Dad's attention from mom naturally decreases. Not only does Mom have a new baby to adore and dote on, they are also exhausted. The energy they have to put into the marriage relationship takes a dive for a little bit. (Call me a bad wife...but I'm sorry, something's gotta give until you can come up with a new equilibrium...)

So what does Dad do?

Get a new puppy to dote on. Because you see, puppies are interactive from the get go. They are instantly endearing with all their puppiness and you don't have to wait for them to play with you until they get older. Dad now has something to spend his time and attention on while mom takes care of the baby. A dog is, after all, a man's best friend.

Clarification

I don't think the shelters here in Iron County care if you have your dogs outside or not. But since we are looking for a specific type of dog we don't have the selection here to find what we want (at least so far). The two places we have applied were up in SLC....

Rejects

We have been rejected...twice now...

We were trying to adopt a yellow lab. Koko we got from Joey's brother, who couldn't keep her. Our cat was a stray. I think it's the responsible thing to do to adopt a pet, vs buying a new puppy. But apparently we aren't good enough to adopt from a shelter or rescue group. The reason????? We keep our dog outside. Really? You sure?

I know I know....dogs are social creatures, they love to be with their family...blah blah blah...

When I say blah blah, I don't mean that's it's not true. I just mean that I think there are much worse things we could do than keep our dog outside. I think we are very good dog parents. We gave her the WHOLE side yard all to herself. She's not chained or kept in a little dog run. Joey put in grass for her to lay on and a concrete pad to keep her out of the mud. She is out in the bigger part of the yard almost every day (except really cold ones in the winter when no one wants to go outside.) Those days Joey gives her special attention and usually lets her in the house for a bit. But the rest of the time she's out running and playing with the daycare kids. They wear her out like nobody's business. We take her out in the mountains with us and often on trips to grandparents houses. We even do doggie play dates with her friends. Yes...I'm serious. And we're trying to get her a friend because she likes other dogs so much.

Both our dog and cat are "fixed" and current on their shots. We do bring Koko in during the really cold part of the winter. Joey even bought her a heated water bowl. She is a happy well cared for dog. So what gives people? Come on! They are DOGS for crying out loud. I'm sorry, but animals are NOT people too....

Maybe I'm wrong on this too, but it sure seems crueler to crate an animal for 8 hours at night so they can sleep inside with their "pack" than to give them a good shelter, a warm blanket and a friend to cuddle with in the great outdoors. I'm not a dog so I don't know. But I do know this...I don't think the dog or I would be happy if they were inside. I'm just not really a dog person. Joey is the reason we have the dogs and I'm OK with that. Our kids love the animals, we take care of them and everyone is happy. But our house in not big enough for two dogs, especially not a big lab. It's already a mess all of the time and smells funny half of the time because of the daycare. Add two dogs to that and mamma's not a happy camper. And if mamma ain't happy....yep....you know it...

Anyway, so I guess it's a thing with shelters that you have to say you'll keep your dog inside. As a result we've been rejected for the two dogs we've been interested in adopting. It just seems crazy to me that an otherwise good home would be turned away. I mean we aren't perfect by any means....but I'll tell ya what...don't whine to me anymore about the shelters being overrun with animals that no one will take. We would take one if we could! Perhaps we should just tell a little white lie next time....