FundyNutter

I’ve made special little Valentine’s day gifts this year for my girls. The finished versions are sweet little doll crib pillows. I spent a fun day and a half with my needle and thread. The embroidery pattern was a freebie from the wonderful artist Gretchen at her blog boulieblog.wordpress.com. She has a few other wonderful freebies just waiting to be used as well as links to her work on etsy et al.

The best part was I had perfectly matching fabric for the ruffle and back of the pillows. My wonderful Krista gave me an envelope of random fabric a few years ago. These peices started as fat quarters and were half gone so I must have used some of it elsewhere. But there was just enough left and the colors couldn’t have been a better match. When I get myself together enough I’ll snap a picture of the finished product and share that too.

We went to a shelter yesterday to meet some nice dogs. We saw their pictures and profiles at adoptadog.com. It was a very modern romance. We showed up, said in nervous, halting voices that we were freshman in the animal world, no experience and with scared kids. But we thought we’d like to meet a doggy called Chicklet who we saw on the internet.

A nice lady with a bit of Sarah Palin about her (cute glasses, pretty smile, persuausive way) said: “Before you go in the big dog room, you really need to see our puppies.” And then she led us gently to the back room where a sweet little mutt of a girl was caring for the sweetest fuzziest two week old puppies you have ever seen.

Needless to say, we were sold. They fit in your hands. They made little cheeping noises like baby birds. They need a month more with their mommy so it gives us some time to get doggy prepped.

The momma doggy is half pug and half rat terrier. So she had some pug features but long legs and a pointier nose. She was about two feet long and a foot and a half tall. The daddy is a chihuahua.

We picked a sweet little boy from the litter. He was the mellowest and the biggest with soft long fur (well, you know, long for a chihuaua/pug/rat terrier.) His fur is dark brown and his nose is nice and flat and puggy and black. He is and exceptionally pretty little mutt. (Just like my own kids.)

Well, after falling in love they offered to let us meet Chicklet. Which we did because we promised the kids we could see lots of dogs.

Chicklet was one of the two dogs in the kennels who wasn’t barking her head off at our entrance. She was nosing the gate and dancing with hope she could get out. They must not have heard that we have barely even touched dogs in our life, so they put a rope lead on her and let us take her outside. Well, first off she piddled with excitement in the kennel. Then she piddled with excitement in the front room (spraying us all.) That put into perspective the “hard work” of training the puppy. Clearly this 6 month old puppy would have plenty of training ahead of her as well.

Now comes the trouble. Chicklet is just a puppy, and a very pretty dalmation/lab mix. She is a smiler with an amazing cheerful personality, so good and sweet. She got off her lead (who can blame her?) but came when I called her and let me put it back on. But she was chock full of energy and would require a ton of regular exercise and well as training. When we came back a shelter worker worked with her on some training while we visted about dogs in general with the staff. Chicklet was so sweet and seemed so much like she wanted to please.

When we brought her back we found Sarah Palin talking to the carpenter from This Old House. He was very nice. And for every single word of praise Plain had had for her puppies the Carpenter had ten for Chicklet. He thought that there was not a better doggy for our girls in the world than Chicklet and any family without a lab was a sorry excuse for a family. He was ridiculously persuasive. We had a very hard time making up our mind.

And for once the promise of instant gratification made us make a wise decision. The wee puppies need a month more with their mommy. But Chicklet would be graciously put in our car and sent home with us today for half the cost of the puppy. Wow. But. In all of our combined lives we have never had a dog. We were not ready to come home with an energetic puppy who needs training RIGHT NOW. So we put our names down for the fat soft puppy who will live inside with us lazy girls and be our little love or our Dear Little Friend, so to speak. We think we will call him Trumpkin.

When I asked which baby would be harder to find a home for they assured me that both the puppies and Chicklet would get homes quickly and that we should choose the dog we wanted and not worry about that. They said none of their dogs were in danger (except the schnauzer who bites everyone who comes close enough and was in isolation.)

So as a final note I highly recommend the Long View Animal shelter for it’s kind, informative staff and its wonderful sweet doggies who are waiting for adoption. Please, if you go there, don’t mention the references to Sarah Palin or the carpenter. I have no idea where their politics or entertainment lie, and as I only meant the comparisons in the nicest of ways I would hate to be insulting.

So…in case you were wondering my big food crime was too bowls of coco crispies with whole milk before dinner time. A huge calorie intake and not too bright for the lactose intolerant as well.  And today?  Well, does it count as a diet no no if you had a coupon? Because I had some really good burger king coupons today.

But in good news, because it is not all disappointment, I am tracking myself and learning what my habits are which is a great step towords hanging them.

I went Mall Walking yesterday. It was in part a tribute to Kath Day but much more because when your “baby” is closing in on the big “0-3″ it is time to put some effort into the whole loosing the last 15 pounds thing.

Norah was in school so I had a good three hours and a stroller. I walked fast–real fast. And about half way through my planned hour of exercise I was overwhelmed by how remarkably dull it is to walk in the mall. And even though it felt good to get movin’, endorphins and all that rot, I was very bummed. If I want to actually see some results I will have to do it again and again. And again. And really, if exercise is going to be a part of your healthy lifestyle you just have to keep doing it forever. Lame.

In the nearish future there will be nicer weather and the kiddo and I can go walk the water front. That is a lot prettier. Though remarkably, walking nowhere with no end in mind is boring even when it is pretty. I have two days of pres-school for speedy mall walking a week. I know, I know, you have to work out way more than two days to stay alive. So the other days I have resolved to do a little wiggles and baby groovin’. They are the closest things to exercise videos I have here. It isn’t a hard core work out but a hard core work out would probably kill me right now.

Magazines are all saying that you need to keep a food journal to loose weight too. Blech. I did that yesterday. Do you know many calories are in half a pan of rice crispy treats? Seriously. I hit my calorie needs by 11 yesterday morning. Such is life. Today is another day. Blah blah blah. If I don’t die of boredom at the mall this afternoon I’ll pop back in and tell you what food atrocity I commit today.

It’s taken seven years, but I finally came up with a dinner so atrocious I really am ashamed to be using the energy resources to cook it. It smells bad, it looks funny. I can’t actually imagine eating it in the next twenty minutes.

It started out innocently enough. I have leftover turkey. And, um, cabbage. And some sausage in the freezer. I got to thinking how a nice smokey polish sausage would be tasty mixed with some leftover turkey. But what to do with it? The cabbage suggested kraut burgers to me. So…

I mixed the dough, I chopped the cabbage. I pulled the sausage out of the freezer. My gaze fell to the label. Italian sausage. Shoot. I knew immediately it would taste terrible with cabbage and turkey. But the dough was already rising. And maybe…? Well, no. I chopped the turkey and the sausage way too fine so it had a disgusting similarity to dog food. I browned the sausage and added the cabbage. The fumes filled the kitchen. It made my stomach turn. I thought perhaps it would taste better than it smelled. It didn’t.

So what did I do? I rolled out the dough, filled it with, well, sludge, and added some cheddar cheese. It wasn’t my first mistake, but I know in my heart it won’t help.

The cabbage/sausage/turkey combo had a bit of a Chinese food taste too it, had I been bold I could have added sesame oil and a little hoisin sauce and maybe salvaged it. But that doesn’t go with yeasty rolls, now does it? So I added cheddar cheese. Because while cheddar cheese doesn’t go with Chinese food it does go with yeasty bread rolls.

Like I said, my stomach turns thinking about eating this and my head aches at the thought of even trying to feed it to my kids. I have a bit of sahm guilt also–this is the best I could do for my poor beleaguerd husband who spent the day embalming and soothing sad people? Really? Barf Rolls? Well, now you are in on it too. Just try to enjoy the delicious and healthy food you are eating right now while thinking the words “Barf Rolls.”

I have been searching relentlessly for dogs with just the right personality and qualities to fit in our home. I’ve narrowed it down to two (for the moment). Right now I love the Boston Terrier which is so very doggy looking. He lives inside mostly and is very companionable. He likes to play and will enjoy our big yard but is small enough to live in the house, safe from the neighbors big bully. His grooming needs are minimal and he doesn’t have a reputation for destroying everything in sight.

The other idea is a Whippet. He’s not so classic doggy but has a beautiful smile, he is a cuddly lover who has to live inside but loves to run and play outside. He’s also small enough in size that he will be comfy in our little house and won’t eat us our of house and home.

Of course Lucy has a terrible fear of dogs and insists we can only get a white dog. Hmmm…that would eliminate the Boston Terrier and the Whippet.

So the search continues. We may end up with a doggy that is not white and Lucy will learn to love him anyway or we may find the perfect as yet undiscovered dog.

And as anyone as cheap as I am is bound to do, we will be hunting rescue homes and shelters for dogs that are good with small children and have at least some of our hoped for breed in them.

We’ve been spinning is circles this past year trying to decide things about our family. The four basic options seemed to be–maintain status quo, have a baby, adopt a baby, or get a dog.

The most emotionally rewarding option (for the missionary minded, Florence Nightingale type) was to adopt. We took classes, filled out mountains of papers, and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the thing to do at this moment.

But wanting to keep adoption something that we could do in the future means we won’t be having a baby. There are only so many plane tickets to Kansas we can afford each year, after all. And I’m okay with that. Although, at times this year having a baby seemed like the thing to do (mostly because a happy accident would sort of make the decision for us) despite my save the world tendencies. Now, after our year of searching and contemplating I really am ready to move past the baby making phase of life, in the permanent sense. (We’ll make a Dr appointment for the husband I think.)

That leaves status quo and get a dog.

I like the way things are, we are a nice family. But the kids and I need something smaller than us to take care of and love. We need to bond with something little and dependent.

We need a dog.

So, I’m a stay at home mom. We have a very big yard. I’ve never trained a pet before. The neighbor’s dog looks mean and gets into our yard sometimes. It rains a lot here. Our house is kind of small. I like affectionate animals.

What dog would you recommend?