Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Me and My Shadow

We are pet sitting a neighbor's dog, Saber, for a couple of days this week. It is nice to have a dog in the house again.

Especially one that is fully house trained, is past the puppy stage but still in the young and playful stage. The kids wake up all excited to play with our visitor.

And having him has made one thing once again abundantly clear: I am the Alpha dog of this pack.

Scott could not get Saber to go with him to the bedroom last night, no matter the coaxing. But all I had to do was stand up and walk into the bedroom and Saber followed along and walked right into his crate.

Of course I am the one who feeds him, walks him, and takes him out several times a day. And since I work from home, he spends a lot of time laying on my office floor listening to me chat both to myself and on calls.

However, even when everyone else is home, Saber still follows me around like, well, like a puppy :)

And I mean he follows me everywhere.

When I am cooking dinner.Washing the dishes.He kept me company during my shower the other night.He patiently awaits my attention while I watch TV.
And waits for me to throw a ball while I am on a conference call.
Occasionally he stares pensively out my office window. I think that he is thinking, "I can see my own house right there, so why am I here?"Either that or he is fixated on the squirrels.Of course I love the attention and having a little buddy around to keep me company.

Yep, I think we will have to get another dog of our own this spring.

That way I can keep up my Alpha status.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Parks and Slushies

We enjoyed the beautiful fall day romping around the park under Carolina blue skies.

The kids were having so much fun that I had a hard time getting them motivated to head home. Which is why I resorted to the 'ol "anyone who wants a slushy has to get in the car now!"

They came running and now we all have cold lips and red tongues.

Friday, October 8, 2010

The Beginning of the End.

It has begun.This weekend we will finish putting up wainscot and chair rail in the bathroom and hopefully will finish the final painting as well.
So excited to see this project nearing the end.

Now, who wants to make me some sheer window treatments to swag over the two windows? Anyone? Hello?

Ok, fine. I will work on the window treatments but I will hold off on final pictures until that last piece is complete.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Once Again Around the Ring.

Eliza Grace spent a week of her track out at Trademark Stables horseback riding camp.
Rumor stuck his tongue out at me!
And, not surprisingly, once again she had a wonderful time .

Rumor was not really in a cantering mood on this particular day but she finally got him to get moving, at least for a few seconds.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Cowboy Day!

Will's preschool class has been learning about the wild West for the past couple of weeks.

This past Friday was Cowboy Day.
To say he was excited is a huge understatement.

He picked out (and tried on) his entire outfit a couple of days in advance, bounced out of bed that morning and was dressed in record time.

Personally, I think he is the most handsome cowboy ever!

Yeehaw!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Puddle Jumpers.

Waiting for Daddy to come home.
I wish Target made zebra print galoshes in my size.
Life's too short. Go jump in a puddle!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Obsession.

**FYI: This post was published with full permission from my husband who approved the content within. In other words, he understands that I love him with all of his quirks, just like he loves me with all of mine. Right, Scott? Scott? Hey, honey, can you hear me?
I think my husband has a little obsession.

At first I thought it was just part of his need to be an fairly early adopter of new technology.

Example: a couple of years ago he installed a touch screen in our hallway wall to control lights, music, temperature, etc.
Oh look, a Rush album is playing!
He is still disappointed that I have not helped him design a cooler looking user interface.

I think he should just be happy I let him cut a hole in the wall for the thing. I did, however, insist he add a picture frame around it so it looked more like "art."

I have talked about his techno-geekness in the past. You know, how every couple of months we basically have to reboot our house.

Don't get me wrong, I do not necessarily think this is all a bad thing. At least I know exactly how he spends his money and free time as I see the evidence all over our house.

Recently, however, I have realized that his issue is more than an obsession with just technology in general.

His real obsession is television.

I do not mean he is obsessed with watching television, although we both probably do watch too much TV.

I mean he is obsessed with buying televisions.

An early purchase back
in 1992; floor model
As a child, I had two different televisions in our home from the time I was about 3 to 18. And no, I am not so old that technology did not change much over the years. It did. It's just that my father (and he knows this) was veeerrryyyy tight with money and did not see the need to upgrade along the way.

Scott is also a pretty frugal person. When he does buy his gadgets and toys, he does a lot of research on quality and price and uses sales, coupons, or buys floor models at a greatly reduced price.

Our first big screen rear projection, 2002.
Came with a free Yamaha receiver so it was a must buy.
Sits in our dining room/train room and is known as the Wii TV.
However, his frugality in no way keeps him from the almighty upgrade in television products.

In 17 years of marriage I can count at least TEN different television purchases. That is a new television purchase every 1.7 years!

Compare that to how often we have purchased a couch: twice.

Yes, the TVs are for a couple of different rooms and, yes, he always gets a bargain.

Yes, the same television would have cost twice as much had he purchased it when the technology first arrived and, yes, the picture quality improves with each purchase.

Zenith flat screen, 2005. Started out in our bedroom,
but has since moved to the bathroom when we upgraded in 2008.

But, seriously, I find it little too much.

Our family room 52" Sony 1080p LCD flat screen
purchased in 2009
(floor model, of course)
And this week (drum roll please!), he got that crazed look in his eyes after reading the HH Gregg flyer that gave him early access to an amazing deal on a Samsung 50 inch 720p plasma flat screen that he has been wanting to put in...wait for it....the bedroom.

Bedroom 32 inch 720p LCD, 2008.
Off to be mounted on a wall elsewhere
.
A 50 inch TV mounted on the wall 13 feet from my headboard.

Scott is all, "Oh well, they say that 13 feet is the right distance. Could even go to a 52 inch for that distance." Uh, huh. Riiiight.

The kids lay at the foot of our bed, about 7 feet from the monstrosity, their eyes glazed over in movie heaven where they can actually see the pores on Anakin Skywalker's nose.

I would like to think that this is the last "upgrade" we will see for a while. However I know better.

The newest addition to the family:

Something tells me that this year we will be watching the Super Bowl in bed.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Trains.

Rainy days call for large scale train construction.

It is for this very reason that we commonly call our dining room the "train room."

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Sew & Stuff

Eliza Grace is the craft queen. She loves all kinds of craft kits.

Paint your own sun catcher.

Make your own stepping stone.


Color your own pillow case.


Bead your own necklace.


Paint your own Easter cross.

We have done so many I have lost track.

Last Saturday we bought a couple of Build-A-Bear home kits from Jo-Ann Fabrics. Did you know that September is National Sewing Month? Neither did I.

Anyhoo, the kits were on sale (bonus!) so we got one for both Eliza Grace and her brother and I promised that we would tackle our new projects after church the next day.

Eliza Grace's prayer that night included, "...and Lord Jesus, I cannot wait until after church to make my cute little puppy that Mommy promised that she would help me with." Nice the way she threw in the pseudo-guilt piece to remind me of my commitment.

So after church (I was graciously allowed time to use the bathroom first), we launched into the projects with vigor.

Thankfully the animal heads were pre-sewn otherwise there is no telling how much I would have botched that up. Eyes would have been cattywompus and ears would have likely ended up on the backs of their heads.

Given that I am driven to finish a project but not always driven to read all of the instructions first, I missed the little gem about leaving the (for lack of a better way of saying it) crotch area un-sewn so we could stuff from that area and the whip stitching would be better hidden.

Needless-to-say, Will's bear's arm looks like he has had major surgery after what could have been a shrapnel wound. I call him Franken-Bear. Thankfully, Eliza Grace's looks a little less abused.

Regardless, they both love their own creations very much and we had a great time putting them together.

Will was more into decorating his bear's
visor than actually sewing him up.
Eliza Grace did a great job sewing her puppy.
Will fully embraced the stuffing activity. "The fluff feels all tickle-y!"
Daddy helped stuff, too.
Eliza Grace looks like she is helping her puppy give birth. Perhaps a future as an obstetrician?
Franken-bear lives!
The stuffing makes it look like she is waving. Hi, puppy!
Proud of their own creations.