Be My Friend!

This weekend we noticed our very scary guard dog sitting at the very edge of the fenced in area of our yard.

After a few minutes we realized he was sitting there watching four deer eat, not even ten feet in front of him.

He's so lonely out here he is trying to get the local wildlife to be friends with him.

Good work, buddy.

Good work.

(Better luck next time.)

Cheetah

Clara has decided that we should change Buehrle's name to Cheetah.

This means she now stands there and screams 

"Cheetah!  Cheetah! Cheetah!  Cheetah!"

She yells this over and over and over again at Buehrle who stands there with his head cocked from one side to the other with the most confused look on his face wondering why his most favorite person sounds so damn angry all while wondering what-or-who the hell cheetah is.

Jealous?

I decided to divert her attention with a big old box of rice and some kitchen utensils.

Worked like a charm!

Have a great weekend!

Birdhouse In Your Soul

Right now it is 39 degrees here.  

Clara is working on her riding skills.
Buehrle is very concerned.

It feels like a heat wave. 

Today Clara and I have already cleaned the garage (which the Mister is never allowed to use again), shoveled the drive, worked on her bicycle riding skills and took a 5 mile bike ride around our little town.  

"I did it!  I did it!  I did it!"
Buehrle is still unsure.

And I did all of this while wearing capri pants!

Because sometimes, you just have to attack the damn snow, already.

It is amazing what a little bit of fresh air and Vitamin D can do for your soul.

Happy Humpday!

Snow Dog

Since I chose to live in the Chicago area of the world it is rare that I bitch about the weather.  

From the months of October, November, December, January, February, March and unfortunately most of April we will have bitter cold and winter weather.  

I'm totally okay with this, too.  We are completely stocked with hats, gloves, scarves, snow pants, igloo makers, snow ball makers, sleds etc ect to help get us through the long cold winter.

However, this really is a cruel joke mother nature is playing on us right now.  

There are two times when my kids are pumped to go to school.

• After summer vacation.
• After winter break.

This means I have two kids with severe cabin fever who are itching to go back to school.  

Instead, we are having forced snow days where it is to cold to even go outside and play!  

Oh, and the internet and cable went out.

AAAAGH!

This feels personal, Mother Nature.  

Yesterday was especially brutal.

 Rhiannon was so distraught (upon finding she had no immediate access to the outside world) she said to us, 

"Is this what it was like to live in, like, 1995?"

(Why yes.  Yes it was, Darling.)

 Finally I couldn't take it anymore.
I decided to bring the outdoors in.

You've had a pizza party+snowman building party in the bathtub before, right?  

This is totally normal?

I don't even care.  

This killed about three hours.

The snow was very powdery and not at all good for making snowmen.

Clara did a superb job at misting the snow and took her task very seriously.

(Make it BIGGER mama.  It needs to be BIGGER.  Hold on, hold on.  It needs more misty. There.  That's better. Make it BIGGER mama.  Wait, wait.  More misty...)

TA-DAAAAA!

Almond eyes, (Because who keeps coal in their house?) Candy Cane nose (those carrots are for supper!) and Candy Cane arms (it was way to cold to go looking for sticks.)

She was very proud of her snowman dog.

Buehrle was incredibly suspicious of him....

So I gave him some to eat as a snack.

And then pizza was had by all!

She had a pizza/tea party with her new friend Snow dog for a good 40 minutes afterwards.  

Thankfully, the internet came back on later last night.
(Phew, that was a close one!  Yea instagram and netflix!)

Happy Freaking Snow Day!

Old Love

This dog refused to get out of the middle of our leaf pile yesterday, no matter how many times I threw leaves on top of him.

(He's crazy like that.)

I heard this song in the car yesterday.

It's up there in my top favorites.

Happy Humpday!

Right Next Door

We met the local police-force welcoming committee this past weekend.  

Well, I didn't.  I was off causing lots of debauchery, swinging from the tree tops, acting like a pirate and drinking my weight in booze.

While I was away doing this I left the Mister to his own devices, with Buehrle-dog, at home.  The plan was for him to build an entertainment center, but he soon found out he needed a jig-a-ma-goo thing to do it.

 Since all of his weekend plans were shot he decided to go check out our new local watering holes.

I should stop this story right here to say this:  Drinking and driving is something that just doesn't happen over here--ever!  As adamant as the Mister is against this, you would think he is the head of M.A.D.D., when in fact he is just a very conscious and responsible citizen.

So he walked to the local bar, stayed a few hours and started walking home again.  It was pretty chilly that evening and he was wearing appropriate clothing.  (His brand new hoodie)  Also, we live on the outskirts of town.  There are no sidewalks here, so he was walking right off of the road.  A police car went by, did a u-turn, crept by him, did a u-turn and repeated the process all over again.  The Mister didn't want to get hit, so he stepped off into the grass.  This, he was told, was suspicious behavior.  The officer stopped and asked him what he was doing, the mister told him he was walking home and then the officer made him get in his car.

(He was 4 houses away).  

When they got to our home the Mister said thanks and got out. The officer then got out and questioned how he was associated with the house.  The Mister explained that this is our house a few times, thanked him again for the ride and went in through the back. He then brought Buehrle-dog out to the back yard to play fetch for a bit.  After a few minutes he heard multiple people chatting in the front yard.  He walked out there with our dog to see 4 police cars in front of our house with the flood lights on our front door and officers on out front lawn.  When they saw him walking up one of them immediately reached for their gun while asking if our dog was safe.  In case you don't remember, here is what our vicious dog looks like.....

Seeing how things were all of a sudden ridiculous, the Mister put his hands up and said "down" to Buehrle, who immediately did this.......

And then perhaps looked at the strange men like this......because they then grilled my husband about the "nature of his relationship with the homeowner" and then the nature of his relationship with the house" (what does that even mean?) for OVER A HALF OF AN HOUR!  

I don't know about you, but for me, the fact that he walked into the dark house and then came out of said house with the family dog would have been my first clue that everything was on the up and up.  

Especially since they were going to pull a gun on said mean-scary dog.  

Also, what was he going to do?  Shoot my dog?  I would have every single one of their heads if that happened.  

And what was the reason behind this?  Do they REALLY not have ANYTHING to do on a Saturday night at 2:30 in the morning?  They have to harass the new kids for walking home instead of drinking and driving?

Its a really good thing me and my temper were six hours away while this happened.  This is exactly what I was worried about when we made this move.  

(Hate hate hate small towns.)

HAPPY HUMPDAY!

A Scary Ghost Story

By:  Clara

Once upon a time there was a scary ghost named Rhiannon.  And she would always scare her puppy and she was very mean.  Then, one day, a dragon came and ate the Rhiannon ghost all up!  And he flew away.

The end!

Clara is constantly asking me to tell her ridiculous little stories throughout the day.  This is the story she came up with while "napping" with Buehrle.  I do believe, if I were to keep a baby book, this would be something I would put in it.  Because I don't want to forget this moment.  Ever.  

Have a great weekend!

I wanna hold your hand.

I read this blog post a while ago and now almost everything the wee one in my house does, mentally brings me back to the list.

Take last night, for example.  The Mister and I were jolted from our slumber because of a terrible, ear shattering wail that was coming from Clara's room.  I jumped out of bed and half ran-half stumbled into her room believing that I was going to find something incredibly harrowing. 

Like.........

•  a fire.  
• Or a real life boogie man.  
• Or at the very least, maybe she had an accident and peed the bed.  
• Or had a nightmare and fell out of the bed.  
• Maybe she hit her face in her sleep and her nose was bleeding.  
• Maybe there was a giant spider on the wall.  

All of these terrifying possibilities were running through my head in the 8 seconds it took me to get from my room to hers.

I would have accepted any of these as valid reasons for her screaming.  

However, when I went into her room I found her and the dog both sitting on her bed (much like this, except in the dark),

And she said in a very calm and plain voice, 

"Mama, give me cookies."

  COOKIES, FOLKS.  

That was her reason for waking up an entire city block at 4 in the morning.  

For COOKIES.

I'm going to let you figure out who did NOT get cookies.

Happy Hump Day!

Give a Little Love

Everyone is working on their own journey in this life.
Right now I am trying to work on my lack of patience. 

To be perfectly honest, most days my kids drive me crazy.

Like yesterday.

So I kicked them out.

It seemed to do us all a bit of good!

give a little love by f1394943020

Happy Humpday!

Clara's 3d Birthday

I think Clara probably had the best third birthday any little girl could ask for.  

It all started at 5:30 in the morning when she decided to creep into our room with one of the balloons the "birthday faerie" left her.....And it was nonstop from there on!  Here is a little photo recap.

While the Birthday Girl was eating her breakfast cake I asked her the birthday questions.

(Seriously.  Best pinterest idea ever.)

Some of my favorite answers this year.......

Q. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  

A. Supper.  The kind you (as in me) make.

Q.  What is your favorite animal?

A.  Dragons.  (*bearded)

Q.  What is your favorite Holiday?

A.  I don't care, Mama.

We weren't going to do presents this year (since the kid has way to many toys anyway) BUT the after Christmas clearance sales got the best of me and I caved. 

 She has already taken over 100 pictures with her new camera.  

Over half of them are of Buehrle.

It snowed the entire night before her birthday and The Mister had told Clara the snowfall was her other present.  After she tired of playing with her tent and camera she sweetly came up to us asked if she could 

"go play with her other present?  The snow?"

How could we say no?  So off to sledding it was!

 We went down together a few times.  

Then Clara decided she was big enough to go by herself.  She LOVED it!

After a quick nap it was party time!!!  

This year I decided to have her party at a play cafe.  

I don't know why I haven't done this every year!  
(I didn't have to cook or clean a single thing.) 

The kids had a great time playing with all the toys and houses.  

(A real piano!  And the cutest fire chief you ever saw!)

Of course the day ended with Clara playing the "hiding" game with her best friend in the whole world......

Happy Monday!

Distinguished Old Man Dog

This very distinguished dog (with eyebrows!) would like to wish you a very happy Friday.

He doesn't look to pleased about his new 'do, huh?

If you are in the Chicago region and missed out on going to Zoo Lights (due to the ridiculous new hours,) this is the last weekend it is running!  

Have a fantastic first Friday of the year, Folks!

Merry Christmas

Phew, I sure am glad the world didn't end last night.  

However, instead of cleaning the house and packing the car yesterday I decided to play with my babies all day.  

Because seriously, why would you spend the last day on earth cleaning and packing?  

Unfortunately, that means more work for me today.  

Since Clara decided it is nap time I guess I have run out of excuses and should probably get started.

Quick question:  ....Last night was the first snowfall here in Chicago (Yay!) Buehrle and I took a really long walk in it.  

When we came home he was really stinky.

(You know, like a wet dog.)  

SO how much do you judge people when you see them walking down the street with their dog who is in a raincoat?

Your answer will not change my mind of putting Buehrle in a raincoat.

  I hate wet dog smell.  

I just want to know a round about percentage of public opinion on this subject.

Have a great Holiday!