Doggie adventure

Yesterday I laughed my butt off at our dog.  She is totally nuts.  She's the youngest and smallest of our two dogs but you wouldn't believe it.  She is so bossy.  She is definitely the alpha dog among the dog crews (in our neighborhood, at PetSmart and at the park).   She is so sweet to people though.  For the most part she acts like an angel with hubby and I but she's selfish with her big brother, Gideon.  She doesn't share toys and sometimes doesn't even want to share food.  If Gideon is playing with a toy she'll drop the toy she has and take his from him.  If he reaches for another toy she'll grab that one too.  She's such a mess.  If Gideon decides not to risk it by reaching for another toy, she'll stand over her toy then slowly walk away from it, hoping he'll go for it so she can continue her little cycle of harassing him.

Anyway, the reason for saying all this is so that I can set you up for her little (mis)adventure.  My neighbor has put out one of those lawn sprinklers that are set to come on at a certain time.  They'll also rotate clockwise then counterclockwise.   That little stinker, Eliza, as soon as it came on kept chasing it down.  I'm not sure if she thought it was a toy or what.  She kept running back and forth trying to "grab a hold" of the water but of course this is impossible.  She kept getting sprayed in the face as she chased it, jumping, doing cartwheels, with mouth wide open.  She was so intent on getting it that she didn't even pay attention to my loud laughter on the side.  I'm sure passer's by thought we were both nuts.

So I watched her do this for about 5-7 minutes then decided to finally take her out of her misery.  She finally came over to me after calling her and she was dripping wet and looked disappointed.  It was flipping hilarious.

I tried taking pix with my phone but they came out blurry.  I was too lazy to get my camera to video it but I have to do it one time.  I wish you all could see it.  Eliza is such a meanie to Gideon so I think she deserved it but I felt bad for letting it go on for so long.  I guess it was payback for her. LOL.

Mrs. K

Home alone with the doggies and kitty

Gideon, Me, Eliza

Hubby is working tonight so I'm home with two mischievous dogs and one extremely patient cat.   I get accused of not spending enough time with the doggies which is in reality not just an accusation but a fact.  There are some days when I come home and I don't want to deal with our dog children.  My sweet hubby always fills in on those days.  This makes me wonder how I will be when we have children.  Will I have these days?  If or when I do have them, what will I do? I'm sure it will be different with kids.  I think or at least I hope.

Ok, as you can tell everything has me thinking about children nowadays.  So let me get back to the pets.  

I got home from work today and I was so tempted to be a sluggard but I remembered something my pastor said at church last week and popped out of bed.  I'm sure the dogs would be grateful for his message because I would be still laying in bed.  I'll try to remember to thank my pastor on behalf of my dogs this coming Sunday. 

Before I go any further, I must say that I make reference to the dogs a lot which shows my bias.  I do have a slight preference for our doggies over the cat.  I love kitty too but it's different.   I know I should love all my animal children the same but I don't.

Anyway, when I got the dogs from the backyard they were so happy to see me that they could not control themselves.  We played outside to get off some of that energy then I rinsed off their paws and brought them inside.  They stuck close to me the entire time.  While I was washing the dishes Gideon kept leaning on me.  Eliza was so close to my feet that she was almost sitting on them.  They are so sweet--I love them.  Both dogs give the best "puppy dog face."  They did try to gnaw on Sampson a few times but I had to remind them that he's their brother too.

Sampson seems deep in thought, possibly trying to plan his escape

Eliza does continue to be selfish with the toys and sometimes with the food.  Gideon continues to (play) fight her for my attention or my hand for that matter.  Sampson puts up with them but when he loses his patience (which does NOT happen often) he climbs to the highest point in the house and stays there.  That way he wont be bothered by humans or his dog siblings.  Overall they have all been getting along fairly well lately.

Although hubby was not home with us to enjoy the family time, it was still great.  It was fun to see Gideon and Eliza staring at me while I did my workout video.  They also looked so confused or maybe curious while I was listening to music and breaking it down in the living room.  Life is good!

My husband says I speak most of my patois to the dogs and I believe him.  Tonight, whenever they tried to get in the couch I spoke all patois.  You would have thought you were in Jamaica if you were listening outside my door.  I do this every time I scold them.   I wonder if I will speak patois when I'm disciplining my kids in the future.

So I'm curious about what you guys do.  Do you discipline your kids in another (?native) language or accent?  Do you find yourself resorting back to your native tongue whenever you are upset, tired, or nervous?  I do!

Mrs. K

Pets Part 1: Introduction of the clan

I never thought I would have these emotions for a non-human.  When I was younger, I thought it was strange when people would say they love their pets or have them sleep in their beds or cry over the loss of their furry friend.  This was not because I was heartless. It was just a foreign concept to me for someone to have such deep feelings for a canine or feline or other "non-human species."

You see, growing up in Jamaica although we had several dogs, they were kept outside and we did not interact with them much.  They weren't really pets, they were just there for us to feed.  Their purpose was not for comfort but maybe to protect, ie. barking at visitors.  In the middle of the night when we heard them barking, we knew there was something wrong or at least different because it was not that they wanted food, attention or just to go for a walk.

My husband on the other hand had a different upbringing.  He raised dogs, cats, snakes, rats--you name it, he likely had it as a pet at some point.   He's always had a cat for as long as I can remember.  Anyway, just a few months into our marriage he wanted to get a dog.  I've never seriously considered getting a dog before.  I thought things were great with just the two of us and I didn't want any changes.

I worried about all the added responsibilities we would have.  I thought that we would not be able to travel anymore because we had to stay home with the dog, wouldn't have any money for "stuff" because we would spend all our money on taking care of it.  I did not want to change anything.  I'm a clean freak (as mentioned in previous post) so I worried about not being able to keep a squeaky clean house.

My honey was persistent and not only did he talk about getting a dog, he started talking about babies.  This was very early in our marriage and although I love children and always knew I wanted them I was like "whoa hold up, let's get back to the dog."

So, 7 months into our marriage we got Gideon (our Great Dane).  Wait, I'll back up a bit.  We started to research dogs about 2 months into our marriage.  We debated about small vs. medium dogs.  I wanted a small dog and he wanted a medium dog--so we compromised and got a very LARGE dog.  We thought about getting a Black Russian Terrier but they were too expensive.  We visited a farm that bred Great Danes and we decided to get one but I backed out at the last minute.  What can I say, I got cold feet.  So, we found Gid online months later and purchased him from a breeder in NC.

Gideon K was born in October 2008.  We got him at 9 weeks old and weighing only 10lbs.  I thought he was the most adorable thing ever and I was instantly in love.  He was so soft and cuddly.  The first night we got him, I of course had to give him a bath.  He was so tiny (with the biggest paws); he could not even go up the stairs.  It didn't take long for me to start calling Gid my baby and becoming super protective of him (not knowing that this would be reversed in the future).  We watch him rapidly grow from 10lbs to now 120lbs at 22 months old.

Gid is the best dog ever--more than I could have imagined.  He is sensitive, loving, protective.  Although he is so big he thinks he is a lap dog.  He is great with people and other dogs.  He is good with kids, usually approaching them with caution.  He's a little timid and he's not the best learner but I've read that the breed is like that.  Although we don't allow Gid to sleep with us, we do love him and I have cried when he was hurt or sick.

So, my husband being an animal lover decided to test the waters and request that we get another dog, a friend for Gideon.  Oh, no! I agreed with him that since we both work, Gideon was probably lonely at home.  However, I did not want another dog, at least I thought I didn't.  I came up with tons of excuses: no one will want to dogsit two dogs, more money, dirtier house, blah blah blah.  Basically, Eliza was added to our family as a result of this.  It didn't take too long to convince me the second time around.

We picked up Eliza K from the animal shelter in June 2010.  We went to visit the shelter a few weeks before and fell in love with her.  Someone found her in a Walmart parking lot (of all places) and brought her to the shelter.  They thought she was about 4 months old.  She was so scrawny and weak when we first met her, but yet so sweet.  We could not get her right away because the shelter wanted to get her a little healthier first.

We finally brought her home.  She is the only other female in our family.  Eliza is sweet and adorable.  She can be stubborn and naughty at times.  She is strong-willed and even more protective than Gideon.  At less than 1/3 Gideon's weight, she was bossing him around and seizing his toys.  When we first got her she would growl at Gideon whenever she is eating but we had to break her of this habit.  Now her and Gid are best friends.  They are so sweet to watch.

Ok, my husband would be mad if I didn't talk about our cat.  I've called him my stepcat in previous posts but he is our cat.  I've joked that he is my stepcat because my husband had him for a year before we were married.  His name is Sampson K and he is a Maine Coon.  He weighs over 20lbs and he too is very sweet.  He allows the dogs to man-handle him without retaliating (although sometimes I wish he would retaliate).  Sometimes to get away from the two canine tyrants, he climbs to he highest point in our house and naps there.  Sampson has an interesting personality also.  He wants to be loved on whenever he is ready.  During the summer months we shave him and he hates it.  After being shaved he stays mad at us for a few months and gives us an attitude until his hair grows back.  He is too funny.

So, I hope it's apparent how much our pets mean to us and how much they are a part of our family.  If you told me a few years ago that I would be crying in the vets offfice when told my dog may have bone cancer (thankfully that was not the case) I would not believe you.  Or if you told me that I would want my dogs to sleep with us and that I would I love them so much that I could kiss them, I wouldn't believe you.  Ok, so even though I've thought about the last two things, no matter how much I love my pet family I cannot bring myself to kiss them or sleep with them.  Some things just never change :).

Do  you have any good pet stories?  If you send me a pet story with pics, I will feature it in on my blog on a future post.

Mrs. K

As Eminem says, "I'm cleaning out my closet"

Wooh! I'm still trying to recover from yesterday.  No, I did not go out partying or anything like that.  I did what I call my "end of summer cleaning."  As you know I had a house full of people over the summer, but now it's just me and my honey.

So, going back to my old clean freak routine, I turned on my TV to the Music on Demand channels and listened to music, while dancing around and cleaning.  Am I the only one who does this? A task like this one takes the whole day for me so I try to have fun while doing it.  To list a few of the things I did, I:

1) Washed the dogs: a huge chore.  The toughest part is getting them in the tub, but yesterday wasn't so bad.  Gideon (our Great Dane) just walked in the bathroom and stepped in the tub.  Wow, I was so surprised that it freaked me out.  It's usually a chore getting him in the tub.  He'll go sit on the couch or in his crate because he knows it's difficult for me to move him (he's 120lbs).  Usually after he's in the tub, he gives up and allows me to bathe him. Once Gid was "so fresh and so clean" it was Eliza's (pit-Dane mix) turn.
     
  Thankfully before I tried to scrub off every inch of dirt off her, my husband text me to remind me that she was spayed 3 days ago so she cannot be washed.  Crap, I was so mad.  I had planned on keeping them with me inside all day while I did chores and I wanted them to be clean.  That didn't change my plans too much.  I gave her a "sponge bath" and she was good to go.  Also, I cleaned both their ears with some homemade doggie ear cleaning solution.  They were both so good inside with me all day.  They did give me some funny and confused looks as I was singing and dancing around the house.

2) Laundry: yes, the dreadful laundry.  I think this is my least favorite chore.  I don't mind throwing some clothes in the washing machine and dryer, that's pretty simple.  I hate folding clothes and what I hate even more than doing that is packing them away.

The frustrations of socks being eaten by the dryer monster, me tripping over Eliza with the laundry basket and having to re-fold clothes, not having enough space to store all our clothes (our house does not have enough closet space).   It's a necessary evil and I'm glad it's all done.

3) Cleaning the house in general: now I don't mind doing this.  You name the chore, I likely did it: dusting, vacuuming, sweeping and mopping floors, cleaning the baseboards, changing bedding and curtains, cleaning bathrooms.  I started in the kitchen and worked my way to other areas in the house including, living room, bathrooms and 3 bedrooms.  Noticed I left out closets.

So, I have a confession: no matter how clean the entire house is, the closets in the bedrooms are usually atrocious.  I think that's partly because I can't stand seeing clutter and we have a lot of junk.  So, I stuff all that in the closets--"out of sight, out of mind."  When we move I hope our new house has better closet space and I plan to buy storage containers to help me organize better.  If you have any ideas about where I can find reasonably priced storage containers that are sturdy let me know.  Also, do you have any other organizing tips/ideas?

This is not my closet, I came across this on photobucket--pretty organized, huh?

I was glad to be done and although it took forever, I feel good because now the house is squeaky clean and I can relax.  Also, this will make it a little easier for future cleaning.  As I was cleaning I thought about how it would be even more difficult when we have children.  More laundry, dirtier more disorganized house.  I wonder how I will do it all and still have time to do simple things like feeding my family, making sure the kiddos are not getting into anything harmful, tending to my own personal hygiene.

Also, I'm a little type A personality (well, more than a little) so I like things organized and done a certain way.  I hear that all changes when we have kids.  How do I deal with that?  I picture myself running around crazy with matted hair.  I've heard people say that you shift focus and all those little things won't matter anymore.  Well, what if I'm different and they still matter? Then what?  What do mother's with type A, clean freak personalities like me do?

I have some friends who are done with training and are practicing full time who hire housekeepers.  Others hire nannies who do it all, take care of their children, clean house, make meals, do laundry, etc. My honey is a great help, when he is not on call (he was on call yesterday) but we both will likely be working full time when we have kids.

Do I want to hire a nanny?  Right now, I don't think so.  First, I would feel bad, like I'm letting someone else take over my obligations.  I know I will be paying them but that would be so different from the values I was raised with.  I'm not completely writing it off or bashing it--I'm just considering whether this would be a good option for me.

Also, I am sort of private and that would be weird--someone doing my laundry...but I have undies in there.  LOL. I don't even let my mom do my laundry when she offers.  I guess I'll find out what works best for me when the time comes.  What about you--do you hire help?  Would you hire a nanny that does it all?  What do you do to make chores easier?  Mothers--how do you do it all?  What's your secret? 

Mrs. K