Oh wow, the holidays got the best of me this year and I’ve been pretty quiet all over the internet these past 2 or 3 weeks and now back to the regular day in schedule starts tomorrow.  I can’t wait.  Really.  I need my regular routine back or I might run away.

I hope you all had a great New Year and wonderful holiday season.  We were lucky enough to spend ours with family and friends.  We went to NY for a few days after Christmas and I got to see most of my family.  We brought Frosty and Dewey with us.  We thought we would have issues with Frosty but he was a gem.  I almost left Dewey back in NY, the little bastard has some major separation anxiety. We will be giving him a major attitude adjustment this year.

After our trip to NY, we found ourselves sick.  Some god awful stomach virus was/is going around.  That wrecked havoc for a few days and we’re both still not feeling 100%.  Our New Years Eve/Day was quiet. We napped a lot! I love napping  

Not to bring this whole update down, but over the New Years holiday our two nieces lost their mom to cancer.  We all knew it was coming but that somehow doesn’t always make it easier.  I don’t know.  I wish life made more sense sometimes.  eh.

Yesterday we drove down to South Carolina and met up with my mom.  her 14 year old dachshund is vacationing with us while my mom goes on a cruise.  Trudy is a doll.  And she’s been trying very patiently to put up with my two crazy puppies.  They will try desperately to play with her and all she wants to do is nap all day long.  Today will be her first full day and I can tell it’s going to be easy.  All she does is sleep and occasionally eat.  I’ve yet to hear her bark or make any sound other than snoring.  Sean has totally fallen in love with her.  There is no way my mom would give her up though and really, our pet quota is full.  Not that I’m complaining, I knew what I signed up for when we decided to get another puppy.  At least this time, I know there is an end in sight.  While Dewey has his separation anxiety, he is a wonderful and loyal dog.  I didn’t realize how grown up he was until Frosty came along. 

Anyway make any New Years resolutions?

I’ve decided this year to make “Promises to Myself” instead of resolutions.  I’ve never been into resolutions and “making a promise” sounds so much more doable.  I’m actually excited about it.

This morning I woke up to the sound of little whimpers.  The puppy was ready to start the day.  As I go down the stairs, I hear the stirrings of some of the other furry creatures living here.  Misty greeted me with a big meow and rubbed against my legs, as I stood near the back door getting Frosty’s harness and leash attached to his wiggly body.  By the time I have everything hooked up, Windy is sitting patiently in front of the door, waiting for her chance to escape.  She is the only one that wants to go outside and occasionally we’ll put her on a leash and walk her in the backyard.  She loves it.

When I get outside I notice that the ground is wet and there is a layer of frost over everything, giving the entire yard a wintry feel.  And under Frosty’s paws, he felt a wetness that meant: “I WILL NOT POOP ON THIS!”  because apparently pooping on anything that is wet is WRONG WRONG WRONG!  He hasn’t told me exactly what makes it so wrong but trust me, I know it must be wrong by the mountains of shit I’ve cleaned up in his crate and on the floor.  Once it dries up though, he’ll do his business outside like a champ.  We’re waiting…

Since Frosty refused to go, I brought him back in and put him right back into his crate. Now that the dogs have been taken care of, the trio of kitties start to meow.  Meow and rub and meow and rub.  This morning it was only Misty and Windy.  Which I thought was pretty odd, since The Chub (aka Twister) wants food constantly and if I left the food out all day long he would gorge himself.  I thought maybe The Chub had a rough night and might still be sleeping (he tends to party hard!).  So I start to put up a pot of coffee when I hear this scratching noise.  Then Dewey started to freak out at the pantry door.  Then I saw a little paw come out from under the door and when I opened it, The Chub squinted his eyes and let out a huge purr-meow (that’s what I call it.  I don’t know what it is and my other cats do not do it but he can purr/meow at the same time, making this really strange and almost humming like noise)  and then jumped out into the kitchen, where he joined the other two cats for their morning sing-a-long. 

Twister getting stuck in the pantry is cute and all but it could have turned out badly.  He was laying on a gigantic pile of grocery store plastic bags, that I store on the floor in there.  He could have suffocated or he could have gotten into some of the food as well.  I’m so thankful that nothing happened.  And we will definitely be doing a head count before bed every night from now on.

I’m sitting here now, enjoying my first cup of coffee…Twister is sleeping right under my feet and Dewey is laying to my left nibbling on his stuffed sheep.  Frosty has passed out in his crate and Windy is snoozing on the back of the couch, in her regular spot. Of course, Misty is nowhere to be found, though if I had to bet, I’d say she is up in the kitty room hanging out in the cat tower.  The Crazy has been replaced by a quiet peacefulness.  The house is so still, I’m almost tempted to go back to bed. 

I have cleaned up poop, pee and vomit this morning…all before 8am.

Who says we don’t have kids? 

No, really.  I’m not dragging because I didn’t finish Nablopomo.  I’m happy with how I did.  I didn’t fall apart until last weekend during the girlfriend getaway. Then the new puppy arrived, followed quickly by Thanksgiving weekend, where there was a lot of family in town.  Before all that craziness, I was going at a steady pace.  I might just try to do this again here as well as here during the month of December. 

I’m also thrilled to get back into a routine.  While I love taking time off, I feel better having everything all organized and time allotted for all the things I need to do.  So even today, after a long long weekend, Happy Monday!   

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I had every intention on getting home relatively early yesterday and sharing the secret.  But clearly that didn’t happen.  I hit rain on the way home.  A lot of rain.  And I don’t necessarily do well with rain, so I didn’t get in until 8pm and by the time the truck was unpacked and we had some dinner and hung out with our ”secret”, I passed out.  Only to be woken up again at 3:30am by the same ”secret” and again at 7:30am.  However, the ”secret” is totally worth it.

So here he is!  All 4 pounds of him.  He’s a Miniature Australian Shepherd, like the Dew. They call him a Red Tri, whereas Dew is a Black Tri.  He doesn’t have a name yet.  I really have no idea what to name him.  We’ve been tossing around a few ideas but nothing that makes me happy.  Sean would love to name him Sunny but I refuse.  I.hate.that.name.  So, right now we are calling him puppy.  He is 4 months old and twice the size of Dew when we brought him home last year.  So far he seems very outgoing and bouncy. And Dew is slowly warming up to him.  The puppy just wants to play and play and Dew is a bit skittish but its very possible they’ll be BFF’s before we know it.

Go on, call us crazy.  We’ve heard it already. 

I am sitting at the kitchen table in the cutest little cabin waiting for my friends to arrive.  They got a late start and probably won’t be here until midnight. 

I left around 11am and thought I would be here at 4pm.  I would have been if it weren’t for that little 120 mile detour that I took.  I totally meant to do that! It was just so much fun making a 5 hour trip into 8.  Good stuff. 

After I arrived, I unloaded the truck and then made all the beds.  Apparently they leave you clean sheets and blankets, which is fine.  At least I know everything is clean.  Then I spent the next 3 hours looking for the internet.  I checked every wall and behind the entertainment center.  I looked in the closets and even in the bathrooms.  Turns out, the router was in the cabinet above the fridge.  I don’t know why it took me 3 hours to figure that out. 

So the internet has been keeping me company while I wait.  It’s so quiet without all kids and the husband.  When Sean called he told me the house seemed 5 sizes larger without me there. Do I really take up that much space? 

I think I’m gonna go grab a shower and start the relaxing.  I love it here!

This weekend is my girlfriend getaway weekend and I leave tomorrow. 

So far I have packed my camera, blender, rum, vodka, jack daniels and some fleece pants. 

I believe I’m all set! 

And no, I’m not pregnant.  And don’t you hate when people post they have a secret and they don’t share?

Well, Monday I’ll be sharing, if all goes according to plan.  Until then, hate me I guess