Little Pigs

To say that we have been having an unusual amount of rain here in Wester would be a tremendous understatement. It has been raining like god is mad at us. Or, like an unintentional rain goddess has moved to town, which is, in fact, the case. You see, like the truck driver in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, I, too, am a bringer of rain. In the 19 years my folks have lived in their town, I have only ever been to visit three times when it didn't rain. The first year they were there they broke rainfall records. The first year we were in Small Town was the wettest in history. And so, now, it seems that I am bringing the wet stuff to Wester. You're welcome.

But I digress. This post isn't about me. It is about the piglets I call my children.

After days of torrential downpours, our back yard is a veritable swamp. The entire utility side (where the shop buildings and the 'garden' are) is under three to six inches of water. Now that the kiddos are recovered from the plague that little ol' virus, they are ready to be entertained. Z has been chomping at the bit to stomp in a mud puddle ever since we had the carpets cleaned in Small Town and all mud play was strictly verboten. Every time a single drop of precipitation has fallen from the sky she asks, "Now can I play in the puddles?" (Bad parenting side note: I kind of told her she could play in the puddles here, knowing full well that it never rains here and the likelihood of having to follow through was slim. That'll show me, huh?)

So today was the day. The magical day where permission was granted for the children to don their rain boots and go to town. And here are the results:


So this is what it will look like when Q starts growing a beard! Yikes!


Z was working on some powerful mud dreadlocks, courtesy of her brother. I actually had to run the bath, bathe them head to toe, drain the bath to get rid of the brown opaque water, then run another full tub and bathe them again.

Q had mud up his nose, in his mouth and packed in his ears. To make things even more fun, he had a total mud butt diaper that was also completely soaked with muddy water. When I went to wipe his heinous hiney, it was like I was using sandpaper instead of wipes. Good times!


Once the piglets children were clean and in bed, I went to retrieve the clothes from the back porch where I had stripped them down. When I picked the clothes up, they left what looked like chalk outlines at a murder scene. The murder of clean clothes? The whole outfit was once the color of the tiny bit of remaining clean collar. I have them running through a washer full of color safe bleach, so maybe the clothes can be saved. Or maybe not.

*UPDATE* Even though I managed to get the clothes into the wash in a timely manner, they still appear to have some sort of mud funk attached to them. I am currently running them through again, this time heavy on both soap and color safe bleach!

And So It Begins

Hi. My name is Rae Ann and I am a redecoration/remodeling addict. Hi, Rae Ann!

In every house I have ever lived in as an adult, I have been a redecorating fiend. I can hardly wait to start putting my mark on the place I live - even if it is pretty nice when I move in. Such is the case with my current new house. The previous owners' choices were not hideous. Some I am keeping, like the green walls in the living room and the beige wallpaper in the entry way. Some I can hardly wait to change, like the striped wallpaper in the guest bath and the pink porcelains in the master bath.

I am so eager to make my mark on the house that I put Sister K to work as soon as she arrived plotting a new layout for my strangely long and skinny master bath. Such is my obsession that my dad won't even play with us - in spite of the fact that he is a spatial master - because he doesn't want to encourage my sickness. Perhaps being a veteran of the studs-out remodel of my first kitchen has something to do with this!

Since we are maintaining two houses right now, any work that I can do rightthisminute is necessarily small time. So last week I started painting. I had the perfect opportunity: T was away at his training for a whole week! What better time to paint the master bedroom? T would be gone and would not witness my spazziness with paint! And what an easy place to start! I had just gotten the master the way I wanted it before we moved from Small Town, so all I have to do here is recreate it! Score!

I should have known I was doomed when Q turned up with a high fever on the first day T was gone. All he wanted to do was sit in my lap all. day. long. For two days. That is a lot of hot preschooler, let me tell you! Finally, on Wednesday he was feeling better. I got to work edging as soon as I got the chillies down for naps. What with removing face plates and window coverings (such as they are) I managed to get two walls edged before everyone was awake again. I figured that I could knock the rest of the edging out that night after the kiddos went to sleep.

Little did I know what evil germ warfare was brewing in my unsuspecting person. By dinner time that evening I was knocked on my a$. It was all I could do to prepare some preservative-laden child-friendly meal before I passed out. Now all I wanted to do was drape myself on someone's lap! Anyhoo, with the family arriving and the festivities all weekend, T was grumbling that he would paint it on his day off. On the outside I was all, "Score!" But on the inside I knew that he always plans about 12 hours more of stuff than he can possibly fit into a simple earth day. So I knew it was never going to happen.

It didn't.

So today, over a week later, I finally got back to it. My edging tool was dried into the paint tray. Unsalvageable. (I had covered the whole lot with plastic wrap, anticipating getting back to it in a more timely manner. Whoops.) But the paint was still okay apart from a dead fly. During nap time today I managed to get the first coat on two walls about 7 feet up. I will have to get out a real ladder to get the last three feet to the ceiling. I made an effort to give the paint around the window a double coat so I can get my classy bedspread back up as soon as possible. At this rate it will only take me six more days to paint a 12x14-ish room! I am on fire. But none the less, it is a start.

Happy Birthday, Aunt B

My Aunt B turned 70 this week and her children threw her a big surprise party. So for the last month or so, I have been brimming with excitement over my whole family coming to visit. But not able to blog about it! (Thanks for being a regular reader, Aunt B! You are totally worth a little blogging frustration!)

Aunt B is one of the sharpest ladies I know, so I was just sure she would know something was up, but she was truly surprised when she arrived at the restaurant to see her brother (my dad) and sister there to greet her. My sisters were a surprise, too. As well as 40 or so of her closest friends. (Everyone here knows my aunt, so the difficulty was where to draw the line so as no to invite the entire town!)


For me, the fun part of a surprise party is all of the high-jinx and close calls that precede them. This party had more than its fair share! First off, my aunt has been staying with her daughter down near the coast while Aunt B underwent some medical treatments. This was all well and good except that it made it quite difficult for Cousin S to discuss party arrangements with Cousins N and P and almost impossible for her to complete the work of art scrapbook of Aunt B's life. My cousin was staying up until midnight every night trying to complete the scrapbook while my aunt was asleep!

My other aunt, Aunt M, arrived on the Wednesday before the party. She had to hide out at Cousin N's house for three days! If everything had gone according to plan, Aunt B would have been in town, and Cousin N would have had some real juggling to do. As it turned out, Aunt B had to stay for some treatments and was not in town for Aunt M to hide from. It did, however, cause some problems on the other end!

Aunt B was supposed to come back to west Texas Friday afternoon. Cousin S was going to catch a later flight and had packed her bags waaaaay in advance and taken them to her office so that her mom wouldn't see them and get suspicious. As luck would have it, Aunt B's treatment got bumped again and she ended up on a later flight than Cousin S! My cousin had to think fast and told my aunt that she had planned to surprise her at Cousin N's baby's christening on Sunday. So she changed her flight and they flew in together.

At the same time as my sister and her husband from California! Luckily, they were on different flights, but our airport is pretty darn small. They arrived at the same time. Sister K and her hubs were walking down the hall when Cousin S caught sight of them. Luckily, Aunt B was facing the other direction and they were able to duck out of sight. My sister then panics that Aunt B is going to see Daddy out front, so starts frantically trying to get through the five layers of bank security on her Blackberry so she can call to warn him. Luckily, Bro-in-law is a quick draw with a cell phone. He got through and disaster was averted. Phew!

The party was in the atrium at a favorite Mexican food place. It was gorgeous! And HOT! The kids played in a little fountain to cool off, but the adults just had to slam copious amounts of tea. The food was great - especially the guacamole. I could have eaten the whole tray by myself! Aunt M's cakes were divine. A good time was had by all!

Back

Well. There has been SO much going on that I have had NO time to write about it! The short version:

1. Family arrived on Thursday for surprise party.
   
2. Party ALL weekend.
   
3. When all the festivities were over, have most unpleasant relapse and spend next 24 hours in bed.
   
4. Wake up refreshed but very much behind.

So there you are! All caught up. I am still feeling a little wrung out, so I am going to opt for sleep (or vegging in front of Tivo) rather a long post tonight. But post I will! Eventually. Maybe.

It Figures

The first week T is out of town for training? I am struck with the Ebola virus's slightly less evil cousin. Fever. Nausea. Body aches. Fatigue. The four horses of the viral apocalypse. And here I sit in Wester far away from friends on whom to pawn off my kids. (My cousins are awesome, but lead VERY full lives. Unless I actually had the Ebola virus, I wouldn't want to bother them.) And just to make sure everyone was extra miserable? Q had it, too. But not Z, so that she could feel the maximum amount of I-am-missing-out-on-everything-because-of-you-ness. And last night while I was battling fever chills like I haven't experienced since I was six? Q was having a rousing round of night terrors. Good times.

Ironically, we both felt miraculously better by this morning.

Parts

To say that I grew up in a modest family is a massive understatement. I had two sisters and I never (ever) saw them in less than their pajamas. And my dad? Might as well have lived in another house. As a family, we liked to pretend that we were all built like Barbies under our clothes. Nothing to see here, folks!

Around here, at Casa de Critical Mass, we are not so modest. I guess it comes from all the years of breastfeeding (18 months each = 3 years. Yikes!). It is hard to be modest about nudity around your kids when you have been baring it all in order to feed them for so long. Not that we're like sitting around watching TV in our all-togethers! But say my comfy bra is in the dryer? It is not unheard of for me to make a wobbly uncovered dash to get it. Even T is pretty casual about being naked in front of the kids - as long as they are well out of touching distance!

That said, there are still some things about body parts, well, boy body parts, that freak me out. First off, during the circumcision? The doctor made me lay down on the floor with my feet on a chair because he thought I was going to pass out. There were no fewer than five panicked phone calls having to do with circumcision care: I don't think you got it all; OMG! You got too much!; it looks like it is swelling; I think it might be stuck (it was); is it supposed to do that?; etc. If we do have a third child, I pray for a girl so I don't have to do that part again!

Once that trauma was done we moved on the the next one: diaper changes. Diapers don't gross me out. (Well, mostly. No one likes the exploding-poop-running-down-into-their-shoes ones!) But from a very young age, Q would giggle when I wiped off little jim and the twins. I felt like I was molesting him! He still does it from time to time. It gives me the heebie-jeebies.

After he mastered his gross motor skills, he started grabbing his junk at every diaper change. That seemed pretty normal. As my cousin said, he needs to make sure it is still there. But we have gone beyond the occasional grope. I don't want to give him a complex about touching himself, but COME ON!

In the mornings, I would find both him and his bed soaked because he had pulled his peter out of his pants and wet on the bed. My first strategy was to nix pajamas and start putting him down in a onesie. That worked for a little while, but pretty soon he figured out how to set free his packed away package. Next, I put PJ pants over the onesie. Again it worked for a while, but soon my washer was overloaded again. Finally, I put the pajama pants under the onesie with the onesie snapped on the outside like tights and a leotard. After a bit, he was able to best even that Alcatraz of boy bit containment. Finally? I gave up. I try to go get him at the first rustle in the morning, before he has a chance to hose himself. And do a lot of laundry.

To add insult to injury, he has found a further way to traumatize me now that he is talking. Now his favorite thing to do during a diaper change is to grab the tip of his joystick, pull it out as far as it will go (scrotum skin is amazingly elastic - I swear he could pull that thing over his head), and say "BOING!" as he lets go.

And then I died. The end.

Well Traveled

The red states are the ones I have visited.

visited 30 states (60%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Not bad! Now I just need to make it to the other 20!

Good News. Bad News.

The good news is that I have discovered the Zen of yard work. This is a good thing as we have close to an acre of lawn. I sat outside on a little stool and pulled weeds for over an hour this afternoon. The bad news is that every vibrantly green shoot in our yard is apparently a sticker bur. Or at least I think they are. Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants if I was out there systematically pulling up my grass instead of grass-like weeds?

I turned to Google to figure out what I should pull up, but it was surprisingly unhelpful. The photos were all either too far away or too close up to tell me what I really wanted to know. Or they used all Latin. Or just showed the sticker part of the sticker plant and not the plant part. (I actually had the same problem today in trying to identify what looks like the bastard love child of a prairie dog and a weasel that I saw in my yard. All genus, phylum, species. No satisfaction.)

In the end, I went where I almost always go with puzzles I can't figure out: Daddy. He grew up in Wester - on a ranch, no less! - so he was quite familiar with all the things that go stick in the grass. Also? Daddy has the best lawn in his whole neighborhood. Not a weed in sight. You can walk barefoot without fear in his yard - which is my end goal.

Basically, he told me that the types of grasses that grow here put out runners and creep along the ground, so I should pull up anything that was growing taller than its surroundings and sprouted from a single corm. No sweat, right? Okay, this is west Texas, so there's gonna be sweat no matter what, but all the lovely rain we have been getting has sprouted a lush crop weeds as far as the eye can see.

Hoping to avoid maaaaany hours of labor, I looked to the internet again hoping for a chemical solution. And sure, they are out there. But after reading a site or two, I was sure my kids would sprout a second head and start talking out of their navels if I used them. My philosophy is more organic, anyway, so I tried those sites, too. They uniformly recommended that I nourish the soil with sugar (really! plain white table sugar) and pull them as they come up. Does Sam's sell 50 pound bags of sugar?

Sigh. I pulled a packed 3-gallon bucket's worth this afternoon. Just a kazillion more buckets to go!

Weekend Wordles: Summer Fun Edition

Join the fun at The Asylum, aka Last Shreds Of Sanity, to participate in Shan's Week~End Wordles. She has Mr. Linky up and running. For instructions on how to participate, go here.

Now with More Bullets!

• We went to the splash park with Cousin N and her 4 children on Thursday. We had such a great time! Her youngest is eight(ish) months old and just sat in the shallows and splashed. He is such a happy little guy! Both of my chillies are SO in love with him! Her oldest son is a natural babysitter and played very sweetly with his younger sister and Z (who are about the same age). Cousin N left first - something about feeding her kids? My kids would rather swim than eat ANY day! Which is saying something because both of my kids are total chow hounds. We stayed until Q's lips turned an alarming shade of blue. I am super mom.

• On Friday, I pulled a total Rae Ann stunt and thought the Chez Ami party I had been invited to started at the time that it ended. Luckily, I thought to check the time before the party was completely over. Turns out it was kind of a come-and-go party, so I didn't commit any terrible faux pas! I did buy Z some adorable way too spendy adorable outfits: The red one is kind of Christmas-y. I love the lime green with the red! The purple one will have the purses embroidered on it, so she can wear it with the green leggings, too. I got everything a little roomy so we can get several seasons out of them like those Hannah Anderson enthusiasts do. I hope they hold up!
• Friday night I got a call from a friend I hadn't talked to in five years. When I saw her name on the caller ID, I thought that it must be some other person with her name, but it really was my friend from my teaching days! She and a couple of other pals were (finally) planning a road trip to Small Town to visit me. Imagine her surprise to find that I was all the way out in Wester! Even so, it was a lot of fun to talk to her. Hopefully, the next time I am in Ginormousville I can manage to get together with all of my teaching buds.
  
• Today I planted 100+ variegated liriope plants. I bought them from Classy Groundcovers. I was SO impressed with everything about them. I ordered bare roots plants, so I expected the plants to be a little sad looking. They were gorgeous! I got many more than the 100 I paid for! They even sent me a gift of a ball cap and a bulb-planting-trowel. Love! I had forgotten how much I like to dig in the dirt! The last time I really enjoyed gardening was before I had children. Now, they are old enough to play near-me-but-not-with-me or even (gasp!) help out. Even though it was hot out, it was very pleasant under our shade trees. Z helped me dig the holes with a dandelion fork until the siren call of the neighbor's son pulled her away.
• It was so nice out today that even after I finished planting I hung out on the front porch swing and read a book while the children played. I am really enjoying Wester! In Small Town, we would have been swimming in our own sweat while trying to beat off the giant mosquitoes, but Wester is so dry and breezy that as long as you are shaded you can be comfortable. Yay! Outdoor time that doesn't feel like punishment!
• Chica stopped by on her way through town this evening. It was awesome to see her and get her take on my home improvement plans. You know someone is truly your friend if you can have them over without any straightening up at all. The house was a wreck (and I was, too), but all Chica noticed was the clean slate and the non-hideousness of the former owner's wallpaper selections. Love that! As always, she was an excellent sounding board and full of good ideas and laughter. I am so glad she has family in Wester so that maybe I can see her here from time to time.
  

Bullet-y Goodness

Why write an actual post when you can use bullets?

• We traveled all the way back to Small Town last week. We got to meet the Lovely S's adopted daughter, Ellie. She is gorgeous! And adapting remarkably well for someone who has been moved halfway around the world to a place where they don't speak her language and they let dogs live in the house (that is her biggest adjustment - Gracie, the family pet). S is really hanging in there considering she has what amounts to a newborn three-year-old. If you would like to help them out with their adoption costs, click on the Chip In! badge on my left sidebar. They have a matching grant, so every dollar is doubled!
  
• We did not get to see KK and her family, much to everyone's disappointment. Well, KK and her mom were at Disney World, so they probably were not, in fact, swamped with regret! Hopefully, we will see them next time.
• I have a silly little chalkboard hanging in my Small Town kitchen. I wrote 'Buy This House' on it as a not so subtle hint to lookers. When we got there, someone had written 'OK' next to it. I am hopeful that they are serious.
  
• After Small Town, we went to Ginormousville. We got to see Gordo and Tia's new baby, JJ. So. Cute. He looks just like his mama - though I am the only one who thinks so!
• The kids and I spent the day hanging with Chica and Chicklette at a fancy-schmancy mall. We played at the play area, ate lunch, and indulged in a quickly accomplished shoe-buying mission. Chica can check out faster than anyone I have ever seen!
• That night, T and I took the kids over to Tall and Chica's house for dinner. She had some gorgeous looking steaks and fresh green beans. Unfortunately, the grill ran out of gas and we ended up eating pizza (it was way too late to try to get started with charcoal). The pizza was good, but the company was the BEST and that was what was important. It also bares mentioning that Tall and I kicked some serious canasta hiney. Not bad for his first game!
• Our street in Wester is SO cool. After dinner all of the kids hang out outside and play. Q is the youngest, then Z, then there are two boys who are eight-ish, and twin 14-year-old girls. They all play like they are the same age. It is amazing to watch.
• Went to playgroup with Cousin P today. The park was a madhouse! There were two playgroups and a school bus full of summer camp-ers there. The park was cool, but it was hard to keep track of our little ones. Cousin P and I ended up taking our kids to Chick Fil-a. They had the cleanest play area I have ever seen. Ever. It even smelled nice in the play area. No wonder it is the most popular place in town!
• How is it that after eight years my hubs still doesn't get me? We found these really cool cordless, under cabinet puck lights at Sam's. We bought a set to try them out. Loved them, but needed several more. So today he comes home from Harbor Freight with a set of under cabinet lights. That don't match. Arg! Matching is a big thing for me. The first set has motion sensors and the second set are touch lights. He gets big points for thinking of me, but why couldn't he get the same kind?!
  

Creative Blogger Showcase: Chichiboulie

This week's featured blogger: Gretchen from the Boulie Blog

Gretchen is an illustrator/designer who hails from northern France. (Fancy!) She has a lovely Etsy shop called Chichiboulie where she sells original drawings, prints, and a variety of adorable odds and ends featuring her artwork.

What don't I love by this artist? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I could totally wallpaper Z's room with every. single. thing. in her shop! If I had to narrow it down, it would probably come down to one of these sets:

How much would Z love these little fairies? But these are adorable, too:

If she had a series of French-themed prints (poodles, Eiffel Tower, etc.) I would be completely unable to control myself! Check her out!

Kid-Speak Cuteness

Being a wordie, I am enjoying watching my children's language development. Here are some of the things that have tickled me lately:

• Q can't say the 'f' sound. I never noticed how many names he has to say that have that sound in them. My dad is F.A. = Essay. Griffin = Grissin. Sophie = Sosie. Quite charming!
• T has to wear a blue jumpsuit when he is crawling around inspecting the underside of big trucks. He came out to show it to us and Z asked, "Why does Daddy have to wear a bouncing suit again?"
• On the exodus to Wester, we played The Incredibles on the portable DVD player. Ever since, Q has been playing SooPiOhs! Translation? Super Heroes. After bath time, when the hooded towel comes out, he requests that I let him be super - which means running around starkers with a towel hanging off his head.
• Compared to Z, Q has always been a little reserved with strangers. He is starting to come into his own, though. Lately he has started calling out "Hi!" and "Hi, there!" from his safe position on the front porch or in his carseat.

I know there are so many more, but awesome mom that I am I can't remember them. Z's vocabulary rivals a third grader's any day and never fails to impress strangers. Whom she love to talk to... as long as I am within earshot. Sometimes I wish she wasn't quite so advanced! It is like talking to a 14-year-old instead of a 4-year-old!

(Belated) Weekend Wordles - Travel Edition

Join the fun at The Asylum, aka Last Shreds Of Sanity, to participate in Shan's Week~End Wordles. She has Mr. Linky up and running. For instructions on how to participate, go here.

Not Dead

Wow! It has been a while since I last posted! Nothing bad has happened at Casa de Critical Mass. I have just been sucked into a puzzling bloggy prob. You may remember a while back that I sponsored a blog-makeover giveaway over at Sassy Mamas. Cailin Yates of a 5 Kids, 2 Labs, 1 Lizard and a Hermit Crab was the lucky winner.

She has been a lot of fun to work with and I am really pleased with how the designs are coming along. Unfortunately, there is a learning curve associated with new endeavors - and I am learning on Caitlin! We both love the background I designed for her, but I can't seem to get it to show up right on her Mac. It looks fine on three different PCs with three different aspect ratios, but not on her Mac. I have finally followed the advice of Easy Custom Blogs: I changed up my template and switched to Photo Bucket. Hopefully that will solve the problem!

Now I am off to work on her button! I will catch up with the rest of our activities soon. I promise!

Weekend Wordles: Independence Day Edition

Join the fun at The Asylum, aka Last Shreds Of Sanity, to participate in Shan's Week~End Wordles. She has Mr. Linky up and running. For instructions on how to participate, go here.

Wow, Wow, Wester!

Being a cop, T is required to work on most major holidays. Summer beer drinking holidays in particular. His new job is mostly days, but I was disappointed to find that he had to work one of his rare night shifts tonight. Wester has a big July 4th festival that ends with an impressive fireworks display. Since it is so flat out here in west Texas, we figured that we could probably see it from our backyard.

Not so much.

However, our neighborhood more than made up for the lack of professional fireworks displays. We live in the middle of a development on the outskirts of town. To the east of us are the houses were the big money lives. Our awesome neighbors (what are the odds that we would get great neighbors two houses in a row!) invited us out to do fireworks with them around 8:30. We live outside the city limits, so this is totally legal. We watched the kids light off jumping jacks and sparklers and roman candles for a while. I was secretly bummed that I was going to miss the big show.

Just before dark, I learned just how different life can be here in Wester. The rich neighbors started setting off fireworks to rival any of the municipal shows we ever had in Small Town. They might not have been coordinated to music, but the fireworks went on and on. We finally cried uncle around 10:50 and came back in the house. I hosed off the kids and got them to bed in record time.

As I type this, there are still MAJOR booms going on all around us. Happy birthday, Uncle Sam!

Good Times

The title isn't even sarcastic! We had the. best. time. playing with the cousins today. We met up with Cousin P and her two munchies and Cousin N and her four came, too. It was awesome! The kids all played so nicely together. This is a miracle as Z and her cousin C are cut from the same cloth and are born to lead.

We went to one of those indoor bounce places. Will the wonders of this not-so-small town ever cease? It was a blast and on a Friday morning, not too busy. Then we all caravanned to Cousin P's house for lunch. Her house makes my house look like we don't like kids. My kiddos were in heaven with all of the cool new toys. In fact, the only outburst of the day came from Q. He seriously DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE. He went from his usual mellow self to screaming like I was stabbing him. He kept it up for at least half of the 15 mile drive home. Whee.

Cousin P has been so generous with inviting me into her circle of friends. She has me all set up to go to her playgroup and to come to a trunk show party. Fun! This is so much easier than when I moved to Small Town and didn't know a soul for months! Yay Wester!

Cousin N says she likes to to the Wester splash park, so hopefully we will be able to coordinate that soon. I just love having family so close by!

Word Stew

I don't have enough for/feel like writing a long post, so here is some bullet-y goodness (what kind of traffic is that weird phrase going to bring here?) for your reading enjoyment:

• That doctor that I was so smug about having for Z? On vacation. We ended up in the after hours pediatric clinic at the hospital. Turns out that it wasn't pink eye, but some kind of extra fun associated with a raging ear infection. Her ear was so infected that it came out her eye? Ack! Probably more like the same bacteria was messing with both areas. Good thing she loves taking medicine!
• After being in Wester for one day, I decided that the poms were going to die if I didn't get their fur cut down. I found a groomer and made an appointment. They asked if I wanted a lion cut as that was what they usually did to poms in the summer. T would have killed me if they came home with this ridiculous haircut, so I told them I was thinking more teddy bear and would bring them a picture. Three hours of internet research later, I decided to just go with a bath, brush out, and sanitary clip. It turns out that cutting their coats like that can damage their hair growth. Some never come back the same! Yikes! The funny thing when I picked them up - besides smelling like cheap hookers - was the sanitary clip. When I've had it done before, they just kind of trimmed a little under the tail. Not this time! Izzy and Griffin were both SHAVED from directly under their tails to their undersides. The long hair on their rear legs (feathering, I think?) was clipped down to look like pantaloons. Now their tiny little buttholes (that have never seen the light of day!) stare at you like a big red eyeball every time they walk away from you. Pretty. But very clean!
  
• Upon arrival in Wester my Tivo died. Tragedy! I called Tivo customer service and they told me that my hard drive was dead and to fork over my first born and a kidney to get it replaced. Or I could go to weaKnees and replace it a whole lot cheaper. Uh, I took option B. For less that a third of what Tivo wanted to charge me, I replaced the hard drive myself and tripled the number of hours I can record. Yay!
• I took Mom-in-law's giant golden retriever, Scout, to the groomer for a wash and brush out. They did a good job on the washing part, but he still had mats and tons of undercoat. But still, totally worth $20 not to have to try to hoist his 100 pound self into the tub and keep him there! I spent most of last night brushing (and brushing and brushing) him out. I collected enough fur to make a whole new dog. Or to spin into yarn and make a sweater. Now he is beee-yooo-ti-ful. He is so gorgeous people regularly ask us if they can take his picture. He might not be too smart, but at least he is pretty. (It's funny that our male dogs are the beauty queens in the family!)
• The in-laws are coming to visit tomorrow on their way to their summer place in Colorado. The house and yard look like a$$. Good thing they aren't all judgey-judgerson like some in-laws can be. I am just worried that they will want try to fix everything instead of playing with the kids and getting rested up for the long drive.