Thank You

Today someone did something for me and the boys that was probably the nicest thing anyone,outside of family, has every done for me. I know it may have seemed like a little thing, but it was a big thing to me. I just wanted to say thank you to Claire for bringing us dinner. I though Claire was just coming over to borrow my pilates DVD and let the kids play. I was shocked when she showed up with dinner. It couldn't have come at a better time. I have really not been in the mood for cooking lately, and the boys have been eating a lot of sandwiches, and canned soup etc . . . It was so nice to have a home cooked meal, in my home, and not have to cook it. It was really good. We absolutely loved the soup and cornbread. The soup not only smelled good it tasted GREAT. (I need the recipe now)I think Caden had 6 pieces of cornbread, and Russell told me it was better than my cornbread. HMMMM. Anyway, Thank you again Claire. The kids had a great time playing today (even Zeke) and we had a wonderful dinner.

Life Beyond the Puppies

Last Friday we were all eating lunch when I noticed some little red spots on the floor. The more I looked the more little spots I noticed. Sandi and Kadiy had been hanging out in the kitchen area for a while so I figured it must be one of them. Actually from how little the spots were I was convinved it was from Sandi. I thought maybe she was having problems nursing the puppies or something. So, we checked her over thoroughly and found no blood. A few minutes later Zeke was playing on the floor with Kadiy and noticed the blood on her foot. She had split a nail all the way to the quick exposing the vein in her nail the whole way. She did not actually damage the vein which is why there was so little blood. Thanks goodness. Anyway, we had to take her to the vet and have the nail removed the rest of the way. They wrapped up her foot in some gauze and stretch wrap and told me to keep it wrapped. Then they gave me this plastic bag and told me to tape it around her foot if she goes out and the ground is wet. HMMMM. It hasn't been dry around here in weeks. So, I looked at this plastic bag and at her. They are crazy if they think my Mastiff is going to keep a plastic bag on her foot while she goes outside to play and do her business. By the time we got home she had chewed off the bandaging. Well, we have made it through the week and it seems to be healing nicely with no bandages or plastic bags. We do clean it every night and put neosporine on it, and she has been on anti-biotics to prevent infection.

I love the snow, and the boys love the snow. They have had many chances to get out and use their new sleds/snowboards this winter. On that note, I am ready for it to stop being wet out. Unfortunately every time it snows it seems to be quickly followed by a warm spell that melts everything into a muddy yuc. I think I may have said this before, but I am just tired of the mud and wet. The boys told me today that they were tired of the mud too. I think the biggest problem is that the wet makes it hard to stay out and play long because once you get wet it just seems so much colder.

West Virginia. Vehicle Inspections. HMMM. I guess I really should have one done. LOL. I was supposed to have one done within ten days of registration(DEC 20). I registered 3 vehicles: my mustang (not currently here so I can't have it inspected), my motorcycle (Chris is gone and I really can't ride one of those right now), and the Lincoln. Ok so I should have stickers for the Lincoln already. Part of it is laziness, and part of it is rebellion. Right now most drivers have a red sticker, and since Chris base decal is red a quick glance makes it seem like I have an inspection sticker. Why exactly do I have to prove one day of the year that my horn and all my lights work? Oh yeah, and pay for it out of my pocket. I just recently received a book in the mail and after skimming through it I feel even more irritated about this vehicle inspection. The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine. One of his 17 Rights is: The Law Ought To Impose No Other Penalties But Such As Are ABSOLUTELY and EVIDENTLY NECESSARY. Is it really necessary for me to have my vehicle inspected every year?

Caden loves hats. He has three hats that he wears always. For the past 4 days he has worn the same hat every day all day. It is the hat he got from Great Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas. It is a dog hat with little floppy dog ears on it. He loves that hat. Unfortunately we had a little accident yesterday. One of the little dogs snagged the dog hat and used it as a chew toy. Caden was so upset when he found it he spoke passionate babble about it for several minutes. I finally convinced him to leave the hat in mommy's room and I would fix it. I am not quite sure yet exactly how I am going to fix it. So, today he went to his other favorite -- his train engineer hat that he got from Grandma. What can I say, butthe kid loves hats.

Since the puppies arrived I have really not accomplished anything new around the house. There is still a lot to do. Russell and I still have not even assembled the cradle. The biggest thing that bothers me is the office. It still has packed boxes in it. It is cluttered and not exactly a vision of cleanliness. It drives me nuts to be in the office because the whole time I am in there I am distracted by what needs to be done in there. I am really working hard at accepting the fact that everything does not need to be in its spot all the time. I think I am getting better at accepting different levels of tidy. Some of it is forced on me because it is just not physically possible for me to keep it the way I would like.

Something new every day. When Chris is gone that is exactly what happens around here. Something new has to be dealt with daily. Puppies are born, Dogs are injured, Caden's bed gets broken, The washing machine stops functioning properly, The heater is acting funny, The car needs an inspection, brake job etc. . .Yes all of this is going on. Sometimes I think it isn't that bad, because I really do learn to do a lot of things out of absolute necessity. Of course most of the time I wonder why all the annoying things can't just happen when Chris is around to take care of it. LOL

More Pictures of the Puppies . . . Just because

We finally got some good individual pictures of the puppies Star, Dot, Midget, Red, Chubby

Puppy Update

The puppies are now officially three weeks old, and all of them are close to 2 pounds. They have come a long way from 5-7 ozs at birth. We have started paper training since they are now using the bathroom on their own and everyone is doing a good job. It is a bit cold for them to go outside right now so our "outside" trips consist of leaving the little room they were born in. Getting out and about is pretty well accepted by most but a couple are still not too sure about leaving their safe warm home. As I stated in the last puppy news Star -- the runt -- is also our little guard dog. She has taken to barking aggressively if anyone approaches the room and will even growl at you if you bend down to pick her up. It is kind of funny, coming from a dog that doesn't even weigh 2 pounds and still stumbles around like a drunk unsure of her legs. She also has what I call sleepy eyes. The shape of her eyes is such that she always looks sleepy. Dot and Chubby are still the most sedate of the bunch. They are pretty much unphased by whatever happens. They have all started to play with each other and the toys in their room now. This is amusing to watch as well. Because they are three weeks old, today we officially start weaning them from mommy. We will introduce a little wet puppy food today. I know Sandi is ready for them to be weaned. Five puppies takes a whole lot more out of her than the one she had last time. We are still not sure which are going to be long haired dogs and which are going to be short haired like their father. At first I thought all the boys would have short hair and the girls would have long hair, but now it seems as if one of the girls may actually have short hair and at least one of the boys may be a long hair. The black spotting on Midgets feet is getting more and more noticable. I am not sure how much more dappling he will show, but his markings are changing. Everyone has blue eyes right now and we aren't sure if anyone will get the blue eye gene from Balou and keep them. Mischief had blue eyes for a long time and her eyes are a very odd color still.

The Boys Room

I have finally done it. I have done all I can do on the boys room until Chris gets home. When Chris gets home we will need to hang the boy’s lockers for their clothes and then it will be done. It looks so good. Everyone worked together and it turned out great.

In addition to finishing the boy’s room we have also managed to complete clean and reorganize the upstairs. The last to be done was Caden's bedroom, and it looks so much better. Now we have a useable guest bedroom, a room the boys can confine their arts and crafts to, all of their toys neatly arranged in a usable fashion in their bedrooms, and most importantly a much cleaner --less cluttered house.

The next project is the baby's room. It has already been cleaned and a few of her things are already in there. There were a handful of outgrown toys from Caden and a bunch of stuffed animals (some dating back to Rusty), and all the clothes we have bought her so far. Also in there is the cradle that Rusty and I will be putting together next week, and the basinet attachment to the big stroller. There isn't much to do with the baby's room beyond paint and change the flooring. We are going to slowly change out all the carpet in this house because of the enormous amount of dust and the amount of pet waste left behind by the last owners.

Personality . . .or Should I say Attitude

The puppies have had their eyes open for a couple of days now, and are beginning to try to crawl around on their feet not their stomachs. They don't go very far yet partly because they are still quite shaky and also because they are still a bit timid. We have however noticed some developing personalities. Chubby, who is still the biggest, hates to be laid on his back and will struggle constantly until you right him. Other than this, he is generally a very quiet and content puppy. Midget has shown to be the most docile of all the puppies. He does not not have a problem being upside down, will wander about and lay off by himself seemingly without being upset or scared. Red is still a whiner. She always seems to be complaining about something, and she is always lost. Hopefully now that they have their eyes open she will not have nearly as much to complain about. Dot is pretty much like Midget. She is content. Then, there is Star. Star is the smallest still. Star has found her voice. Although a couple of puppies have issued forth a couple of growls, she could almost be better renamed growler. She seems to have quite an attitude. She growls almost as much as Red whines, and she is also the first puppy to bark. I think she will prove to be a little handful.

A Day of Fun

Yesterday I had an appointment with the midwife again so the boys didn't have to do schoolwork. They practiced their music for 30 minutes and played for the rest of the day. We watched two movies during our travel time yesterday: Charlotte's Web(original version) and Charlotte's Web (new version). I have to say I still like the old version better. Over the past few years I have enjoyed watching the boy’s reactions to remakes of movies. I don't believe they have ever liked the remake better than the old one. The remakes always seem to think that they should replace the fun music of the past with SPECIAL EFFECTS, and that they should change the story line to be more something -- I don't know. Not that I think special effects are all bad, but somewhere the movie industry seems to think special effects have taken the place of good storylines, and fun music. Anyway, the appointment went well and we are officially in the 33 week.

After the appointment we went to Claire's house. The boys were excited all week about going to play. To tell the truth I may have been more excited than they were. For those of you who don't know, Claire and I went to high school together. I really enjoy spending time with Claire. I think we have a lot in common, except maybe she has a bit more patience than I do. We both home school, and she has more boys than I do. LOL. It is good to hear that we both experience some of the same attitudes and behavior, especially about schooling. It always does me good to spend time with Claire. It reminds me to sit back and relax about things that tend to really drive me nuts. Yesterday the boys played so well together that we were able to talk virtually uninterrupted for nearly 3 hours. I think the majority of their time was spent playing some variation of Star Wars. Luckily, when we left(not really thinking about what time it was--5pm) we were able to miss most of the rush hour traffic and made it home fairly quickly.

We Have Eyes

This afternoon everyone was excited to find that the puppies (at least 3 of them) have opened their eyes. They are so cute. We decided to weigh them to make sure they have gained the appropriate amount of weight (double birth weight by day 10). All of the little ones have doubled their birth weight and everyone weighs at least one whole pound. Chubby, of course, is still the largest weighing in at 1lb 4oz, and Star is still the smallest just making 1lb. They are starting to move around much more and I am sure it will only be a few more days before they are standing up and walking around instead of "swiming" around on their bellies.

It has been rather rainy, dark, and dreary around here this week, and I guess it isn't due to get better anytime soon. We have kind of been trapped in side because of all the rain, so we have been baking and painting and playing with play-doh a lot. The boys have also rediscovered their love for Star Wars, and Caden has discovered Star Wars. In the last 7 days we have watched all but one of the Star Wars movies. The boys have gone out in the woods and picked out sticks and carved Light Sabres with their pocket knives, and their have been a lot of light sabre battles. Caden has even learned to say Star Wars and Luke.

Both the boys started back to their music lessons this week. They boys seem to like their instructors, and are really excited about learning more. Caden is begging to have a "Tar"(guitar) of his own. Maybe next year we will buy him a little cheap beginner one so he can strum along while his brothers practice.

Everyone is anxious for soccer to start. We have decided they will play upwards soccer at the church this year. Up until this year they have always played soccer with the school, but now that we are all at home for school that is not an option.

Quilts

I know it has been a few weeks since Christmas, but the boys really love the quilts their grandmother gave them so we thought we would share her beautiful work with everyone else. Zeke and Caden are especially in love with the paterns on their quilts. Although Russell likes his pattern too, his favorite thing about the quilt is that his is made out of flannel. The pictures are probably not the greatest but hopefully you can get the general idea. They are in order: Russell's Front/Back, Zeke's Front/Back, Caden's Front/Back

They Grow Up So Fast

Things have finally gotten back to a normal flow this week. It seems like it really shouldn't take 3 weeks to return to normal after just a week of holiday, but that is what happens every time. School work is getting done in a timely manner, and the house is starting to clean up. Anyway, we started a new chore chart this week and it is working wonderfully. It is a list of things that I usually ask Rusty and Zeke to help with. The way the chart works is that none of the chores are actually asigned to either boy, so anyone can do a chore and get credit for it. The thing with this chart is that I designed it to try and encourage the boys to see something that needs to be done and do it without being asked. So, if any of the things on the list go undone long enough that I have to ask for it to be done then -- they still have to do it but get no credit on the chore chart. So far it has been absolutely amazing. The most amazing part of it is that I have not even associated a reward for any of it yet but they are still plowing ahead trying to rack up stamps for completed chores. I guess eventually I will need to figure out what system of reward I plan to use.

The puppies are now a week old and everyone is doing fine. We have gotten past the critical first 3 days and mommy is having no problem feeding everyone. Even "Red" seems to be finally getting the hang of it after a slow start. Sandi is getting a little less anxious about the boys visits to pet the puppies, however we still try to limit most visits to when she is out using the bathroom and getting a little exercise outside. Today I gave Sandi a nice warm bath and cleaned her up. She looks much better. She was looking a bit worn out and dirty but now she looks fresh and fluffy. All of the puppies are starting to get little personalities. We are anxiously waiting for them to open their eyes. Sometime in the next week they should open their eyes. I've included one week pictures of the puppies and one of mommy and the family. Sandi is a little wet still from her bath. The puppies in order are "Red", "Star", "Dot", "Midget", "Chubby". You can tell by the pictures that Star is still the smallest and Chubby is most definitely still the largest.