This cracked me up!

I've already blogged about the chaos with 3 dogs. I haven't shared with you how I have to put Jack's food down and block both of the other dogs while he eats so they don't get his food. Well last night I was at work and the phone rings and its Andy telling me a story. I have to share because frankly it cracked me up.

Apparently he was feeding the dogs and remembered that he had to play defense to let Jack eat. Apparently it was quite a sight. I only have the mental visual since I wasn't there but here goes. We have an island in the middle of our kitchen. Andy put Jack's food bowl down by the island and then stood with his back to the sink facing the island. Enter Gracie from his right. He has to pin Grace to the counter that the sink is on with his leg so she won't get Jack's food. Enter Stitch, also from the right. He has to tell Stitch to sit and stay and keep an eye on him so that he won't get Jack's food. Enter Jake, the cat, from the left. He has to use the leg that is not holding Gracie to block Jake from getting Jack's food. May I also mention at this point that Jack is not a fast eater; especially when he has to take a bite of food, look at everyone staring at him while he's eating and then give them a warning growl. Poor Andy!! I couldn't even offer Andy my sympathies because I was too busy picturing this in my head and laughing out loud; and I couldn't stop. Yes, I know what you're thinking: I AM such a good wife!!

There's a reason that I don't have 3 dogs

THE CHAOS!!

One dog is great.

Two dogs is rowdy because they love to wrestle.

Three dogs is insane, crazy, wild, nerve wracking....need I go on?

Gracie likes to wrestle with Stitch, but she knows her place. He is the top dog and she doesn't dispute that. Of course, like a puppy, she wants to play and growl and nip and jump. Enter my sister's little dog (part rat, part mutt- meant with nothing but love of course but I want to give you an idea of his size). My mother brought him home from my sister's after Thanksgiving and he will be staying with them through my sister's winter break. My parents went to New York this weekend so Jack is staying in the Wiggs' Kennel while they're gone.

Gracie has decided she must a) try to get Jack to play with her, b) try to let Jack know that she is second in the pecking order, c) move him where she wants him to go, d) keep him from being too near any of us humans or Stitch or e) all of the above. In addition there is still the Stitch/Gracie wrestling matches and the Stitch/Jack playing. I need to get my black and white striped shirt and carry a whistle!!! Or leave it to Belle who every few minutes is telling one or the other of the dogs "No, stop it, no, don't do that, no, no, no, no...." Or Hayden who every few minutes is going "Mom, Gracie is....., Mom, Stitch is....., Mom, Jack is...., Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom".

How much longer until Sunday? ;-)

Another tooth bites the dust

No pun intended....okay yeah, all puns intended! Belle lost another tooth. This one was a front upper tooth. It came out at the hockey game the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. She now has a big ole gappy grin that is too cute!

But wait there's more!! The other front upper tooth is SUPER wiggly. I wouldn't doubt with the way that Belly works it, it will be out before they girls get out of school for Christmas Break. As of now she is singing "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth". If the super wiggly comes out she'll have to add to that. Unless of course the wiggly one next to the super wiggly one comes out too.....

Alternate Christmas song titles for Belly:

1: All I Want for Christmas is my 3 front teeth

2: All I Want for Christmas is my 4 front teeth

3: All I Want for Christmas is a set of dentures so I can eat Christmas dinner

4: Follow the Toothfairy Santa Cause she knows the way to my house

5: Over the river and through the woods, to Belle's house the Toothfairy goes

6: I love those W-I-G-G-L-Y teeth...Wiggly teeth, wiggle teeth, wiggle all the way (sung to the tune of Jingle Bells...come on work with me people!!)

The Elves Are Here!

The girls have been anxiously awaiting Dorie and Colleen's return from the North Pole and they finally arrived the Saturday after Thanksgiving!

Isabelle with Dorie

Hayden with Colleen

For those of you who don't know about the elves. The girls write a letter to Santa and ask him if they can "borrow" an elf to keep until Christmas Eve when Santa picks them up. The elves are only able to come if they're finished with all their work at the North Pole so there won't be any disappointed kids.

Every night before they go to bed the girls set out crackers and water for the elves to eat and drink and sprinkle them with snow. During the night the elves get into crazy antics. For example last year they decorated the girls' Christmas trees with underwear. This apparently was the girls' favorite as it comes up quite regularly! The elves then hide and the girls have to find them each morning.

The underwear ornaments last year

So far they haven't done anything too wild. They have been found waiting in the car; in the refrigerator drinking chocolate milk; in the cereal container; in the Christmas card rack and in the Christmas tree itself. Not sure what they'll be up to tonight but I'm sure it will be something very exciting!! With that in mind I'll be posting an elf pic a day which will let you know what Dorie and Colleen have been up to. You can also check out Hayden's blog listed on the side. She has said she will be keeping a running commentary on what the elves have been up to. That way you'll be some of the first to know if any underwear trees are found!

Things I am thankful for:

From the most important to the trivial, here are the things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving Eve:

1) My awesome husband and my amazing girls and the fact that everyone has been healthy again this year. The fact that I get to hear my children laughing, singing, talking, and yes fighting, while some parents will never hear their child again. The fact that even when I work late at night, I get to still come home and crawl into bed next to my husband while some only get to curl up with memories.

2) My family. I'm so lucky to have my parents, Mozzie (my grandmother), aunts, uncles and cousins so close so that we can spend holidays together. My sister is in California this year for Thanksgiving, but will be home for the Christmas/Hanukkah holidays. My parents and my Mozzie are very involved and close with me, my husband and my girls and for this and for all of their love and support, I am thankful.

3) My friends. I'm also lucky to have so many wonderful people that I can call friend. No matter what happens I have great friends that are there for me no matter the day or the time. They encourage me, support me, counsel me, play with me and fuss with me and I am truly blessed to have them in my life.

4) My job and my husband's job. In these turbulent times I'm glad to know that nurses will always be needed and that my position is relatively safe. Which brings me to the thankfulness for the food that my husband and I are able to put on the table to feed our family.

5) The men and women in our armed forces who fight to protect our country, including my cousin Brad who is in Iraq this Thanksgiving. I will give even more thanks when they all return home safely.

6) Facebook. I know its silly, but it has helped me to reconnect with some old friends who I wouldn't have otherwise. I'm also thankful for this blog and the people who read it and comment on it. I know everything I have to say isn't that important, but I'm glad you all care enough to read it!

7) The fact that Gracie, the stray that is staying with us is potty trained. As you can tell we're heading into the trivial things here, but are you kidding? Who wants pee or poop on their floor! And I'm thankful for Stitch who is not only potty trained but the most awesome dog ever!

8) Lastly, I'm going to give you all the stupid, little things that I'm thankful for. Seriously these are dumb so hold on to your horses.
- Toilets (need I explain?)
- Toilet paper
- indoor heating (I do not like being cold and being able to come into a warm house is very nice)
- indoor air conditioning (I live in the South, the summers can be brutal. How did they do it in those huge dresses with no air conditioning?)
- Chocolate milk that is sold premixed
- Bathtubs
- A husband who can cook (and will cook!)
- Blazing Buffalo and Ranch Doritos
- Kayson's Philly Cheesesteak
- Wendy's Fries and Frosty....mixed
- Swifer's
- Dusting mitts with nubbys
- Fleece blankets
- Turvis Tumblers
- Sweet Tea
- Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider
- Wet to Straight Hair Straighteners
- Duck Tender Dog Treats (actually that would be what Stitch and Gracie are thankful for but since they'll do pretty much anything to get them....)
- Washers and Dryers
- Microwaves
- Cell phones
- XM radio
- Steak and potatoes
- Parades

It would seem that I'm definitely a child of the Electronic Era. But those are my trivial things. Things that make you say, every once in a while, "I'm sooooo glad I have this!" I'm sure there are ones I've left off. If you think of any that should have made the trivial list add a comment and let me know.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and may all the ones that you're thankful for be able to spend it with you!

Gracie Update

I've had people tell me I needed to post some pics of Gracie. So I took some and here they are. I also was told that I needed to post an update. Really not too much to share but here goes. I took her to the PetSmart vet on Thursday. I didn't know this, but when I called I was told that they do free vet checks on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-4! I thought that was perfect. I wanted to make sure that she was healthy so that keeping her around Stitch and us wouldn't be a problem. She is healthy AND already spayed. Got to love that! She has abrasions to both back feet. The vet thinks it is from her being on the street. The vet thinks she was somebody's dog and they couldn't take care of her anymore and dumped her. She thinks she was probably abused a little since she is so timid around new people and cowers when you scold her. Well, she used to, now she just goes "oh sorry" and moves on. I guess when you get comfortable somewhere.....

Anyway, they scanned her for a chip. None to be found. We've driven all over the surrounding neighborhoods and no signs are up. We've put some signs up with no response. I'm agreeing with the vet and think she was a good old fashioned dog dump.

Mom met her on Friday and is seriously considering taking her. She left for California today and will be back next Monday night so Gracie is definitely here until then. She has a crate that Mom got her so she sleeps inside now and really enjoys that. As I told the vet last week, "We call her Gracie; she calls us Suckers."

She has finally started walking around with her tail up. It took her about two days to stop carrying it between her legs and being scared at every little thing. She is still interested in the cat but more so in a "what are you?" kind of way instead of an "I'd like to eat you" way. In other words she is doing great. She is cute, smart, sweet and housebroken. If Mom doesn't want her, do I have any other takers? ;-)

Say Goodnight Gracie

My husband would like to know "Out of all the houses on our street how did a little stray dog know to come to our house?"

I got the call yesterday while I was helping Hayden with homework.
"Gin, where's Stitch?"
"Sitting right behind me. Why?"
"Who is this brown dog looking at me through the fence?"

The answer was that I didn't know, but I had an idea it might be a little dog that we had seen earlier in the day at the top of our street. And I was right. She was barking at Andy like it was her house and what was he doing trying to come in the gate! He told me to watch out because she could be mean. That was before she came up to me with her tail between her legs, looking like I could possibly beat her and leaning up against my leg. My response: "Yes, she IS vicious."

We put her outside the gate, shut the gate, got the car into the garage and went back up to the top of the driveway. No dog. "Good she's gone." Turn around. Here comes said dog UP the driveway! She had gone through the neighbors yard to the back and jumped the fence into the yard. She was quite proud of herself too. Go through this procedure 3 more times with the same result as before. "Fine, we'll leave the gate open and go inside. She'll go away." Seriously? Did anybody else besides my husband think that was going to happen? I mean she's jumping to get INTO the yard. Most dogs jump to escape, not her.

So here's this dog, at this point, on the front porch. After a little whining at the front door, it gets quiet. I went to the front door and looked out thinking "okay she's gone". Or she could be wedged into the corner next to the front door shivering and looking oh so pitiful!

I told Andy to leave the gate open while he took out the trash that maybe she would move on.
She didn't.
He walked up to the top of the hill to see if she would keep going.
She didn't.
She stayed by his side the entire time looking at him with big sad puppy eyes. I give her credit for knowing who she needed to win over!!

"She looks hungry."
"Go ahead and feed her. We don't want her to starve. But, not too much. We don't want her to stay."
"Its supposed to get REALLY cold tonight."
"I'll put the doghouse together with some shavings and she can sleep in that in the pen."
"Its too windy."
"I'll move it closer to the house. And get her a blanket."

I know you're asking yourself: was she there this morning? Are you kidding? Of course she was!

I started calling her Maggie. Andy said not to give her a name. My Mom says she was thinking Gracie. It fits. She is now Gracie. My Mom is coming to take a gander at her tomorrow to see if she might want her. And that would be great. The problem? There are actually 2 and their names are: "Please Daddy?!?!" and "We love her Daddy!!!"

So, she has a bed tonight in the garage with a nice warm blanket, food and water. Stitch loves to play with her. The girls love her. She gets lots of pets and scratches from me. The cat has smacked her (we'll call that a truce.). And Andy....?

Say goodnight Gracie!