How DID I get so lucky?

I often consider how lucky I am to love Man (so much easier than "my-male-counterpart-who-is-currently-nameless-due-to-his-dislike-of-being-called-"Man"-on-my-blog" so he'll just have to deal with it until he comes up with something better) but in the past couple days he has gone WAY above and beyond. I'm not sure what I did, but somehow I did some major damage to my back. Yesterday I woke up super stiff and in a lot of pain. I hoped it would get better as I moved around and worked out the kinks but it only got worse throughout the day. By the time I got home I could barely walk. Man waited on me hand and foot helped me get around the house and even made me a cane out of stuff we had around the house. This morning I was doing a little better but still in a lot of pain, so he drove me to the chiropractor (who,by the way, came in to the office just for me today. I really have been given the royal treatment this weekend!), made me lunch and took excellent care of me. As I lay here icing my back, watching tv and blogging, Man is cleaning out the cat box, running the vacuum and washing the dishes. I don't think I say it enough. I am so incredibly lucky to love such an amazing Man!

Make my kids eat!!

My-male-counterpart-who-is-currently-unnamed-due-to-his-request-to-not-be-known-as-"Man"-on-my-blog and I are foodies.  We love to eat.  We love to cook.  Believe it or not, we even love to grocery shop.  Which makes it that much more frustrating when the girls refuse to eat.  If they occasionally turned down a specific food it would be irritating but acceptable.  But our youngest flat out refuses to eat unless she gets EXACTLY what she wants on her plate.  If there's one more pea than she requested it's cause for a meltdown.  Last night was an exceptionally bad one.  The girls requested chicken, so Man made homemade chicken tenders (small strips of chicken he breaded with a concoction similar to Shake 'N Bake) for them and sauteed chicken for us, along with homemade sweet potato fries (a favorite around our house) and cantaloupe (our middle child's favorite).  Needless to say, our middle child was in seventh heaven.  She gobbled everything down and asked for more cantaloupe and of course we happily obliged.  Our oldest child devoured the chicken and begged for more, which we told her she could have as soon as she tried the sweet potatoes and cantaloupe.  Meltdown.  Thankfully, she's old enough that a meltdown means more of a shut down than an actual temper tantrum, but it still made for quite a bit of tension at the table.  Our youngest, on the other hand, was full on bawling about having to eat the chicken.  Thankfully she scarfed down the melon, but refused to touch anything else on her plate.  My male counterpart asked her to take one bite and the tears started flowing.  And it only got worse from there.  Both girls carried on for more than an hour.  My male counterpart, our middle child and I were done eating and I was almost done with the dishes and our oldest and youngest were still at the table, refusing to eat.  I gave them a deadline to be done by a certain time or no dessert.  Both girls fussed and cried but after a bit our oldest brought me her plate and went to throw her napkin away.  Unfortunately, her plate had one lone sweet potato fry on it (which she told me she forgot about.  Sorry, kid, not buying it).  I asked to see her napkin, since she has been known to hide food in her napkin and she half unfolded it.  I was still busy so I didn't pay as much attention as I should have.  We let her have dessert and when I went to clean up from that I found the one, lone piece of cantaloupe my male counterpart had required her to eat in the garbage.  Our youngest child dragged it out so long she didn't get dessert and went straight to bed when my male counterpart finally got tired of telling her to eat.  By that point she had been at the dinner table for nearly two hours, through everyone else's dinner and dessert, plus two clean up times and a family meeting.  While I know that it's perfectly normal for kids to be picky, this girl has taken it to a whole new level.  Between our oldest child lieing about finishing her food and our youngest child taking two hours to eat half a meal, dinner time has become more like torture.  Somehow, I can't help but find the irony in the fact that I finally have my furry babies' feedings down only to have a whole new round of foodie frustrations.

My day at work

Today I've been talking a coworker through a rough spot, teaching another coworker how to do a task that is beyond her responsibility and being proud to work with someone so dedicated, emailing with our middle child and discussing the finer points of coloring Easter eggs with a customer (okay, I'd guess she was 7, but her dad was here shopping, so it still counts!).  Do I always love my job? NO!  But are there days when it just makes me happy to be able to do all these things?  Absolutely!

I may be taking a vote

Man doesn't like his blog name.  I've asked him for input, but so far no ideas.  I'm open to suggestions!

The girls had tons of fun preparing their own birthday fun, too!

The look Man gave me when the girls told him they used Sharpies on the window was priceless!  Thankfully our middle child showed him how it wipes off to prevent the pending heart attack, but he was still upset with them for writing on the windows.  I had to talk him off a ledge and make sure he knew it was my idea.  I mean, come on - who did he think gave them the Sharpies?!

By the way, the carrot cake was a little heavy, but was a huge hit!  I'll post the recipe soon!

OMC!!

Oh, My Crepes, that is! I haven't had crepes since I learned of my allergies and I have to admit, it's one of the few wheat products I really missed. Well, today is Man's birthday so I decided to try something different. I made lactose free crepes for Man and our middle child and wheat free crepes for me. And both were amazing! I used a basic crepe recipe and just made some alterations for each of us.

Crepes
1 1/2 c flour
1 T sugar
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 T melted butter
2 c milk
2 eggs
1/2 t vanilla
Whisk together all ingredients and cook small scoops in pan with additional melted butter.

For Man's crepes, I substituted almond milk for the milk and yogurt butter for the butter. Since all we had as vanilla almond milk, I cut back on the vanilla and the sugar. I tried to cook them in yogurt butter but it doesn't melt properly and I ended up with a torn up mess stuck to the skillet. I determined it really does have to be done with butter, and thankfully that small amount doesn't affect Man.

For mine, I substituted King Arthur's gluten free multi-purpose flour plus 1 1/2 t xantham gum for the flour and cooked as usual. They were AMAZING!! I will definitely be doing this again! I have to admit, making two different types of crepes, plus sausage, plus fried apples for five was a bit much and I didn't get to sit down until everyone else was done, so it will be a while before I do this with the kids again, but it was so great to do something special for Man on his birthday!

How does he do it?

Man arrived home last night (!!!) and while we wanted to spend time together, we were both completely wiped out.  After dinner we got the kids settled on the couch for a little snuggle time while Man did a little work, then everybody headed to bed early.  Man and I settled in and I think we were both asleep before our heads hit the pillow.  And thank goodness for that, because the dogs had me up several times during the night, including from about 4:45 on.  I don't know how many times I yelled at them to go back to sleep, to lay down and to generally stop making noise.  Lolly barked several times and Man never stirred.  I finally got up around 5:00 or so and put them outside just so I could get some sleep but then woke up to Wolfey barking to be let in around 6:00 and the whole circus started back up.  Finally, I whisper-yelled, "Dogs!" and Wolfey went to Man's side of the bed to whine and tell on me.  This, of course, woke Man up enough to yell at Wolfey, but he never said a word about all the noise Lolly was making and immediately started snoring again.  I stayed in bed as long as I could, since I was soooo tired, but of course as soon as I got up the girls did too and started needing this, that and the other thing, which I, of course, couldn't take care of since I had to get ready for work and hadn't budgeted time for them (shame on me!)  I finally went into our room and told Man he had to get up because I was up all night with the dogs while he was sleeping and now it was his turn!  Don't get me wrong, he had a really long week and I'm glad he was able to sleep because he really needed it, but I want to know - HOW DOES HE DO IT?!?  I would love to be able to sleep through all the racket Lolly makes, but instead, he got a full night's sleep (which he needs, since he's on his own with the girls all day while I'm at work) while I'm dragging butt!  Maybe I need to take lessons...

Poor Brady

Man has been out of town for work all week.  He left early Monday morning and won't be home until some time tonight.  All the animals have been suffering from lack of attention and while I've made a point to give each of them one-on-one attention at some point each day poor Brady just doesn't know what to make of all this.  First his daddy starts bringing this crazy lady with the noisy dogs around, then he takes Brady and all their stuff to go live in the same house as the crazy lady with the dogs.  A few weeks later, his daddy leaves, and Brady and all their stuff is left stuck in this strange house with the crazy lady and the noisy dogs.  Eeep!  It's just too much for a quiet little kitty to handle.

Day One: I was off work, so I spent the whole day at home, cleaning, cooking, doing laundry and snuggling the dogs.  Several times I went into Man's office (where all of Brady's stuff is housed) but Brady hid from me every time.  I think I did finally pet him for a second at one point, but he was NOT happy about it.

Day Two: Brady was still very stand-offish but he did allow me to pet him.  I attempted to pick him up and that was the end of that.  He jumped up to the top level of his cat tree, and I'm not tall enough to reach him very well there, so I gave up and focused my attention on the animals who wanted my snuggles.  For the record, I didn't just thumb my nose at the cat, but the dogs were waiting patiently outside Man's office for me to come out and love them, too.  I tried several more times to give Brady attention and each time he let me pet him for a few seconds and then jumped up on his tree.

Day Three: Brady finally let me pick him up, though it didn't last long.  I was able to pet him long enough to get him purring, but it was almost like he realized how much he was enjoying my attention and thought he was cheating on his daddy, so once he started purring, he jumped up on the tree.  I tried several more times, but none were as successful as that first attempt.

Day Four: Success!  I snuggled Brady for several minutes before he left me in preference of his tree.  He even came out into the kitchen to explore while the dogs were outside for a little while.  Maybe he doesn't hate me!

Day Five: I woke up this morning to find Brady sitting in the doorway to Man's office, waiting for me to give him attention.  Of course the dogs got all silly when they saw me paying attention to Brady instead of them, so it was short lived, but at least Brady was making some effort.

Man will be home tonight and it will be really interesting to see how the dynamics change once the animals are able to go back to their routine.  I hope Brady still gives me some kitty loves!

The food sensitivities strike again

I thought I had it all figured out.  Wheat, almond, peanut, corn and tomato free for me; lactose free for Man and our middle child.  Then birthdays rolled around.  I nailed it for the girls' birthdays, but Man's birthday is Monday and he's making things a little more complicated.  He wants carrot cake.  Not only does he want carrot cake, but he claims "I can tell when it's from a box."  I know he didn't say this to make it difficult or to challenge me to make the perfect carrot cake, but I also know he's not a big sweets person, so if I'm going to make something for him, I want to make it RIGHT!  So I'm surfing the internet, pouring over different carrot cake recipes and trying to figure out how to make them wheat and dairy free and I'm finding the allergens/sensitivities aren't the problem...it's the pineapple!!  I've learned how to take just about any recipe and make the necessary alterations to accommodate our food sensitivities, but what about things we just think are gross?  I mean, who wants pineapple in a cake?  Unless, maybe, it were a pineapple upside down cake?  And even then, forget the pineapples and just give me the cake!  Can you tell I'm not a fan of pineapples?  So if anyone out there knows of a good, wheat, almond, peanut, corn, tomato, lactose and PINEAPPLE free carrot cake recipe, I'm all ears!

Bath day

When it was just Wolfey and I in the house, I had a pretty good schedule, giving him a bath every other Wednesday.  It started that way when he first came to my house, because Wednesday was my late day at work so I had extra time in the morning.  I found that if I bathed him every week his skin got too dry and he seemed to itch more but if I waited three weeks he got a little dirty and his coat just wasn't as soft.  So every other week it was.  It was great routine.  Until Lolly came along.  She is just a stinky dog!  Since Lolly is dirtier than Wolfey and likes to get into things, the routine went out the window, in favor of a "bathe them when Lolly needs it" attitude.  Sometimes I'm able to go two weeks, sometimes it's only two days.  I'll admit that I don't always bathe Wolfey when Lolly needs it, because it just seems mean to give him a bath two days in a row just because she got into something.  The up side: I no longer have to remember when they're due for baths, because Lolly's stink-o-meter lets me know.  The down side: sometimes Lolly has had so many baths that I kind of forget to clean Wolfey.  This morning they both got baths and I remembered just how white Wolfey's chest should be.  I guess he was a little dirtier than I'd realized!

I can't be the only one who read this in Smokey the Bear's "YOU can prevent forest fires!" voice.

I may be just a little bit ridiculous

Man has lived here for about a month. In that time, we've both made a lot of adjustments. Most of them have gone incredibly smoothly. Some, in fact, have gone so smoothly I didn't even notice. For example: Man is out of town on business and as I sit here watching tv without him, I realize I've completely forgotten how to use a remote control! I've grown so accustomed to Man controlling the tv, when a show came on that I don't particularly care for, it didn't even occur to me to change the channel. Yep, I'm pretty sad. And I miss Man!

This blog has taken a serious turn from where I started

My original idea for this blog was to focus on Wolfey's health and resulting behavioral issues.  I hoped to be a resource for anyone with animals with health issues and especially those for who turned to making their own dog food.  I planned to sprinkle in anecdotes about my friends and family for interest (especially since I have some pretty amazing friends and family who really deserve to be highlighted!) but to really have the bulk of my writing be about Wolfey.  When Lolly came along I planned to broaden that to be about both animals, but I still wanted to keep the people stuff to be less than half of my blog.  Then life happened and the proverbial poo hit the fan, subject-matter wise.  For example this morning, as I'm mentally running through the past 24 hours in my head trying to decide what to write about today, I consider the following list of possible subjects:

• Lolly is a wall (this one was actually pretty funny; I'm sure I'll write on it eventually)
• Man needs to stop eating cheese so he's not sick all the time (for the record, he's lactose intolerant).  I actually felt sorry for him this morning when he said he didn't feel well, but when I went to pack my lunch for work and found that my cheese was missing, I lost all sympathy.   
• Miss Thing threw a Thirty-One party last night and only had 1 friend (plus me) show up.  I felt so bad I almost decided to buy enough to make it count as a party so she would get her hostess benefits!
• I need pointers on getting Man out of bed before 10:00am.  We agreed we'd both adjust our sleep schedules when we moved in together.  Instead, I'm staying up until midnight or later to spend time with him and still getting up for work at my usual time but he's still keeping his old schedule.  So far all we've accomplished is making me sleep deprived and grumpy!
• Miss Thing and our oldest are officially e-mail buddies!  I love that the new cousins are becoming fast friends!
• I bit Man on the chest.  I'm pretty sure I left a mark.  He was tickling me.  It was self defense.  Please don't call the authorities!
• Last night I farted so long and loud Man thought it was one of the dogs growling.  Don't judge, Miss Thing practically force fed me wheat!  And by force fed, I mean that she offered her friend a cookie and I took one, too.

So I have to face facts: my life is just too darn interesting/funny/insane to just focus on the dogs!  I have to admit that I count myself incredibly lucky to love such wonderful people (and animals!) who have taken my life, and my blog, in amazing new directions!

Parental warning: profanity

Not bad profanity, just a little.  I'm pretty protective of the monkeys, and I know BBS often lets them read my blog, so I always give her a heads up when it's not appropriate!  That being said...

Lolly.  For those of you who have met her in all her glory, enough said!  This is the dog I feed Calms before we have company so she doesn't totally molest them, and people still say, "wow, she's got some energy!"  We've taken to calling her "the bitch" because she's so quick and rough she ends up being really mean to Wolfey.  I always feel bad after calling her that, but she really is!  I don't think she would ever intentionally hurt Wolfey, she just wants to get her way and she's so full of energy; she moves much more quickly than my little old man.  Lolly has been known to tackle Wolfey to get a bone or treat she wants or to try to get him to play (especially when he's got his leg hiked up, mid-pee and she wants him to play NOW!).  This morning I came across a "chewy" (like a rawhide but it's made from pork skin so it's easier on their tummies) and kicked it out to the middle of the floor so the dogs could find it.  Both dogs heard it and came running but of course Lolly got there first.  She picked it up, went to sit on the couch and just put it under her chin, not even chewing on it.  Poor Wolfey looked at me all sad and I said, "the bitch beat you to it again, didn't she?" so I got another one out and gave it to Wolfey.  As soon as Lolly heard the bag crinkle she came running, expecting to get it.  I handed it to Wolfey and Lolly acted like she was going to try to take it from him.  I ended up closing him in the bedroom so Lolly couldn't get to him.  It's sad that I have to separate them for a long-lasting treat (they're fine when it's something that's gone quickly, like their dinner) but I just can't bear the thought of Lolly stealing both chewies and Wolfey sitting there pouting!

Man and I are headed to have dinner with my walking buddy tonight.  This is the first of my guy friends that Man will meet.  Should be interesting!

Tip for a happy home

When your fiance comments that she has gained weight since she met you, even if your intention is to commiserate because you have as well, NEVER say "I know"!!  And when I say never, I mean NEVER!!! While it is nice to agree with your fiance and even nicer to support and love her no matter how she looks, agreeing that she has gained weight will NOT get you the desired result.  Even if your "I know" is followed immediately by an "I have too, but I know it's from the stress and dining out so much associated with moving and that we'll both take it back off easily," it's still NEVER okay to agree that your fiance has gained weight. For the record, Man learned this one the hard way.  I just thought I'd share in case there's anyone else out there who might consider being so "supportive".

Is it sad that I missed my pups so much when I was only gone for three days and they had my awesome dog-loving friend staying with them?  We've been back more than two days now and I still feel like I can't get enough of them.  I woke up early this morning just to go have some snuggle time on the couch with the pups.  Shh!!  Don't tell Man that's where I was!  No worries, he was still snoring and probably didn't even realize I'd left the room!

Back to life

Our oldest and our little one both cried when they had to go home yesterday and our middle child became really quiet and withdrawn.  She said nothing was wrong, but she's so stoic, you never know what was going through her little head.  None of us were ready for the weekend to end.  We picked the girls up from school on Friday and their mom picked them up from us yesterday late afternoon.  The time in between was filled with lots of laughs, tons of snuggles and an amazingly good time.  We ate well and got along better and I never would have dreamed that the weekend would go so well.  We swam in the hotel pool, wandered through Circle Center Mall, celebrated Bestie's baby girl turning one year old (!!!), visited monument circle and explored the Children's Museum.  I have to admit, I was a little worried about all that togetherness and the five of us being cramped into one hotel room, but if it's possible, I think I love them all (Man, included!) more now than I did before!  It is truly amazing to experience something you've done a million times through the eyes of a child; it makes everything seem new and exciting again, and really lets you see what life is all about.  As much as I didn't want the weekend to end, I also know how lucky I am to go home to Man tonight, and to have these amazing kids in my life, for the rest of my life!

At the Children's Museum

We were in the discovery area when the girls found the mirror maze. The little one and I were naming what each mirror does as we looking in them. This one makes you tall, this one makes you short, etc. At one mirror, she got a funny look on her face. I said "this one makes you fat" and she replied, "not me!" Thanks little one, I needed that!

Yep

My soon-to-be-step-daughter just saw me on the toilet. There's something about a hotel that makes you a family reeeeal quick!

We just had an amazing dinner. As a family of five with six different food allergies/sensitivities we know we're difficult to feed, but Weber Grill in downtown Indianapolis not only fed us well, but we had phenomenal service and we all walked away with huge smiles on our faces. If you're ever in the Indy area, I strongly recommend checking them out!

Craptastick

Man and I are taking the girls on a birthday trip this weekend. I took today off work so we could leave early to pick the girls up from school and we're spending the whole weekend in Indianapolis. We were ready to walk out the door when I let the dogs in from their final potty break before my friend comes to stay with them and discovered that Lolly had gotten into something stinky. Were we kenneling the dogs I would have just loaded her up and paid the extra for them to bathe her at the kennel but with two dogs and a cat that would have cost us a small fortune, so instead my friend is spending the weekend at the house. I didn't want to give her one more thing to do, so I decided on a quick bath for Lolly before we left. Thank goodness I did, because the something stinky turned out to be a hunk of dog poop that was so big I pulled it off of Lolly and flushed it down the toilet. Gross!! Of course it put us being and now I'm a bit grumpy because of having to deal with what was most likely the ickiest thing I've encountered as a doggy mommy but I am so lucky that Man was so patient with me and I am SO thankful I went ahead and did the bath!

Princess and Roxy are visiting me today.  In a matter of 2 minutes I about peed my pants from laughing so hard just over 17,592 times.  Items to note:

Princess put an M&M in her mouth.  She then realized she should offer to share, took it out of her mouth and offered it to me.  No, thanks.

While sitting together, I kissed Princess on the forehead.  She immediately turned and kissed Roxy on the forehead.

I turned my back for about a second and a half.  In that time Roxy disappeared.  Princess advised me that "Roxy in a cage".  Roxy was located in a closed cabinet.

While playing with Roxy, Princess became upset.  She told me "Roxy have boo boo", so I looked.  It was Roxy's ear!  I guess Princess had never noticed that Roxy has floppy ears and thought the flap was displaced skin.

For the record, my customers LOVE the girls.  One even wanted to take Roxy home with her!

A perfect night

Last night was a busy night but a great night.  I stuck around late at work to use the company internet to place my Thirty-One order (shh, don't tell on me!) and had an amazing amount of hostess rewards, thanks to BBS's awesome efforts.  When I left, I met Mom to visit The Girl for a bit.  Afterword we headed to Mom and Dad's for dinner and Man joined us.  We had a delicious meal (it's always great when Dad cooks!) and we taught Man how to play Euchre.  We played guys against girls, and of course they whooped our butts, but it was still a great time.  Man and I headed home fairly late, both exhausted, but having had an awesome night.

A great way to spend an evening

Man and I are snuggled on the couch watching Big Bang Theory reruns while he does some nighttime work on his laptop and I play with social media. I know it's a bit of technology overload but it's a pretty nice, quiet way to spend an evening in.

Brady's getting brave

Or stupid, depending how you look at it! The dogs have actually handled it fairly well, especially considering that they're not allowed to eat or drink from the cat's bowl. Whatever you want to call it, I'd say we're well on our way to peaceful coexistence!

Call from BBS

BBS: "So, I'm sure you already know this, but your fiance is awesome."

Me: "I'm aware, but can I ask what he did?"

BBS: "He offered me a laptop for free!"

Me: "I mentioned the other night that you're looking for a laptop for your new Thirty-One business.  He said he had one that might work.  I didn't realize he was going to offer it for free.  That's pretty awesome!"

BBS: "He said it doesn't have Windows on it, though.  Do you know anything about it?  Is it still user friendly?"

Me: "I played around with his laptop and Linux (the operating system he uses) seems to be a lot like Windows, it's just that things are named differently." 

BBS: "Yeah, I told him I'm going to need a lesson!"

Yep, my guy's pretty great.  And I love that he's willing to share his computer genius with my friends and family!  Oh, and I can't wait to host BBS's first Thirty-One party tomorrow!  If anyone is looking to buy any Thirty-One, let me know and I'll hook you up with the best new consultant around :)

Boy, do I know my dogs

Our usual routine when I get home is that the dogs greet me at the door, then go out to potty while get their dinner together. Tonight when I got home Lolly did NOT want to go out and kept coming back to jump all around me. I tried several different tactics but nothing worked...until I said "there's a kitty out there" and she was out the door! My girl never passes a chance to chase a cat!