Man doesn't allow animals on furniture.  My pups are comfy cozy snugglers who need their big comfy couch.  So we struck a deal.  We kept my couch for the dogs to be allowed to lay on and the dogs aren't allowed on Man's couch.  Additionally, he bought baby gates to keep the dogs out of our room and the girls' room in order to keep them off the beds.  Although it's a bit silly, I do see his point.  This morning, I was getting ready for work and Wolfey was sitting in the hallway, crying because he couldn't get in our room.  I was running a little late, so I didn't really have time to go let him in, but Man was still in bed (though awake!) so I asked him to help Wolfey.  Of course, Man took the opportunity to harass me about how spoiled Wolfey is: "He eats better than many humans.  He gets to live inside but go outside whenever he wants to run, play and have adventures.  He has his own sofa!  Those dogs are so spoiled, I bet there are plenty of people who would trade places with them."  Hmmm...my babies?  Spoiled?  I think they got their feelings hurt, I better go snuggle them until they feel better!

Getting to know you

The dogs are less than thrilled about having a cat in the house, but we're making progress. I read somewhere that when you introduce a new animal to the home you should feed them on either side of a door or gate from each other so they can smell each other but not get to each other while they eat. The idea is that they will learn to associate the positive feeling of eating with the other animal's smell and will decide that animal is a positive thing. I did this with Wolfey and Lolly when I first adopted Lolly an it seemed to work pretty well. The problem with doing that with Brady is that, because he's still underweight (he was severely malnourished when Man adopted him), Man has food accessible to him all the time, making it impossible to determine when he's going to eat. So tonight, Man and I sat with all three animals and handfuls of treats to try to mimic the above procedure. It was kind if a pain to sit on the floor so long and hang on to all three animals, but it went surprisingly well and all three animals sat together nicely. I'm looking forward to trying it again!

I'm beginning to understand how it is that new moms are so exhausted while the dads act like life hasn't changed much. When women sleep, we keep one eye open watching for anything that could bring harm to our babies and one ear listening for anything our babies need. When men sleep, they sleep. Period. Over the weekend the girls got up earlier than Man both days. While he got up at a reasonable time on Sunday to make breakfast before I had to go to work, on Saturday the girls and I were up a good two hours before he got up. I thought it was just because I was keeping the girls busy with cupcake decorating and we were being pretty quiet that he was able to sleep so long, but today proved me wrong.
I'm off work today, so I planned to sleep in just a but before going bridesmaid dress shopping with BBS but at about 6:45 I woke up to the sound of Wolfey getting sick on the floor at the end of the bed. I jumped out of bed, sent him outside and gathered up some cleaning supplies. I wiped up what I could and then TURNED ON THE LIGHT to clean up the rest, probably not being very quiet, since I was gagging the whole time. I put my supplies away, washed my hands and let Wolfey back in, asking him if he was okay. Both dogs were up, jumping around by then and I had to settle them back down and corral them in the bedroom so I could attempt to go back to sleep. Needless to say I've been unsuccessful in that, and I've been laying here in bed playing Ruzzle ever since. But Man? Well, he kept right on snoring.

Happy birthdays

Man and the girls' birthdays are all within a little less than two months of each other.  Since we only have the girls every other weekend, it makes it next to impossible to do three different birthday parties and have them be anywhere near their actual birthdays, so we did a joint party yesterday.  It was great!  I woke up early and made cupcakes (two different kinds, since three different girls could never agree on one type of cake!) and after they cooled the girls helped me decorate them.  We ended up with yellow cake with raspberry filling and orange (referring to the color and the flavor) icing for our big girl, chocolate cake with blue mint icing for our middle child and yellow cake with chocolate icing (also Mom's and my favorite!) for our littlest.  I let each girl ice and decorate six cupcakes and the rest I just threw some icing on to get it done since we were running short on time.  They weren't up to my usual standards for cake decorating, but they sure were yummy!  I even managed to find a chocolate cake mix that was not only allergen free for me, but also dairy free for Man and our middle child.  And did I mention that it was DELICIOUS!?!?  I honestly couldn't tell it was wheat free.  I dare say it was better than the $4 cupcake Man bought me from Whole Foods as a treat our last weekend in Indianapolis, and way cheaper!

From there we headed to lunch with Mom and the older four monkeys (BBS stayed home with Princess so she could get a quick nap) and then to Mom and Dad's for presents and cupcakes.  On the way to my parents' house we stopped for ice cream and I managed to find lactose-free cookies and cream ice cream.  Our middle child was in heaven!

The presents were a huge hit (the girls loved everything they got and are still talking about it all!) and then the kids played for a while until BBS and Princess got there for cupcakes and ice cream.  The kids had so much fun together they didn't want to part ways, so after the party we all headed to BBS's house to let the kids jump on the trampoline and play for a while.  On the way from my parents' house to BBS's house, our littlest told us that she and Doll Baby get along well "because I'm a drama queen and he's a drama king!"  

Yes, that really is six kids on one trampoline.  I know it's not the safest idea, but they were all so careful and respectful of each other.  I couldn't believe we didn't have any issues!  All the kids took turns holding hands with Princess so she could jump right along side the big kids.  It really was great to watch!  They all got along so well and it was a great night.  BBS and Hubby ended up inviting us to stay for dinner and Hubby made wings and poppers for the adults and chicken nuggets and french fries for the kids.  It wasn't a very healthy meal, but it was soooo yummy, and now Man and I are talking about adding a fryer to our wedding registry!  We left around 8:30 and the girls were so wiped out they just about fell asleep on the way home.  Our littlest cried part of the way because she was so sad about leaving and our big girl told us she's so happy we live so close to our family because she really likes them all.  I'd say the party was a huge hit!

Lolly

I've decided that, in my next life, I want to come back as a Lolly!  That girl is the sweetest, most loving, snuggliest thing I've ever known and she knows how to relax like no other!  So jealous!

I was standing at the back door watching Wolfey chew on his latest treat and Lolly walked down and took on the exact same posture I had and sat down to join in the dog watching. I love how my dogs think they're just like me!

Food for thought

Since learning of my allergies, I've become a lot more aware of what I eat and how it affects me.  Man and I have even done some unscientific experiments by eliminating all allergens for a few days and then eating a lot of one of them, to see how I react.  We have found that corn gives me headaches, wheat makes me cranky, and so on.  In the process of all this, I have also found that, although I'm not officially allergic to soy, to much of it makes me incredibly emotional, generally to the point of being weepy.  I've been pretty good about not eating my allergens lately and, with the exception of a little corn syrup in a Sprite I had the other day, I can't pick out any allergens I've had in the past five days.  Today, however, any time I haven't been cranky I've been weepy.  So I'd just like to know - who's tampering with my food!?  I think this may just call for some chocolate therapy!

There's a new boss in town

BBS asked me the other day how things are going with the dogs adjusting to Man being around.  I told her they're doing pretty well, and it seems that, despite the fact that I have been the alpha all these years, he is easily slipping into that role.  She laughed and said, "well of course he's the alpha!  He's a giant!  Your poor dogs probably look up at him and say, 'okay!  Whatever you say!' with as much taller as he is than they are."   Yep, Man's definitely slipping easily into being the doggie daddy.  Now I just need to learn how to give up some parts of my doggie mommy role!

The assembly line

Man got to experience the insanity that is dog food making night.  It's really pretty simple now that I have it down, but I can see how, to an "outsider" it looks pretty crazy.  On a day to day basis, I save up all my fruit and veggie scraps (except things that have gone bad or that the dogs can't have, like grapes and onions) in zip top bags.  Once I get a full bag, I stick it in the freezer.  On cooking night, I pull them all out and run them through the food processor.  I have found the dogs eat their veggies a whole lot better if everything in the bowl is roughly the same consistency.  I get 40lb boxes of turkey scraps from Kopp Turkey, a local poultry shop, in Harrison for $8.00 a box.  Although it's a lot of meat to deal with at one time, it's just too awesome a deal to pass up!  I run that through the meat grinder so now I have ground turkey, and the beef I buy already ground, in bulk from the grocery store.  I get organs from my favorite butcher, Stehlin's, who not only has the best sausage in the world (sorry, just had to get a plug in for them, since they really are awesome!) but also packs any organs left in 8-9lb bags so there is no waste when they butcher and sells it as dog food, for about $2.00 a pound.  They'll also cut bones to any size you want, to give the dogs a great source of calcium, as well as something to chew on, but that's a whole other post!

Okay, so back to last night.  Although making your own dog food is not an exact science, I try to get things pretty close to what I've learned in my research.  Basically, I set up an assembly line.  I set out my ground meats, my organs and my veggies along with a digital scale, two large bowls and my potato masher.  I know what you're thinking, "a potato masher?  What the heck!?" but trust me, it's the best mixing tool I've come across so far!  I do 1 part veggies, 1 part organs, 4 parts red meat (mostly ground beef, but sometimes I mix in some pork or lamb) and 4 parts poultry (I use mostly turkey, since I get it so cheaply, but I add in chicken when I have it.  My dogs get chicken in other ways [again, another post], so I don't worry about them not having a balance of their meats).  I used to use a measuring cup to get this balance, but I have found that using the scale with a bowl on it (so the scale doesn't get all messy) is a lot easier and faster.  I have two bowls going - one on the scale and the other one (a GIANT one) to throw all the stuff in once it's measured out, so this process takes up my entire kitchen counter.  I think that's the biggest thing that overwhelmed Man last night.  So once I've got my balance right, I add the other goodies (garlic to prevent fleas, honey for allergies, etc.) and get to mixing.  I have tried countless methods of combining these raw ingredients, but have found that the hand held potato masher works best for me.  I can mush, twist, mash and stir all with one tool and it really does make it easy to incorporate everything pretty quickly.  I have to keep in mind, too, that it doesn't have to be mixed perfectly, because (1) I feed both dogs out of the same container of food, so odds are it will get mixed up more while I'm dishing it out into their food bowls and (2) it's good for dogs to have a variety in their meals!  Once it's all mixed up, I spoon the meal into a freezer safe containers.  I try to keep the containers relatively small so I never have raw turkey sitting in my fridge for days on end and have found that the Gladware containers that lunchmeat comes in are the perfect size for two days worth of meals for my dogs.

Some people may think I'm crazy for going to this much work to feed my dogs, but when you think about it, it's really not much trouble and saves me a lot of money.  I spent about two hours last night, between prep work, making the food and clean up and made about 16 pounds of food.  For my dogs, that's roughly a month's worth of food.  So if you think about it, that's only 4 minutes per day.  I spent just over $50 on all the supplies and I only got through about 1/3 of it.  That means in total I spent just over $16.50 per month.  When you figure I used to spend about $9.00 a month on food just for Wolfey, and Lolly is bigger and eats more than Wolfey does, I'm actually saving money to make my own dog food, and it's a whole lot healthier for them.

Okay, I went into a lot more detail here than I planned on, but I think it's a lot of good information, so I'm not going to cut anything!  To all you non-dog-food-chefs out there, I apologize for being so long winded, but for anyone who's considering doing this for their own furry kids, I hope this was helpful!  And the moral of the story is...I'm so lucky to love a man who not only puts up with, but encourages me to continue spoiling my furry babies!

It's official!

Man is all moved in!  Of course, by "all moved in" I mean his shit is in boxes, spread all over my our house, but HE'S HERE!!!  Friday night after work I went up to his old house and Saturday morning we got up early to start packing the last minute things and pick up the Uhaul.  Bestie's husband came over late morning to help load the big stuff and Man and I spent the rest of the afternoon loading the rest of the house onto the truck.  As soon as the truck was loaded, Wolfey and I drove down to my our house with my car loaded down with coolers and things that HAD to make it into the house that night while Man and Lolly stayed behind to patch picture hanger holes, clean and do a final walk through.  It took me an hour and a half to unload the coolers into the fridge and freezer, and even then not everything made it.  The fridge was literally overflowing, and when Man got home and got into it to get a drink, the mustard jumped out at him!  That was even with leaving a cooler full of condiments and things that wouldn't go back out in the garage because there just wasn't room for them.  Then yesterday we were up early, unpacking everything.  Mom and Dad came out to help us unload the Uhaul, put together furniture and start unpacking boxes and I'm so thankful for them, because I'm just not sure Man and I could have done it on our own!  We got my our room completely put together and the little girls' room nearly done (the beds still need sheets, but that's about it) but the garage is still full of boxes, our big girl's bed is piled high with bedding and clothes that don't yet have a home and the kitchen is a complete disaster.  Still, the house is more than livable and I'm so glad to have Man here!  We both keep slipping and saying "my" instead of "our" and we know it's going to be quite an adjustment for both of us, since we're both pretty set in our ways, after having lived on our own for so long, but I just can't imagine doing it with anyone else!

Stripes, stripes, fruit stripes gum!

Admit it, now you want some!  And you're picturing the cartoon zebra blowing a big pink bubble.  Ha!  Welcome to the insanity that is my brain!  Okay, now where was I going with all this?  Oh, yeah!

The girls' room desperately needed repainted. I've lived in this house for 4 1/2 years, and I've never painted in there.  Plus, in that time, my ex "built" a desk (and did significant damage to the wall) and The Girl punched a whole in the wall, on top of the usual dings and holes from daily wear and tear and hanging pictures.  So the girls asked for "Pink and blue. But more blue than pink. And can we have stripes?!?" and I got to work. Of course, I couldn't have done it without my foster friend who helped me pick the perfect paint colors (including none other than Bubblegum Pink!) and clear out the room and my awesome Mom who gave up her entire Sunday to help me paint!

What can I say?  When my girls ask, I deliver!

Life is good!

Sorry.  I didn't blog yesterday.  But I have a good excuse.  Honest!  After working late into the night (okay, 11:00, but that's late for me!) on preparing the house for Man to move in this weekend (!!!) I slept in just a bit yesterday.  Plus, let's be honest - nothing great had happened yet that early in the morning, so anything I would have posted then would have been boring.  Trust me, I did you a favor on that one.  Okay, moving on...

I got to see The Girl yesterday morning!!  I hadn't seen her in nearly 6 months, so even though our time together was brief and not the greatest of visits, it was still wonderful just to see her face.  She's not the happiest, but she's safe and healthy and that's really all that matters in the long run.

Next I ran some errands.  Nothing real fun, but I got a lot accomplished.  The best part of errands: they put me in Harrison, which meant I got to have lunch with Dad!  I don't get him one-on-one very often, so it was really nice to sit down to lunch together and just chat.

Then I met up with BBS, Doll Baby and Princess.  I sat with the monkeys while BBS got her hair cut, then we went to visit our grandparents and got lucky enough to see our aunt and a cousin while we were there.  I hadn't seen my grandparents since Christmas, so it was really nice to get to visit for a while.

On the way back I ran a few more errands, then went to my parents' house for dinner.  We had home made macaroni and cheese (as per my request) made with rice noodles so I could eat it, salmon patties (yes, we're Catholic!) and salad.  The texture wasn't quite right on the mac and cheese, with the rice noodles, but it was still pretty great!

I arrived home exhausted but extremely happy.  I just love days like that, when I get to see so many of the people I love!  Bonus: I got to spend time with the little monkeys again today, when I watched them while BBS took Roxie to the vet!  Hooray for two days in a row! :)

Adjustments

In a matter of 13 months (from this past August to this coming September), I will have gone from a single woman with one dog to a married stepmother of three with two dogs and a cat.  Talk about an adjustment!  I wouldn't change it for the world, but I'm working to prepare myself for having Man's girls around every other weekend.  The youngest (yes, I know, I still need to come up with blog names for them!) is incredibly strong willed and while I love that that means she's independent and won't easily be influenced by peer pressure, it also means that she's going to be quite a challenge for me, as a stepmom, to discipline.  I'm thankful to have my probation, mental health and fostering background so that I've had experience with strong willed kids, but I know this is going to be a lot different, since I'll always have to defer to Man as the "expert" when it comes to his kids.  Thankfully, I've got lots of mommy friends, an awesome support system and plenty of resources to which I can turn!

Thank goodness I'm a handyman

The other night Man and I were sitting at the dining room table having dinner.  We had been working around the house, getting it ready for him to move in and were pretty warm from our work.  As soon as I sat down to the table I got cold and got back up to grab a sweatshirt, but by the time we finished dinner I was freezing.    I try to live green, and I keep my house pretty cool in the winter (my friends often tease me that they have to bundle up when coming to my house) so I didn't worry too much about it, but I did find it odd that I got so cold when I'm used to my house being cold.  Fast forward to this morning, as I was putting together the dogs' breakfast.  I heard my blinds on my sliding glass door in the dining room rattling.  Often times Lolly knocks into them while trying to look out the window, but this morning she and Wolfey were outside.  Sometimes they rattle when the furnace kicks on, but this time it had just shut off a minute or so before.  I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I walked over to check it out.  It was really windy outside, and I could actually feel the breeze blowing in around my door frame!  No wonder I was freezing the other night!  So before work this morning, I busted out the caulking and got to work.  Yes, I was late to work, but I'm not going to have to don a parka the next time Man and I have a nice dinner in!

Man's girls really have entirely too much fun with the dogs. Thankfully my pups are patient with them!

The not so evil stepmother

I just went into full on stepmom mode.  I'm painting the girls' room before we move Man in next weekend and I ran to Hobby Lobby before work this morning to pick up a few extras for their room (think glitter letters to spell out their names!).  On the way back Man called and said his oldest was upset but wouldn't talk to him about it.  She kept giving him one-liners about stuff they'd already talked about but wouldn't really tell him what the issue was.  I asked to talk to her and we had a heart to heart about what was bothering her.  I spent a good twenty minutes on the phone talking through the problem with her and before we got off the phone I asked if she was okay with me telling her dad what's going on.  We talked about how, even thought Daddy and I don't keep secrets from each other, sometimes we need to be able to have girl talk, and boys don't need to know about all that stuff.  She agreed that I could tell Man what was going on and put him on the phone.  It was only then that I realized I hadn't run it by him before I offered to keep his girls' secrets!  Thankfully he's totally on board with me being the girls' confidante and was appreciative that I was able to help her through this instead of being upset that I offered to not tell him everything!  This whole sharing everything thing is going to take some getting used to, but I am so lucky to love a man who is willing to work with me while I learn!

Happy early Valentine's Day

Man came down last night to bring a carload of stuff and spend the evening together.  Man got home before me and had already unloaded his car, met a woman who was looking at a couch I'm getting rid of (I have a couch available, by the way.  Free to a good home!) and spent some time with the pups.  When I got home, I made sausage and sauerkraut and mashed potatoes (a favorite in my household growing up) and Man and I were in heaven, munching away and chatting about our days.  As I was clearing the table I noticed a red envelope on the end of the table and asked Man what it was.  I have a PO box, so I knew he hadn't gotten the mail, but I thought maybe it was mail of his that he'd picked up as he was pulling out of the driveway in Indy.  Nope.  It's a Valentine's Day card.  For me.  That he won't let me open until NEXT THURSDAY!!  I can't believe he's torturing me like this!  The up side: now I know he only got me a card and I don't have to stress so much about what to get him! ;)

A blast from the past

I can admit it: I love Gilmore Girls.  Yes, it's cheesey and silly and old, but it's fun and funny and somehow comforting to see all their ups and downs and how they always come out the same on the other side.  Today's episode: The Great Stink.  This is the one that opens with Lorelai and Christopher packing up for an overnight at Christopher's house and she packs so much stuff for the dog that she nearly forgets to take the dog!  The sad thing is, this is so true!  The first time I took the dogs to Man's house half the car was filled with their stuff.  Dog beds, toys, food, treats, leashes...I could go on and on.  And of course, I arrived at Man's house only to find that I'd forgotten the dog bowls and they had to eat out of Disney princess bowls all weekend!  Thankfully the girls didn't mind sharing and all went well, but I still got a pretty good laugh out of this!

My new niece already has me wrapped around her little...paw. She started whining in her crate so I got her out and the little booger curled right up on my lap. In her defense, it is kinda cold on the floor!

Bath day

Wolfey has always hated his bath but is so well behaved that he tolerates it fairly well.  He hides from me when he sees I'm preparing for bath time but once I get him in the tub he just stands there with a frowny face while I scrub him.  Lolly, on the other hand, is super simple to get into the bath, but once she's there she tries to escape from the tub, knock the shampoo out of my hand (she was successful once, sending half of a $10 bottle of shampoo down the drain!) and generally be a turd.  When Lolly first came to be with us I would do her bath first, just because I didn't know how she was going to handle the bath.  The problem with that was I would have to drag Wolfey out from under the bed, which was hard on both of us.  Then, for a long time I did Wolfey's bath first to save him some anxiety and let him relax while Lolly was in the tub.  The problem with that was that both dogs seemed rotten while in the bath tub.  Wolfey was a super grump and then, by comparison to Wolfey, Lolly just seemed that much worse.  Yesterday, I tried something new.  I did Lolly's bath first, and she didn't seem so bad, because I wasn't already tired of giving dogs baths and my back didn't already hurt from bending over the tub.  Yes, she was rotten (she even escaped from the tub) but I was able to laugh it off because I was in a better mood.  Then, rather than dragging Wolfey out from under the bed, I went and did some other household chores until he came out on his own.  It was easier to get him in the tub, and by comparison to Lolly, he seemed like an angel in the bath!  It took longer to do bath day this way, but it was sooooo much more pleasant!  I'll have to plan a little better if I'm going to keep this up (I generally do baths before I leave for work so I don't have wet dogs trying to snuggle with me!) but I think it's going to be worth it!

This is what I woke up to

They're snuggled so close to be I couldn't even get both their faces in the shot. But who can blame them when this is what they woke up to?

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.  ~Gandhi