Sanity Is So 2011!

from here

About a week ago, I was sitting on the couch eating my breakfast and trying to watch the news.  My two boys were doing some sort of game that involved sliding down the stairs head first, cackling hysterically at the bottom because your pajama pants are half off, running a loop around the downstairs, and then repeat.  Again, and again, and again.  There was A LOT of energy and A LOT of noise. 

Not to be left out of the bedlam, my hunting crazed Vizsla, Ella, had spied an interloper out in the yard.  Some mangy squirrel had the audacity to climb up and perch himself in one of our trees and Ella was not going to stand for something like that.  Not in her yard.  In order to alert me to the small, fluffy tailed threat outside, she was batting the kitchen door with her foot and running back and forth from the door to me, whining the entire time.  

Tucker, who appears to not have a real hunting bone in his body, didn't care one bit about the squirrel but being that he is 11 months old, he was not going to remain calm in the midst of his 4 legged buddy's frenetic energy so he was racing back and forth with Ella and trying to bite her on the neck at the same time. 

Sitting there on the couch trying to read the newscasters lips, because I had given up actually hearing anything at this point, it occurred to me that in a few months, you can take this morning melee and add two screaming infants and a healthy dose of sleep deprivation into the mix.  What a riot THAT is going to be. 

Which had me wondering if registering for a straitjacket and a bucket of Valium might be more important than things like burp clothes and bottles.  Goodbye sanity, I will miss you. 

57 Hours and 23 Minutes To Go (if you trust a 4th grader's math that is)

The house is decorated, treats have been made, the kids are off school, all the presents have been bought and wrapped, and we just got 10 inches of snow overnight.  It really feels like Christmas is imminent and in case I lose that feeling in any way, I have two people in my house who are more than happy to remind me, again, and again, where we are in the countdown to the present opening.  Ethan even calculated up the number of hours remaining this afternoon.  I didn't check his math but I think we'll just go with his number.  Here are a few things we have been up to in preparation for Christmas.

A few weeks ago, Drew's special needs class went on a field trip to a local mall.  Our school is the only school in our district which has a deaf and hard of hearing program in addition to the special needs classes and the typical students.  This mall, every year, brings in a special Santa who is trained in working with people with special needs and who also is fluent in American sign language.  It is pretty cool because kids who otherwise would not be able to communicate with Santa can tell him what they want and kids who would have a difficult time with the over stimulation that Santa at the mall can bring get an opportunity to visit with Santa as well. 

This year, Ethan, who is in 4th grade, finally admitted that he is aware we are Santa Claus.  Kevin and I decided to go ahead and tell Drew about Santa, since he is in 6th grade and we are sure all of his regular education classmates are aware that there isn't a fat man living with a bunch of elves in the North Pole.  We had told him maybe a few days before his field trip to the mall.  A few days after the field trip, he was telling me about a toy he was going to ask Santa for.  I reminded him the Kevin and I are Santa.  He said, "No!  I saw him at the mall.  He is real!"  It cracked me up because it is so like him to be so literal.  If he saw him with his own eyes, it has to be real. 

Ethan got these reindeer antlers when his Scout troop went to sing Christmas carols at a local retirement community.  Of course, we had to put them on the dogs.  Tucker was uncooperative, as any self respecting 11 month old puppy would be so he didn't get to be in the picture.  We even had to sequester him in order to get Ella's picture because he seemed to be under the impression it was his JOB to remove those hideous antlers from Ella's head.  Ella had to be bribed with some treats to pose and if you look closely at her expression you can see she is kind of hating me for making her do this. 

Monday, me and the guys made a gingerbread house.  They used every bit of candy and frosting that came with the kit and fully intend on eating that candy off the house as soon as Christmas Day comes.  They are very proud of how their house turned out and I think it looks pretty darn good. 

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and get to enjoy spending some time with your family and friends.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Catching Up

Okay, so blogging has obviously taken a backseat in my life lately.  I have been busy trying to get Christmas done, trying to get baby stuff bought before I am put on bed rest or just too large to move, and taking the 5 million rest breaks I seem to require these days. 

So, here is an update of the goings on in our house and lives over the past month. 

Let's start with a Puppers update:

Tucker is 10 months old now and keeps all of us laughing pretty much daily.  Looking at him sitting on the stairs, like a human on a chair, always makes me smile.  He has a blanket he drags around the house and when he is happy, which is pretty much always, he gets his blanket and wiggles his entire body. 

My sister was here over Thanksgiving with her 5 month old daughter and he was, surprisingly, afraid of the baby.  Naturally.  Those small, 15 pound humans ARE terribly frightening.  He would come near her sniffing, and then jump back.  This went on for like 3 hours and if she moved near him, he would bark at her. 

At one point, we were trying to get a picture of 3 generations of Harmer women and Tucker, never one to be left out, crammed himself into the picture but as far away from that awful baby as he could get just in case she attacked.

After the entire day went by, he finally started warming up to her and was able to get close, sniff her a bunch and even gave her some kisses.  Little does he know come March he is going to have one of those immersion, get over your fear, type experiences when there are two of those pint sized monsters in the house.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, this was the first time Drew and Ethan were meeting their new cousin, Naomi.  They were so gaga over her and took every opportunity they had to hold her and play with her.  They both also got a lesson on diaper changing from my sister and paid attention like it was the most riveting thing in the world.  They are going to be excellent big brothers although I have a feeling their current zeal about helping with babies and diaper changing is going to diminish some once their new siblings are actually here.

In other news, a few weeks ago, I had my 20 week ultrasound to check the babies development and to find out gender.  I was really hoping for at least one girl in there.  Someone who will actually, willingly and without out an ironclad itinerary, go to the mall with me, or who agrees with me that Dirty Jobs is not the greatest show ever.  But alas, no.  Both babies are definitely male.  I guess peed on toilet seats and fart humor are my destiny.  Both babies are healthy as can be and because of their gender's being the same and the way they present in utero, we won't be sure until they are born whether they are identical twins or fraternal.  I am kind of hoping for fraternal as I have worries about somehow mixing up the babies in some fundamental way if they look the same.  However, my friend with identical twins assures me that it only takes a week or two to be able to tell them apart. 

On a side note, if you encounter a friend or heck, a complete stranger who is pregnant with twins, please, please refrain from asking if they did fertility treatments or pointing out that they are going to be huge.  If I had a nickel for every time I have heard either thing since being pregnant, I would be rich.  Why people feel the need to know how you conceived is beyond me and one of these days some poor soul is going to get a very sarcastic, "well, you know, when a man and a woman love each other.....", type speech from me.  Also, I am fully aware, thank you very much, that I am going to be larger than someone pregnant with one baby.  You do not need to remind me. 

So, I think that is a sufficient update for now and since my Christmas shopping is done hopefully, I won't be such an absentee blogger. 

Trying to Adjust My Attitude

I have been having one of those weeks where I feel like I just want to get in bed, cram a pillow over my face and be done. Strange thing though is that I feel like that but really nothing terribly horrendous has really happened this week.

Here is the recap:

                                                    from here

Kevin and I both have a heinous cold/flu thingy going on. 


                                                                          from here

I got a speeding ticket.  I would like to say it was my first or that I haven't had one in a million years but none of that is true.  Moral of the story, I need to drive slower.

                                          from here

And, I chipped one of my front teeth.  The only recurring dream I have is one where I completely lose one of my front teeth, I go to the dentist and he tells me there is nothing I can do but look like a backwater hillbilly.  Horrifying!  Fortunately, it was just a tiny chip and just needed to be smoothed out but it made me feel old.

Also, my back is driving me nuts but nothing new there. 

See, nothing so horrible which makes me thing think I may need to adjust my attitude a bit.  So, inspired by my friend Carol, who finds 10 positives everyday, here are the positives of this week.

Tucker, or the Pupster as I like to call him, had his first case of the "zoomies".  If you have a Vizsla, you know the "zoomies" all too well but for those of you non V owners, the "zoomies" are when your V decides to run full blast in a circle inside or outside the house.  They run at top speed for an indeterminate amount of time and then just like that it is over.  The zoomies always make me laugh but Tucker with the "zoomies" had Kevin and I cracking up because he is so clumsy.

Kevin and I celebrated 15 years of marriage yesterday.  We went up to Beaver Creek a few weekends ago for our anniversary so we weren't going to do anything but he came home with these

and I made him a coconut cream pie that he likes.  After the kids went to bed we enjoyed a piece of pie and a cup of Theraflu and tried to see who could use the most tissues in an hour's time (I think Kevin won that one). 

Another plus, we planted our first vegetable garden this year.  I am a total black thumb.  In fact, when my parents recently spent a few months in Italy, I was, in a major lapse of judgement, put in charge of my mom's orchids during her absence.  I think there were like 6 to begin with and in what seemed like a horticultural version of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None", I slowly killed each and every one of them.  So I am excited to see our little garden growing.

One last positive, I am on a roll here, I had both my children cracking up this morning in the car as I was singing to the radio as loud as I could with my squeaky, hoarse, cold ravaged voice.  I love making them laugh.

See, really not so bad when you change what you focus on.

My Furry, Wet-Nosed Co-Pilot

Some people have God as their co-pilot, I have a 3 year old Vizsla. 

Since Polka Dot died a few months ago, Ella seems to not like being left home alone so I take her in the car quite a bit more.  The fur and the window goobs don't do much for the look of my interior but she loves it and is excellent in the car.  She sits in the passenger seat almost like a person and let's face it, window goobs aside, I do enjoy being treated like a hero when I return from inside Target. 

Oftentimes, I take her to drop the kids at school or to pick them up.  When I drop them off, she always cries when they walk away and when I pick them up, she watches for them so carefully and cries in anticipation of seeing her two boys.  Once she saw a boy far off about Ethan's size also with brown hair and glasses and she got really excited, tail wagging, body wiggling, and then was so disappointed when she realized it wasn't him.

Here she is waiting today:

And then, she finally spots Ethan.......

The kids love when I bring her because as happy as I am to see them at the end of the day, my enthusiasm can't match a wiggling, wagging, licking ball of fur. 

If This Were A Jeopardy Category, It Would be Called Potpourri

I felt like posting something today but I don't have anything sort of cohesive to talk about so you are getting a mishmash of thoughts, hence the potpourri reference (plus, the word potpourri just makes me laugh, there is something innately cheesy about that word, isn't there?). 

Spring!!!!!

I am seeing evidence of spring around here lately.  It is supposed to be in the upper 60's and low 70's here this week, bulbs are peeking up in the yard, birds have been around lately and Ella managed to scare up a wasp at the dog park last week, which of course she tried to eat and which of course stung her.  The sun beating down on me like so,

This photo was taken by my talented friend Holly last summer, can you see all the gals in my sunglasses?  Oh, and please excuse my fuzzy hair, rolled out of bed to go hiking.

seems just around the bend.  Warm weather, rattlesnake season, short sleeves, flip flops and hiking in the mountains with Kevin and the boys is not too far off!

French Press

from here

For Christmas this year, Kevin got me a French press and a coffee grinder.  I was raised Mormon (no longer practice) so I never even had coffee until my 20's and never made coffee myself until I got this French press.  Prior to getting this, I drank coffee maybe once or twice a week and now with the in-house coffee apparatus, it is becoming a daily habit.  I love how rich the coffee tastes from the French press.  When I first got it, I googled how to make coffee in a French press and you wouldn't believe how what seems a simple process can be subject to various rules, many different techniques and heated debate - do you let sit for 4 minutes or 5??? 

Satan's Handiwork Perhaps?

A few weeks ago while shopping at Target, Kevin picked up these

We have a local sandwich shop that makes their own salt and pepper potato chips.  You might think pepper on chips????  Crazy!  Before trying one of the free samples at the sandwich place, I would have thought the same but the pepper is amazing, especially with a sandwich.  So a few weeks ago, Kevin picked these out to try and they are insanely good.  Kind of a kettle style chip (they come in a baked variety too) with the salt and pepper.  So good but so bad.  If I post in a few months about my thighs rubbing together, well, chances are the chip had something to do with it.

A New Addition to the Family

Just last week, Kevin and I completed our adoption paperwork.  Soon there will be a home visit and a phone interview and then shortly after that, we will have ourselves another one of these

When we picked up Ella, her foster mom had just rescued these puppies from a breeder who, unable to sell them, was going to just shoot them rather than spend the money feeding them.  How could you shoot that??????

Our sun worshipper

We have had Ella about a year and a half now and one thing we have learned about Vizsla's in that time is that they love to bake in the sun. Probably something to do with that thin coat and being cold easily. This morning I found her wedged into a patch of sun on the stairs.

The other thing with the thin coat/getting cold easily stuff is that in winter, during the night she often gets cold. Our first winter with her, she would wake up during the night, crying and sometimes suggestively nosing the edge of our down comforter. Realizing she was cold, we got her a doggy heating pad for her dog bed.

Still waking up in the night crying.

Then we bought a blanket and put her to bed every night with her doggy heating pad AND a blanket covering her.

Still waking up crying.

I was complaining to my mother about the having to get up in the night and cover our crying baby with a blanket and she, being a seamstress extraordinaire, came over with a tape measure and whipped up this little number for Ella to sleep in.

Does the trick on the cold nights and provides entertainment for Kevin and me because she looks completely dorky in it. Like the other dogs at the dog park would beat her up if they saw her in it. I think it looks a bit like a Snuggie and that thought had me briefly, and I mean briefly, considering setting her up with her bed jacket on, a bowl of popcorn and a remote on the couch and using that photo for this post but then the logistics of keeping her face out of the popcorn long enough to take a picture stopped me.

Playdate for Ella

Since Polka Dot died last month, Ella has been missing having other dogs around. My friend Kelly and I have been trying to meet up weekly at our local dog park so Ella can play with her dog friends Lily and Bandit.

Ella pretty much runs full speed the entire hour we are at the dog park. If she can find a dog to chase her, she is in heaven but if not, she will still run her guts out regardless.

Bandit was trying to get Lily, who had snow stuck in her pads, up and moving with some backup from Ella. As usual, Ella is approaching the problem with maybe a tad more gusto than it actually requires.

A brief pause from running and attempting to kiss all the humans to pose for me.

After a trip to the dog park, Ella pretty much spends the rest of the day like this. She has two speeds, full blast and asleep, and not much else in between.

Coming Soon!

I know, I stink at blogging lately. There are so many things I need to get on here like Drew's 11th birthday, Christmas, some zany Vizsla tales and one Vizsla birthday. I have thought about it but then when it came time to actually sit down and post, well, other things have gotten in the way. I have been a little preoccupied with my actual life and that big time suck also known as Christmas.

So, in the coming days there will be at least one post about something listed above. Promise.

World's Slobbiest Vizsla

We recently bought some new dog food that has pieces of shredded chicken mixed in with the kibble. Ella has decided that those chicken bits are the best thing ever. Her new method of eating is to take a mouthful of food from the bowl, spit the entire mouthful out onto the floor and eat out the only the chicken bits.

One of my personal favorite techniques is when she decides to eat while we are eating. Her food is in the dining room and we are eating at the kitchen table. She will transport her mouthful of dog food to the kitchen, spit it on the floor and then eat her chicken bits. I am then left with bits of dog food strewn all about the house.

The "well cooked" Vizsla connundrum

Last year sometime, I wrote a blog post called, "I Like My Vizsla Well Cooked" (http://coloradocovingtons.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-like-my-vizsla-well-cooked.html). It had a picture of Ella splayed out on the deck baking in the sun. A common occurence around here during warmer weather.

Recently I have noticed an odd trend. At the bottom of the blog page I have a little Feedjit tracker thingy. It tells me where people are from who look at the blog and will also tell if they arrive at the main blog page or if they have come to a specific post. About two months ago, I noticed that there are a lot of people showing up in the traffic feed who are coming straight to the well cooked vizsla posting. Upon looking more, I noticed there is almost one every day and several throughout the week.

I was little perplexed about how these people were ending up on my blog so I went to Google and google searched various terms and, voila, after I searched "cooked vizsla", there was my blog post, number 3 in the list.

Which begs the question, are these people really wanting to cook a vizsla? Ewwwww. Aside from being wonderful dogs, they are also extremely active and I am quite sure would be gamey and tough. Please don't eat vizsla people! They are for snuggling with not eating!

One Year of Vizsla Mania!

May 31st was our one year anniversary of having Ms. Ella in our house. One year ago we drove to Kansas to pick her up from her foster mom's house. We arranged to adopt her from Colorado/Wyoming Vizsla Rescue (http://www.coloradovizsla.org/) after deciding we wanted a second dog and thinking that a Vizsla would meet our lifestyle. When her foster mom called me to give me some information about her, I remember asking her, "what is Ella like?" Polly, her foster mom, just kind of chuckled and said, "oooohhhh, what can I say about Ella". At the time, I wasn't sure what that meant.

After some thought we decided to go get her and bring her home (really seeing her picture sealed the deal for me. How could I not go?). So Kevin and I hopped in the car and drove to the middle of nowhere Kansas. The kind of area where there is more than one farm tractor on the road and everyone you pass waves assuming if you are on that road, you must be part of the community.

We picked her up and then spent 4 hours with her in the car driving back to Colorado. She seemed so quiet at the time and we both thought it was hilarious how she sat up in the seat like a person would.

The past year with her has been so much fun and I can't imagine life without her in our house. She makes me laugh pretty much everyday with her antics and I now know what Polly meant with that chuckle. She is the only dog I have ever met who will hike up one butt cheek and plant it on the couch and then stand there, with 3 legs on the ground and a back hip resting on the couch with the 4th foot dangling. Like she is perching there. When I took her to the vet, she had the vet cracking up as she sat, like a person, in the exam room chair.

She is also super vocal. We are always laughing at her "talking" and all the funny sounds she makes when she is having one of her Vizsla fits, as we call it, laying on her side on her dogbed, kicking her legs and making the funniest of sounds.

She loves to go outside every morning and hunt and I love nothing more than to stand at the kitchen window with my cereal watching her get into her point and then creeping every so slowly toward some squirrel or bird who has dared to infiltrate the yard. What I don't love so much are the dead birds that come back into the house in her mouth.

It cracks me up how every morning I move her dog bed that is in our family room back its spot in the corner and every night, she takes it with her teeth and drags it between both of the couches and closer to us. Every night.

I love the wrinkly skin under her chin and the way her lips bunch up sometimes. Always makes me laugh.

What can I say, I love that dog. Here is video of her showing off her twisty, I am listening to you, head and a small bunchy lip.

An update

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I have had a bit of blogger's block lately and have also been really busy. So, here is just a brief update of the going's on in our house recently.

• On Friday, Drew participated in the school talent show. He told 4 knock knock jokes and did an awesome job. We were so proud of him.

• I realized just the other day that it has officially been 1 year since I last ran. Feel a bit blue about that but I am doing all I can to recover from my injury and that is all I can do.

• The neighbors installed a chicken coop in their backyard which they put right up against our fence. As you can imagine, a certain red bird-dog is going nuts about that. Obsessing over that spot on the fence, scratching at the fence, and, my personal favorite, yipping like there is no tomorrow. Going to have to have a conversation with the neighbor I think.

• I am enjoying doing my Children's Hospital volunteer work every Wednesday morning although last week did a number on me. I was asked to go down to the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) to play with one of our oncology patients who was getting a dangerous chemo that necessitated him being in the PICU for monitoring. All the rooms in the PICU are glass walled so the nurses can see the very sick patients at all times. My supervisor told me to try not to look in the rooms. The room I was going to happened to be at the end of the unit and in walking through and turning a corner, well, I saw some things no parent would ever want to see. Totally threw me and at the same time made me really thankful to have two whole and healthy children.

• Kevin turned 40 last week and I can now tease him about being officially middle aged.

• My parents took the kids to San Diego when they were off track last month. They both had a blast but after a week of eating out for every meal, Ethan was getting sick of the food. My mom said he kept telling her, "my mom's food is way better than this!" At Legoland one day, they got him a slushy and he took one sip and put it aside. My mom asked him if he was going to eat it and he said, serious as can be, "grandma, I have had tons of slushies in my life and THIS is one terrible slushy!" Apparently all those high faluting 7-11 slushies have made him a bit of a slushy diva.

And, there you have it. A brief recap of our activities for the past several weeks.

A Vizsla/Lab Cocktail

Last week we dogsat my parent's 3 year old Lab, Lola, while they were away in Sedona. Ella loves having Lola to stay because she provides the perfect partner to run with, wrestle with and chew on. Both of them are slightly nuts and both are either going full tilt or they are asleep, there is no middle speed.

One night after dinner, Lola, who had been laying under the table while we ate, got up and was wet. I checked and she had peed all over while she was laying on the floor. I was a bit concerned but then thought maybe it was a fluke. The next night, same thing. I called the vet and couldn't get her in until after my parents would be home. She was also walking around dribbling a bit.

In the interest of saving my floors from urine dribbles, I went to Petsmart to buy some doggie diapers. I have to admit, it took all my self control to not bust out laughing when I had to ask the Petsmart employee which aisle had the dog diapers. There was some serious laughing when I came home and put the diaper on the dog. Nothing like a 75 lb dog in a diaper.

When my parents returned, they took Lola in to the vet. My dad was explaining what had happened and how none of those things have ever happened when she is at their house. The vet asked about what my house is like. My dad said, "well, they have 2 dogs, a 12 year old Dalmatian and a 2 year old Vizsla".

At the mention of the word Vizsla, the vet stopped him right there and said, "I think I know what the problem is". Basically, my wacky Vizsla so wears out my parent's Lab that she collapses, exhausted and no longer has any muscle control and pees. Lola, living in a one dog, no kid house apparently doesn't have the stamina for the Vizsla workout. Kind of like putting a couch potato into a Special Forces taught boot camp. It is also probably why Ella eats like it is Thanksgiving but still resembles a Brazilian supermodel.