Oh GOD, Spring Break

You know what? Not everyone can take off the same week in April, OK? I hate spring break. I don't have this kind of time to figure out what to do with my kids while half my company heads to the beach with theirs. Jeremiah couldn't even take a single day because someone else in his department already had the whole week. Lucky for us neither of our companies has a "What is, this, a daycare?" policy and we have Joy. The combination plus my taking off Monday gets our week covered, but let me tell you something, trying to work while your kids are in your office is exhausting. It's like doing 2 full time jobs simultaneously and I just can't hack it. I'm not Jamaican! Anyway, Monday was really nice. So let's focus on that.

For starters, more sunshine, more temperatures in the upper 70s. The girls and I walked to Sun in My Belly for breakfast [as I write this, Lydia, ever faithful, every vigilant, ever flatulent, is by my side. The whole room smells like a big turd. We really need to address her diet]. I gave Kate the camera while we walked to breakfast. Here's the work of my starving artist:

Breakfast was delicious, as always. We wrapped that up so we could scoot to our next exciting activity. A visit to the park with friends! We walked from breakfast to McKoy Park where we met Dean and Kennedi from Sarah's class. They laughed. They cried (literally). They grew together, individually and as a group.


Then it was back home with my girls for lunch. From there, we were off to REI, where Kate and Sarah became the proud new owners of some summer shoes. The fact that these shoes are waterproof is a huge hit with them. Once home from REI, I broke the once-a-week treat day rule and baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for them, and we snacked on milk and cookies while watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (again) together. A very good day.

They spent the last 2 days at work with Daddy and Mommy, respectively. What a pain. I'm so tired I don't even know I'm typing this.

Rough Week

Last Friday and Sunday nights it stormed so dramatically it woke us up. I love a good storm, but Sunday, especially, the lightning was so incessant the room was brightly lit. Monday night Kate had a nightmare and climbed into bed with us, where she immediately spread out like ink on a paper towel. That kept us awake, too. Tuesday night it stormed again, and woke up the dogs. Wednesday night Sarah had a nightmare. Thursday night Kate wet the bed.

So it was with heavy lids as well as heavy hearts, that we had to say farewell to our beloved Fluffernutter, Max. Maxie hadn't been doing well for some time. She had cancer, in the form of a tumor on her back. The vet said it's very common for pets to develop cancerous tumors there, because that's the choice spot for injecting vaccines. Then she said, to my dropped jaw and wide eyes "so now we vaccinate them in the leg, because if they get cancer there, we can just remove the limb". Anyway. They removed the tumor once, but assured us we were just buying her time, which we thought was a great idea. Max had stopped cleaning herself. She's stopped hanging out with us at all. She would occasionally hang out in the hallway and cry. It was time.


Jeremiah took the day off work, because he didn't want to be all up in Vampire Diaries' business while mourning his Other Woman. The one who preceded me, in fact. I went to work, so I had to say goodbye to her before I headed out this morning. She purred and nuzzled into my forehead, like she liked to do, and then I cried the whole way to work.

Most people knew Max as Evil Max, and it's true, she's drawn a lot of blood in her time. To us, though, she was sweet. She'd leap up on my chest at night as I tried to read, and make biscuits on me while purring away. Then settle in, right where my book should go. She loved crinkle fries and if you threw one to ground for her, she would stalk it like cunning prey until the time came to dismember and devour it. She used to love to beat the crap out of Lola. I'd like to think she's doing that right now.

Sarah took the news stoically, but Kate cried and cried. Having to explain to the kids that a beloved pet has died is just insult to injury. We miss Max, the world's most beautiful feline. I'm sure she's got a sweet paper bag coated in catnip somewhere now.

Lydia lives!

Well folks, Lydia's had her muzzle off since Monday and her e-collar off since yesterday. She's doing fine, attacking Monkey with obnoxious abandon. That sort of behavior could well be what got her into this fix, but we're keeping an eye on that. Monday evening, we discovered a gaping hole in Rex the cat's side. So it was back to the vet with us. He's fine, too, but we're ready to get rid of all the pets at this point. We don't know what caused Rex's hole. It was not, as I feared, a disease akin to that which killed my brother's Oscars - Hole in the Head disease (it's a thing!), it is more likely the dogs played too rough with Rex, who is entirely too tolerant of their shenanigans.

Kate took these photos with my phone this morning, to prove Lydia's fine.

A Bit More Lydia

Lydia Oh Lydia, Say Have You Met Lydia?

The weekend lovefest with Veronica and sometimes Jake, too, convinced us that Monkey really, really needs a friend. Someone to get up to shenanigans with while we're at work. So, we got him one. Today we trekked back to Madison to meet a few of the litter of 9 pups whose mama is a golden retriever/yellow lab mix. We met at the home of a woman who offers housing to many of the rescued pups for the Companion Animal Rescue, Inc. In addition to space for the rescue dogs to bed down, run and play, she has at least 4 of her own dogs, llamas, emus, pheasants, chickens, turkeys, burrows, ponies, a horse, some goats, a sheep and probably something I've forgotten. It was fun. Monkey got to play with the puppies, and we took home the one that seemed to fawn over him the most. This is Lydia. When we got her here, we hadn't had time to go to the pet store yet. Jeremiah plopped Monkey's favorite toy in front of her and we held our breath a little. Monkey seemed unperturbed, but the real cuteness came when Lydia lost interest, found her way to my lap, and Monkey brought the toy over to us and dropped it in front of Lydia. She brings balance to the household. Two adults, two little girls, two cats...finally, two dogs. We have lost our minds. Here are some photos of the day for your enjoyment. I am. Tired.

How horrific would it be if this shot of Sarah were with zombies instead of puppies?

Monkey insists upon riding safely. Fetch him his driving gloves and goggles, we're heading into town.

I realize there are very few actual puppy shots here. I'm amassing them, not to worry. I'll post more this weekend.

Friday Night

Popsicles, made fresh locally by The King of Pops. Blackberry Cream. Yum.



Monkey thought the self portrait idea was stupid.

Rex, King of Nature

Rex would like nothing more than to frolic, free, in the back yard. He wants to chase the butterflies and roll around in the warm mulch and eat bugs and terrorize birds. This is not allowed, though, because we live on busy East Lake and there is a large hawk that likes to hang out in our back yard. I'd been avoiding mentioning that we think he took out our chickadee family, but there you are.

Each day when we arrive home from work/school/daycare, we enter through the kitchen door, and Rex is quietly waiting. He darts past my feet into the garden, under some plant or another. Kate dutifully trudges out, scoops up the recalcitrant cat, and carries him back in. He always looks so defeated. Poor little guy. I'd love to let him go play, were I not worried I'd be scraping him off the blacktop later.

The other day we watched a special on PBS about agility training for pets. They started with dogs, no big news there, but then they moved on to cats and Kate was fascinated. "I'm going to work with cats now", she informed me, after watching all things cats could be trained to do. I decided that since Rex wanted so badly to be outdoors, I would let Kate work with him. So, I picked up a kitty harness called Come With Me Kitty, which I thought seemed to bode a bit ill because it sounds like kitty's about to get in trouble. Still, it was worth a shot.

Rex sat peacefully in my lap while I fitted the device on him. Then I took him out for a trial run. I carried him outside, and he instantly laid down, rolled over on his back and looked angry. So that went well. Kate has tried twice with him now. This is not what Rex had in mind when I said to him "Rex, would you like to go outside?" and his heart leapt. Oh, cruel irony of life. He is most likely looking for something of mine to pee on as I write this.

For Mom and Dad

Oh no, Betta

This is Sugar Ray. Jeremiah won him at a ping pong toss at his office. Apparently that's what he does at his job. It was employee appreciation week last week. We don't have that at my office because we're appreciated every day. We just have to...remember that...on our own. Jeremiah said he wasn't going to bother with the ping pong toss but then he decided the girls would really love having a betta fish. Oh joy. Another mouth to feed.

Of course Jeremiah was completely right, Kate and Sarah were thrilled to meet the fish. They like taking turns feeding him. We have to tell Kate not to feed him during non-sanctioned feeding sessions because, we explained, he will eat himself to death. Sugar Ray currently resides on the counter in the kitchen which I suppose is meant to be some sort of dieting tool. "Eat too much - die. Any questions?"

So far, though, no one has fed the fish to death. I keep checking. Sugar Ray merrily swims around in his tiny tank, discovering and forgetting each detail of his special living space over and over every day while he awaits the inevitable.

There will be a head for you...a tail for me.

Kate told me matter-of-factly "we had a pet fish in the classroom and he died. It was tragic." Thus far, that has been her only commentary to me on the topic of fish-keeping and Sarah has remained silent. Hope they can maintain that stiff upper lip because that black cat is crazy and everyone knows the fluffy one is pure evil.

Lola Love

It's a good thing we got the kind of dog that will never die, because I don't know how Sarah would fall asleep without Lola.

Smoothie for Lola

Yes, the only ingredient in this smoothie is dog food pellets.

Oops, spillage. Lola deems it the best smoothie ever.