Spring Weekend

Finally! After 547 days of snow and rain and then some more rain we had a spectacular weekend here in southeastern Pennsylvania. It was also a weekend jam-packed with activities. The fun stuff started on Friday night when Hannah and Liz (and Rob and I) attended our first family dance at the elementary school. This was the first school dance that Hannah and Liz (and quite possibly Rob) had ever attended and so there was MUCH excitement. Hannah changed her clothes THREE times and finally decided on a combination of several of her outfits. Lizzie combed her hair. Hannah danced from the moment we entered the gym until we dragged her home nearly 2 hours later. Lizzie sat on my lap in the back of the gym saying she might dance "the next one." This didn't faze me though, because I've heard the same line from her father for nearly 20 years. She did actually dance twice when her friend Keira made her. And she did think the dance was fun.
Hannah had a great time and told me the only thing that would have been better would have been if the lights had all gone off and then a single spotlight shown on her and Freddie (from iCarly) as they danced together. Yeah, I'm not worried about her teen years at all.... Here they are just before we left for the dance.On Saturday it was in the low 70s, bright sunshine with a tiny breeze and lots of fresh air. So what did we do? We got ourselves bundled into jackets and long pants and gloves and went ice skating with the Girl Scouts. My troop was coordinating the activity and roughly 175 girls showed up at the rink to skate, including Hannah and Lizzie. This was the first time on skates for both girls and luckily the rink had these trainer things so Rob (and I) didn't have to get on the ice to skate with them. It took Hannah about 10 seconds to start doing tricks:

And a couple more seconds to start making faces at me when I told her to watch out for the other skaters...

Here's Lizzie trying to skate without her trainer. It took her a little while, but she did it. She fell down a few times, but she didn't care. She was determined to skate like the big kids...

Hannah just kept whizzing by doing her tricks with the trainer. She actually would jump up into the air and then land again ...

Here Lizzie does a little work with the trainer. She really only wanted to use it to practice balancing before she did a lap without it. They both had a GREAT time (and we collected nearly 350 items for the food drive) and Rob decided that the next time I dragged him to an event like this he'd bring a book.

No spring weekend would be complete without dinner on the deck. Here we are about to dig into burgers (Hannah obviously wanted chicken...). You can see Cash in the background there. I put a very long chain in the backyard so he can hang out with us when we're out there, without having to be watched every second.

Here are the delicious burgers being made, while the new puppy checks the perimeter:

In between all the fun, of course, was more fun with the new dog. Cash is very well-loved and even had his first bath this weekend. Stay tuned for pictures from that activity taken by Hannah! We also went to our favorite park. Here's Hannah relaxing and probably dreaming of Freddie:

Yup, DEFINITELY thinking of Freddie: :)

And Lizzie, sharing a giggle with her Dad. It was really a great weekend and we were back to pouring rain on Monday, so it was really really really a nice break. We hope you all had a nice weekend, too!

Oh yeah, and I intruded on the Amish again and snapped this picture of a pick-up baseball game at the park:

Simple Woman's Daybook

For March 19

Outside my window... Brilliant, beautiful sunshine! I haven't had to wear a coat in three days now and it's almost like Mother Nature is making up for all the gross cold and snow of the past 47 weeks. The birds are singing, there isn't a cloud in the sky and it's looking pretty much like a Disney movie outside my window.

I am thinking... about getting a dog. Oh wait, I already HAVE a dog. So really what I'm thinking about are Cash's bowel and bladder habits. We're housebreaking and I think Cash has ALMOST got me trained...

I am thankful ... for this beautiful spate of warm weather. I sincerely hated the deluge we had this past weekend (something like 12 inches of rain in an hour) but if it made the way clear for this spring-y weather, I'm all for it.

From the kitchen... Typical Friday in Lent dinner. Tuna sandwiches and chips. When I was a kid we always had fishsticks and french fries (no ketchup) on Fridays in Lent. Today is actually St. Joseph's day or something so the priest said that the Lenten restrictions were waived, but I like tuna, so we're sticking with that.

I am wearing... green shirt with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania logo, black leggings, barefeet.

I am creating... fiction! I've been reading a lot lately and whenever I read it always makes me want to write fiction. So I pulled out some old stuff. I have no idea if I'll finish anything, but it's fun to be able to make stuff up once in a while!

I am going ... to make an appointment with a new doctor for next week (although it's likely I won't get in for a month). She's an M.D. (mom) but she's also a holistic healer type of person and I think she might be able to help me with weight loss.

I am reading... Shutter Island. The movie just came out and I was reading a review that said the movie was almost as good as the book, so I figured I'd read the book. Just started it and so far I really like it.

I am hoping... that Cash's housebreaking improves. He's perfect during the day when it's just me and him, but when the girls get home, or on weekends, things get too crazy.

I am praying ... for my blog readers.

I am hearing... Hannah reading to Rob ... so sweet (and she's getting really good at reading!)

Around the house... one mess after another. I've got to get to it all this weekend before the piles overtake the house. The floors are muddy from the dog, stuff is stacked high to keep it away from the dog and the furniture is all moved around to keep the dog from getting at places that he shouldn't be getting. We need a spring cleaning soon!!!

One of my favorite things... is the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania. I've made some wonderful friends in the other leaders and I think our service unit (our little section of the council) is really good. Lots of things planned for the remainder of this year and even more for next year. I love girl scouts!

A few plans for the week ahead... Busy weekend. We've got the school dance tonight and then ice skating with the Girl Scouts tomorrow evening. Sunday is CCD and I'm hoping we'll be able to get out for a picnic before it turns cold again. Next week I'll be bringing our Service Unit's food donations to the North Coventry Food Pantry and trying to get my dog to learn to pee OUTSIDE the house.

A picture I am sharing... When I asked Hannah what she was doing, she responded: "I'm pretending to be you!" And you know, she's got it down pretty good!!

Puppy Love

Let me tell you one thing that I've learned about puppies in the past four days. They do not care if it's raining outside. They want to go out and load up their paws with mud and then come inside and slide all over the hardwood floors. However, they also do not want to PEE outside. Just play. So here's a picture of the very wet Lizzie and Cash after one of our trips of folly outside to see if Cash would continue in his stellar housebreaking attempt. He peed on the floor about three seconds after this photo was taken. And luckily, none of us really minds being soaked to the skin. We are having a deluge here today -- something like 4 inches of rain on top of the already saturated backyard. It's like a giant puddle out there. To be honest, I wouldn't want to pee out there either.
As you can see though, there's lots of love for Cash, wet or dry.

Oh, for sure, we've had our moments. We got the dog on Tuesday and almost returned him (not really) on Wednesday because Hannah and Lizzie were both jealous of the dog, mad at me, jealous of my relationship with the dog and overtired. So poor Rob came home to crying wife and kids. We were all fine by the next morning though. And having Cash is FUN. Like for instance on Friday I knew we were going to have this deluge so I went to the Walmart and bought him these wee wee pads so that he would have a place to "go" if he didn't want to go outside (or, I'm sure you've guessed, if I didn't want to go outside.) Well, while I was making lunch, Cash ATE the wee-wee pad I put down for him, and then pooped on the floor. Good times. Here's the photographic evidence of the digesting wee-wee pad. I'll leave the other to your imagination...

The girls have different relationships with Cash. Lizzie wants to run around and around and around with him. Frankly Lizzie in general likes to run around and around and around, so it's nice for her to have a companion (although I have learned that Cash is only really allowed to run around the family room where he's confined most of the day until he's a little more consistent with housebreaking....) Here's one of only a few photos I have a her with Cash, because they are always on the move and the pictures are usually of her back or his back or general blurriness as they whiz by. This one was pretty blurry, too, but I sharpened it as best I could.

See what I mean? Always running, running, running. In this picture you can sort of see the barricade I've made to keep Cash in the family room. Of course he can easily jump over the chairs, but it works when it's just the two of us, or if the girls are in the room with him. Once anyone leaves, he wants to leave, too. Which is when he takes a little break in his crate.

I love this picture of Cash because 1) it's not raining outside and 2) you can see how his tail curls so adorably (or is that handsomely?) Most poodles' tails are docked shortly after birth, but the woman we bought him from's vet doesn't believe in docking, so his tail is longer. And curly! Here Cash is checking his email and deciding what to have for dinner...

And here is a picture of his relationship with Hannah. Hannah LOVES to just cuddle with him, so she's the go-to girl when he wants to chill. (And Aunt Anonymous, you don't have to leave a comment about letting the dog on the furniture ...)

Or when he wants to be groomed. Hannah's the only one he'll let brush him:

Hannah, however, gets VERY MAD when I don't let her do whatever she wants with Cash. This note was precipitated by my not allowing her to walk him outside for a potty run. In case you can't read it, it says: Mom, I do not love you. I love the dog beter (better). He is my pale (pal) your (you're) not.
So, there you have it...


And here you have a picture of how I responded to getting that note... ;)

In Love with Cash

If you read facebook or your email, this will not be a surprise to you, but SURPRISE!! we got a dog.

Finally, after seven years of waiting for the girls to turn five, we have added a pet to our family that does not require a tank. Rob and I (and by that I mean Rob) decided when the girls were small that five was a good age to get a dog.

Then five came and Rob developed pet amnesia.

In the fall, when our five year olds turned seven, Rob and I decided (and by that I mean I decided) it was time to get a dog.

And so here we are with a dog.

It's fulfills all of Rob's requirements, including it be non allergenic, pay for its own dinner and babysit Hannah and Lizzie.

Me? As soon as I read that standard poodles take walks reluctantly, can't spend too much time outside and need frequent naps, I was sold.

So, here's Cash -- named for Johnny Cash, the original man in black. I tried to get everyone to agree on D'Artagnan but no one except me could pronounce it. :(


I love this picture, so I'm starting with it. Both girls are totally in love with Cash, and so happy. Neither one of them wants to go to school tomorrow:
Cash seems pretty happy to live here now, too. In a really odd coincidence when we were waiting for the girls' bus today, he started to get really excited and go crazy when he saw the bus, even through he had no idea Hannah and Lizzie were on it. It's probably because he loves the color yellow or something, but I prefer to think that he knew his new people were on that bus:

Giving Cash his first bone (for the Garritys reading this, I think she looks so much like Tammy in this picture, with all the curls):

Such a handsome face:

Cash has already learned not to jump (although it may just be that he's in shock or suffering from Stockholm syndrome or something) but he loves to give kisses. Hannah likes them. Lizzie, not so much (which is why there are no pictures of the dog kissing her because she's usually screaming, CASH IS LICKING ME YUCK YUCK YUCK or something unphotogenic like that.) Here's a photo that will give you an idea of how big he is. He's 15 weeks old now, and will probably grow to about twice this size and weigh somewhere between 50 and 70 pounds.

Here's his cutie-pie face again, which I'm putting here so you can see the rhinestone bling on his collar.