Just A Typical Day Around Here

Yesterday turned out to be a surprisingly eventful day.

Let's not forget the fact that I started the day off by finishing three handknit items *smiles smugly to self, please try hard not to punch me*

The day took a turn for the worse when my poor Bird came down with her very first migraine. She appeared before me looking pale and announced "I finished my reading and now my eyes are full of colors." I questioned her some more about the colors. She said they were bright and they made shapes "that aren't real shapes." Poor baby. I gave her some tylenol (which she loves), half a can of Dr Thunder (which she hated) and then she laid down in my bed with some ice packs and my mp3 player to listen to an audiobook (she requested Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2, imagine her surprise when I explained there was only one Deathly Hallows book).

When she woke up later I asked her if the ice packs and the nap helped. She nodded yes and then declared "Harry Potter really helped too." I'm sure he did baby.

 In an effort to keep the house quiet for the sleeping Princess I gave Sweet Pea highlights.

Purple highlights!

And we painted our nails.

Later I got dressed to go to knitting group.  I realized I had combed my hair, and put on make up, and I looked kinda presentable.

Then I realized the newly wound ball of sock yarn I had prepared to take with me to knitting group was a perfect match for my shirt.

Then I realized my shirt was also a perfect match for my newly finished sweater.

I really do have a sickness.

 Of course it seemed like the perfect time to have a few pictures snapped of me modeling my awesome new sweater for my blog.

Then I remembered that I feel dumb having my picture take. That and my twelve year old is a terrible photographer (sorry baby. You've got lots of other talents, but photography simply isn't one of them.  Go back to writing your novel).

 So we ended up with shots like this

"The thinker"

"Surprise"

"Laughing so hard at what big dorks we are"

I did manage to get an almost presentable shot of the back out of her.

It is slightly blurry, but at least it is not a picture of my butt a la The Greatest. I'll give you all the relevant deets on my sweater tomorrow. I am already too picture heavy today.

All in all it wasn't a bad day.

I'm So Impressive (and apparently vain)

This morning I finished three of my UFOs (unfinished objects for you uninitiated types).

Aren't they pretty all folded and stacked like that? I think I'll leave them on my kitchen counter all day so as I walk around doing my housewife thing I can randomly stop and admire the squishy colors and textures.

 Then again I have to cook in my kitchen later (those children will insist on being fed three times a day). And cooking can get messy. I'd hate to have bits of splattered food on all my pretty squishy knits. I'd better go find a safer place to store my precious.

 I finished these three hand knits this morning. If you're really lucky I'll put some make up on at some point in the next few days and I'll show them off. But finishing three hand knits in one morning is not the impressive part of my post. Not the point I'm eventually going to make. The knitting was all done on these things. In one case, had been done for weeks. I was just weaving the ends in. Boring work, but I had Grey's Anatomy to keep me company, so it wasn't so bad. Even if it was the one with the shooter. No the impressive part, and my eventual point is this.

That is my left over yarn from the three FOs (for you muggles, that's finished objects). It was a photo finish with each one. No wasted yarn in my house.

S I'm getting pretty good at this knitting thing dontcha think?

A Little Snippet of Happiness

It doesn't matter how old they are, a fresh batch of playdough is magic.

They are all playing quietly and happily and there is a distinct lack of bickering.

Like I said MAGIC.

P.S.  Todays playdough recipe came from here.  I used liquid food color instead of gel.   And I wore gloves.  I'm really glad I wore gloves.

P.S.S.  I hate the new blogger dashboard/post editing page.  I have no idea when they changed it (obviously I need to blog more), but I hate it. That is all.

Sad

On May 26th we suffered a devastating loss in our home. On April 3rd our old dog had surgery to remove tumors from her abdomen. Again. It was a really hard recovery. For a while there we weren't sure if she was going to make it. But she did. She made a full recovery and was actually better than she was before thanks to the series of cortisone shots the vet gave her for the arthritis in her hips. She was fourteen years old, which is quite old for a dalmatian, so her death should not have been such a shock, but it was. She died on May 26th, 2012. There was no sign that she was going to die that day. She just did.

 The day before she died The Greatest and I were sitting in the backyard, enjoying the sunshine before the heat of the day made the patio unbearable. Our old dog was following Sweet Pea all around the backyard. She was holding a small rock in her hand (for reasons unknown to me). Old dog was hopeful that she was holding food, and she trailed after Sweet Pea, everywhere her wanderings took her, just hoping the food would fall, or that Sweet Pea would voluntarily feed her (as Sweet Pea is known to do) but she never tried to take the imagined food from Sweet Pea's hand. I remarked to The Greatest on what a good dog she was, and how very glad I was that she hadn't died from her surgery.

 And the next day we came home from shopping to find her on the kitchen floor. She was panting so hard, and couldn't stand. We moved her to the carpet where she would be more comfortable. She was unresponsive. The Greatest used a syringe to put some water in her mouth, and she came around for a minute. She looked at us, she responded to her name. I was trying to look up the number for an emergency vet. And then she died. It happened very quickly.  I think she was waiting for us to come back home.

 I miss her so much. I still turn to let her out to potty, or chase her out of the kitchen when I am cooking. I step over her when I am making me bed, but she isn't there. I just miss her so much.

 The Greatest and I married young, and I moved hundreds of miles away from my family to live with him on a military base. We were so poor we couldn't even afford a phone, but we had each other and that was the important thing right? It was all new and exciting and romantic. And a little lonely, miles away from my friends and family, without even a phone to talk to them (and because we are so very old, there was no internet/e-mail). So he bought me a puppy. I wanted a dalmatian, so he drove an hour into the back woods of the Carolinas to find me the cutest dalmatian puppy I had ever seen. She was the runt, which made me love her more, she was a fighter. And she was brown and white, not black and white. She was different and adorable. This was his gift to me, his young bride. She made us a family. I have never known married life without her. My children have never known life without our good dog.

 She was often infuriating. She was hard to potty train and the occasional accidents were something we dealt with her entire life. Sometimes she would decide she just had to run, and she would knock you out of the way to run out the front door to sweet freedom. She would run and run and run, and come home when she was tired. One day she ran so much she sprained her tail. Eventually we learned that if we chased her she would just run further, as long as we were within eyesight she would keep going. But if we stayed put, she would only go as far as she could see the house.  She drove us crazy sometimes.

But she was also a very good dog.  She was gentle and protective of the children.  She got along well with the other animals in the house.  She was my dog and I love her so.

Rest in peace old dog.  Our family is not the same without you.