All in a days work

As a wife, mother, homemaker and pet owner I sometimes do things I don't ordinarily do. Like today for instance. My friend Laura called and arranged for a time for our dogs Tiger Lily and Cate to get together for a play date, not out of the ordinary. While reading stories with my girls I looked out the window and noticed a possum walking towards our backyard, this happened last year, but it's not normal to see a possum in broad daylight. My babysitter arrived so I could go to my voice lesson, not out of the ordinary. My friend arrived with Cate her golden retriever. My babysitter's mom comes in to see Tiger Lily and Cate have their joyous reunion, and it was very joyous for all parties involved and both dogs excitedly bolt out the sliding door, not out of the ordinary. My friend Laura goes out after the dogs and then immiediately calls them back to her quickly, not ordinary. I help call Tiger Lily back in when I look out and see a gray furball curled in the snow cowering from the two excited dogs, not necessarily out of the ordinary, except this it an opossum. Anny arrives to accompany me to voice lessons in the midst of the dog drama, this might be considered ordinary for Anny since she witnessed the demise of Tiger Lily's first encounter with a frog.


Now I have 2 golden retrievers excitedly chasing each other around my front room, a house full of dear friends and a possum playing "possum" in my back yard. While the dogs waiting to go outside and play we're patiently waiting for the possum to quit playing "possum" and go on it's merry way. Would you consider this ordinary? After a few minutes the possum hasn't budged. I go outside to get a closer look and attempt to encourage the possum to go by tossing snow at it using my pooper scooper. All that happens is the possum flinches slightly as the snow lands on its back. No luck encouraging it to vacate my yard. Laura suggests using a shovel to put it over the fence. I liked the idea and went in my garage in search of a possum relocating tool. I find one in the form of my snow shovel.
I must admit I was a little nervous as to what the possum might do, this I would think would be an ordinary reaction. It didn't move much when I tossed some snow on top of it, but what would it do when I attempted to "relocate" it? I did a test run and slowly push the shovel slightly under its limp, pretending to be "lifeless" body. All that happened was it opened it's mouth and bared it's teeth a little but didn't move. I proceeded to scoop the possum up gently on my snow shovel, lifted it up over the fence and then debated a moment as to how to put it down. Do I fling it as far away as possible in case it decides it doesn't want to play possum anymore? Do I set it down gently and how do you do that with a snow shovel and a four foot fence? I decided to gently tip the shovel over and allow the possum to land gently in the foot of soft snow. Again I ask is this ordinary? The only exciting thing that happened upon "re-entry" into it's newly appointed possum spot was a lovely yellow trickle that covered the snow. Our new friend then resumed his roll of playing possum in its new spot. Mari documented the "relocation" so I have proof of this not so ordinary event.

How long it decided to play possum no one is quite sure. I felt my work at home was done and left my children in the care of my dear friend Mari, and the care of my dog with my dear friend Laura and her dog Cate, both of which are ordinary occurances.

Ordinary? I should say not, but definitely all in a days work.

Picture Time

I finally did it. I got my girl's pictures taken. Sadie's 1 year old picture was way overdue, but fortunately I got it taken before she turned 2! So Brooklyn had her 3 year picture taken and Sadie her 21 month picture. I found it so funny that Sadie who is the smiliest little thing around would hardly crack for the camera. Brooklyn did just great. They are just too adorable.

I just had to laugh Sadie and Brooklyn are watching Donald Duck cartoons and Sadie is eating an apple on the couch. Tiger just walked up to her, sat down right in front of her and was leaning in to snatch her apple. Sadie saw it coming and said "Bah! Lie down, Stay" she used the signal I use too, and afer telling Tiger Lily twice, Tiger actually laid down . Way to take charge Sadie!

Brooklyn just proudly showed me that she didn't have any seeds from her clementine orange in her mouth. Always a plus. At least I finally go both girls to eat something besides Cheerios. They've been eating Cheerios from morning, noon, til night and every time they're hungry in between. We're are just flying through it. Sadie seriously ate 3 big bowl fulls (as much as I would pour in a bowl for myself) for dinner the other night. At least it's somewhat healthy and has vitamins and nutrients. Between their milk and cheerios consumption they should have plenty of vitamin D, iron, and calcium in their systems.

Frozen in Time and Rambling On

Here I sit in the quiet solitude of my home at 12:54am. Relishing in the alone time that is seldom truly mine. I rode my exercise bike while watching Looney Tunes in an attempt to relieve and rebuild sore muscles from my weight lifting yesterday. No, it's not a New Year's resolution to get back in shape. I have yet to actually resolve to do anything for any particular new year. I try to resolve them as they come. But it is definitely time to get exercising regularly for my own sanity, physically, mentally and emotionally.

After a much needed bike ride, some fun abdominal work that I was reading about and trying from a new Strength Training Anatomy book I purchased over Christmas break and watching Animal Planet, I'm now in front of my computer making sure I didn't miss the temperature drop below 0 Degrees. Which I just checked it is now -4 degrees Fahrenheit out my kitchen window. Maybe now I can go to bed. Why do I like to check the weather? I don't know. I could get it from my dad or maybe it is something that is constantly changing. (I mean, I'm in Michigan it seriously changes from tornadoes to the most beautiful sunny day in less than 5 minutes!) I also wanted to make sure I got caught up on Facebook. I don't know if I should thank or hit my two friends that talked me into signing up for Facebook. It has literally become a lifeline for me, a connection with the outside world. Reminding me of fun times, hard times, great friends, and even greater friends who help you get through the hard times but you somehow lost touch over the years.

I'm grateful for technology it has made the world truly seem like such a smaller place. That I am closer to friends now than I have been for years. Though thankfully I never lost touch with my best friend. One who has always been there for me, long before we ever "dated" and who has always shown genuine love and concern for me, my wonderful husband Eric. As I watch my sweet husband struggle with the challenges medical school brings, I sit back in awe for I could not do it. It takes a special kind of person, one who I am lucky enough to be married to. January 10th was the day Eric proposed to me, it was six years ago! How quickly time has passed and all the ways I'd mapped my life out to be have been rewritten hundreds of times already and play out in ways I never dreamed would happen.

The challenges of being a wife and a mother. Challenges I always knew I was going to tackle. It was probably a good thing I didn't think about how I was going to go about rearing my children. Because right now I'm flying by the seat of my pants, grasping at straws trying to catch something to help me teach and raise my beautiful daughters. I learn so much about me through my children sometimes it's scary to see.

I can see the moon out the skylight that is frosted over in my front room. How beautiful the sky is when it is so clear and stars are shining brightly for all the world to see. Yet it is in the quiet stillness of the midnight hour when the light of the moon touches upon the glistening snow that I have a moment to let myself go and unwind to enjoy the majestic beauty of the world I live in. To try and let my worries drift off like the blowing snow and take a few minutes of some much needed peace and freezing this peaceful moment in time.

You Know It's....

You know it's . . . only foreshadowing when your three year old is digging through your purse and shouting "I want money!" I can just picture the teenage years.

You know it's . . . time to get out of the house when Sadie starts pushing Brooklyn's buttons and the pushing begins.

You know it's . . . time to turn off the Indiana Jones Lego style Wii game when it's 2:30am.

You know it's . . . time to make tortellini, even if it is 8:30pm and Brooklyn specifically requests it while in Home Depot. (I don't know what spurred the thought of tortellini especially in Home Depot, but sure enough I made it and it's now 9:30pm and she's on her second helping.)

You know it's . . . time to start exercising heavily and regularly when all you eat is fat and sugar.

You know it's . . . time to walk the dog when she runs from toy to toy trying to destroy everything. She is just like a child trying to get my attention!

Christmas in Michigan

This year was our families first year to be away from "home" for Christmas. Having just been home and visiting both of our families I wasn't sure how it would be not being with everyone for Christmas. Turns out it was quite nice. Not to say that we didn't miss everyone, but I didn't miss spending most all of Christmas day in the car racing from one place to the next. Christmas Eve we made Candy Cane Cookies, set them out for Santa along with some carrots for Rudolph and the reindeer. Then tucked the girls in bed. Eric and I stayed up waiting to see if we could catch Santa, but were zombies on the couch relaxing until 2:30am and didn't have any luck we Santa.

We had a leisurely morning arising at 9am unwrapping presents and playing with them as we went along. Both girls insisted that we have breakfast before unwrapping presents. You know what's on their minds when they wake up. Who cares if the room has magically filled with presents during the night, we want our Reese's Puff's and Cheerios!!


Sadie got big into opening presents and started handing out and unwrapping what she could. It was fun to watch her rip individual pieces off and take 5 minutes to open one present. It was fun to watch her do it herself. One of Brooklyn's first comments was "can I open it now? It's Christmas!" I loved it when we were asking her about Santa and how he came in, she ran over to the fireplace and tried to look up and see if he was still there. He wasn't but she sure looked hard to see for herself.

After taking the morning easy we headed over to a friends house to have a Christmas lunch/dinner with them. Worked on a puzzle together, ate some good food, Eric played a round of ping pong while Brooklyn and Sadie chased Brownie (a king Charles spaniel) around. Then we returned home and enjoyed some of the benefits of technology and had video conversations with both of our families. So in a way we still got to be together for Christmas, even if it was just a conversation through our computer monitors.
I had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed being able to relax with my own little family. I hope you had a very merry Christmas too!