Harrison and his cat

We've had a long standing rule for dogs in our house, no soft animals. Why such a seemingly cruel rule? It's simple. Our children have many soft animals that have been carried away and/or destroyed by dogs who thought they were fair game. As a result we have trained our dogs not to touch those toys, and we've been fairly successful with this tact. Until my sister dog sat for us that is. Her dog is allowed to have many loveys and so they shared one with Harrison which he was allowed to bring home. Needless to say I was apprehensive about what this would teach him. Would I have to start guarding the girls toys again? Were we going to have to take away his toy, and break him of the habit? This was a little over a month ago.

Flash forward to today. As it turns out, his cat has become his favorite toy. We have not seen him without his beloved cat since he brought it home. One day it was so disgusting I had to wash it. He paced by the washing machine, and then the dryer just as a toddler would waiting for it to come out. My fears that it would create a stuffed animal canine thief out of him? Totally unfounded. He seems quite happy with his toy, and hasn't touched the girls things. I think it reminds him of his surrogate Mom and Dad, Linda and Sean. He totally wants to live with them. Can you blame him?

A random post that's not about my kids

OK, it's about my 4 legged kid. Apparently he felt like he should be sleeping with us last night. He also thought that he should bring his own bed with him. Yep, Harrison dragged his dog bed up on our bed last night to sleep. Mind you, this was no easy feat. It's big and bulky, and our bed is tall (the top of the mattress sits just above my hips.) Needless to say, it did not stay up there, and I had to change the sheets for the second time this week.

Due to popular demand (Liz)...

I bring you this blog entry.

There have been so many things to blog lately and yet I have remained silent. Why you ask? Simple apathy on my part. I don't like the line breaks put in when I email my entries, and I haven't really had time to sit at the computer and do more than throw fish at people. (Those of you on Facebook will understand that reference.) So, I bring you my life for the last two months in a nutshell (no, I wasn't in a nutshell for 2 months).

Sept:
-Labor Day BBQ (a day early): We had a few friends and family over, bbq'd (of course), and had a generally mellow time.
-Started many classes for the girls including ballet, science, and art while continuing with gymnastics, soccer, and ice skating.
-Took Harrison to puppy training where he excelled, but we as parents failed miserably. Ok, maybe not miserably, but we could have done much better. We are still working on it.
-Wished Liz and Andrea a Happy Anniversary even if they were 3000 miles away at DisneyWorld.
-Made Red in hockey.
-Missed Grandparents day, again.
-Car maintenance (oil change, new battery, etc.)
-Celebrated Andrea's birthday
-Had a couple of MNO's (Mom's night out)
-Helped host the NICU grad party at work
-Played my first Red game where I almost threw up beforehand because I was so nervous.
-Missed all of my quilt related meetings
-Attended a scrapbooking workshop

October:
-Continued with the girls classes, and Harrison's puppy training
-Got to go on a couple of fixed wing (small plane) flights for work
-Saw Guys and Dolls at the Center for Performing Arts with my sisters.
-Wished Cheddah a happy birthday.
-Played more hockey with Red and with the A-Team 2
-More MNO's
-Went to the pumpkin patch with our twins club. It's a pretty impressive pumpkin farm with lots of activities for the kiddos.
-Went to Gilroy Gardens (Bonfante for us old timers) to celebrate Halloween by following the treasure map to collect pirate booty.
-Went to Disneyland where we celebrated at their Halloween Spooktacular event.
-We also "won" 3 things in their Year of a Million Dreams celebration. 1. As we entered the Dumbo ride, an employee came up and asked us if we'd like to ride right now. Of course we said yes, but Sam started crying when we stepped out of line because she didn't understand. She quickly became happy again when she realized we were going to get to ride it right then, and not have to wait. 2. Sam was crying (over-exhaustion) and someone walked up to her and handed her a Year of a Million Dreams Castle pin. Apparently a cast member had given it to them, and they were to pass it on to someone to cheer them up. It worked. 3. As Liz, Val, Riley, and I headed from Fantasyland to the restaurant for lunch, there were two cast members there that gave us lanyards with 2 pins on them for the Year of a Million Dreams. Liz very kindly gave hers to Bill who was thrilled because he has really gotten into the pin collecting.
-Ate at the Steakhouse 55 (in the Disneyland hotel). Pricey, but worth every penny. Finally had Kobe beef, and it more than lived up to it's buttery good reputation.
-Went to Knott's Berry Farm where we followed the treasure map to collect pirate booty (they're owned by the same people as Gilroy Gardens, so it was very similar.
-Made Halloween candy corn costumes for the girls (thanks Liz for the pic).
-Participated in a hiptop scavenger hunt where we came in 6th out of 40 teams. Not bad considering we were coming back from Disneyland when it started and most of the team was working all day.
-Trick-or-treated in the neighborhood with the girls.

November:
-The girls started violin lessons.
-May start pre-school. I have to call and talk to the director, but I'm not sure I'm ready to cut the cord yet.
-Had blood drawn for my TB test at work.
-Will be going to Hawaii in just over 2 weeks.

I'm sure there's something missing, but if you made it this far into the post you must be sick of the list, so I'm done. Happy November to all.

My very belated 4th of July post.

Due to getting Harrison, and having a rather mellow holiday, I have been very lax in getting the 4th of July report out.


This year it was determined that we would got to Sacramento for the 4th so we could light off fireworks. It worked out well since picking up Harrison was on the way. We spent the night, and Bill got up early the next day to go shopping for the required fireworks. I stayed and played with Harrison and the girls, and when Bill got back we all took a little nap. Yep, you heard right. I napped. We hadn't gotten to bed til 3 in the morning, and then were up at 7:00, so I was very tired.

It was far too hot to BBQ (the outside temp was between 104 and 107 that day depending on where you were in the area), so we cooked in the comfort of airconditioning. We did make the requisite homemade ice cream, but in a whole new method. We got one of those contraptions that look like a hamster ball really cheap, filled it, and then the girls and I rolled it around until it was pretty solid. As you can guess, it was a lot of work for very little yield.

Finally it was dark and we had fireworks. We started the girls off with sparklers, but they were totally unimpressed. Then came the bigger fireworks. The girls were waiting, the fuse was lit, the flashes began, the whistling commenced followed by the screams of two little girls. Sadly, they do not share their father's love of fireworks. They quickly retired to the house with their hands over their ears, and we shut down the fireworks display. Maybe next year. Sigh.

Meet Harrison

As most of you know, we got a puppy on July 3rd. He was dubbed Harrison. Why? We don't know, the name just came to us. He's a 9 week old (tomorrow) Golden Retriever with the sweetest personality, and the tiniest bladder. I swear this dog piddles and poops more than the twins combined at that age. Even so, he is a very cute little furball. Uploading pics soon, but until then here's one to hold you over.