4th of July Festivities

Don't let my post title mislead you.. there won't be a bunch of festive-ness displayed here. Sorry bout that. But I thought I'd share a little of our Independence Day Weekend with you- the good, the bad, and the shocking.

Swimming. We did a lot of it. Pool time was on the agenda this weekend and we definitely crossed it off our list. Though you wouldn't necessarily know it by my tan, since Evie's swimming sessions have a shelf life that (mysteriously) corresponds with her nap time. As in, mommy only gets to stay poolside for a little while until a certain someone has had enough and wants to go inside to play/eat/sleep. But that's okay. It's fun while it lasts and I can't really argue with this cuteness.

Moblie. Someone up and decided to CRAWL on Sunday night! What a way to celebrate your Independence, ay? Mom is sooo in for it.

See ya, suckers.

Crafting and Shocking. I'm happy to say I got a ton of stuff done for our booth this weekend! We named our booth Lilac Row, by the way. In case you were wondering. Anyway, I had some spray painting to do, and since it's 113* around here, I have to do it very early or very late in the day. So Saturday or Sunday night (can't remember which day, so take your pick) I'm minding my own business, watching a horrible movie on On Demand, eating oreos, painting inside and spray painting outside. (I like to multi-task). I step out the back door to sand down a little tray I've painted and decide to turn on the porch light this time. When I'm done, I turn around to come back inside and see a DEAD ANIMAL lying next to the step. I almost jumped out of my skin and I'm quite sure I woke up the neighbors.

Reasons this is alarming (other than the obvious):

1. I am barefoot. I seriously could have STEPPED on the thing and would have literally been scarred for life. 
2. This was like my third trip out in the dark and I didn't bother to turn on the light previously. So that creepy thing was just hanging out there a foot and a half away from me. In the dark. While I'm barefoot. Gag.
3. My dog's blue racquet ball is sitting right next to the animal. Basically his calling card. Awesome.

At this point I determined that it was probably a baby rabbit that Duke had nabbed and I'm firing off an excited text message to hubby that he has a fun little surprise in store for him. I couldn't care less that he killed a rabbit (They're rodents, people. And they're rampant around our neighborhood and eat my plants.) but I could do without him bringing it to the back door for us. Also? He tries to lick my baby with that mouth. Gag again.

Name Stealers. I was getting lost in the blogging black hole last night when I came across something upsetting. Long story short- some lady in Oregon is pregnant with her third daughter and will be naming her Evangeline Rae!!! HHHMMMPHH. I couldn't believe my eyes and was NOT happy. I may or may not have stomped through the house to show hubby the upsetting evidence. That led to a downward spiral of googling my baby girl's name and it turns out it's not as original as I thought! There's some artist and a model (blah!) and some people on random baby name boards talking about the name. What the heck! It's not exactly common, especially first and middle names together. Or so I thought. Sigh. My only consolation here is that there is some other Aja Lea running around with my name out there, too. I randomly came across her blog when I first started blogging and it rocked.my.world. Since she's my same age, I can only assume that her family lived across the street from us when I was born, as one of our neighbors pestered my mom to tell her what she was naming me while she was pregnant. And when my mom finally gave in, the lady up and named her kid THE EXACT SAME THING when she delivered a few weeks before my mom. The nerve. This is why I keep baby names a secret! Take note, preggos!
So anyway, like mother, like daughter, I guess. {Trying to find the silver lining..}

So how was your 4th? Find any dead animals in the backyard?? Do tell!

White Out

Well, for once the local meteorologists had it right. We did, in fact, wake up to a blizzard

yesterday morning.. and we definitely got the full 14 inches of snow they predicted! Score one for the Weather Girl. Al Gore, however, is losing miserably...

This isn't actually Evie's first snow, but I was too lazy to get a picture of the quick dusting we got a few weeks ago, and besides, this is REAL snow. I mean, you could seriously catch some wind if you tried to sled down a few of the snow drifts around our house.

So like any good mother, I dressed up my baby in a cute little snuggly bear outfit and sent her out into 5 degree weather for a photo opt with dad. I was too disheveled and still in my pajamas to be included. Plus, asking hubby to take a few pictures after asking him to be in a few pics is one favor too many when a camera is involved. I think I chose wisely.

She actually looks like she's loving it!

My dog, on the other hand, was experiencing his worst nightmare. When we first got up yesterday morning, he refused to go out the doggy door, so I literally had to toss him out the back door so that he would use the bathroom. An hour or so later and all puppy dog tracks and yellow snow are covered in another foot of snow. So we knew it would be a challenge to get him to go again. Yeeeaaaaaahhhhh. Not happening. Hubby even shoveled off the back patio and he still refused. Prickly fella. Finally around 7pm last night, after we had just given up, I heard a rustle at the doggie door and saw him poking his nose through to come back inside. He had

gone out! And we didn't even notice!

I also decided that a snow day was a great day to get back into the project swing of things.

So I started knitting a little dress for Evie!

We're looking forward to another snow day today, and are soooo excited that hubby gets to stay home with us again! I just wish Evie was a little bit older so we could go out and make snow angels and go sledding!

Next up: shoveling the driveway while the hubs is on Daddy Duty. ;)

Duke the Dingleberry

Do you see this guy??

Oh sure, he looks innocent enough. But don't let him fool you. He's a rascal.

He's of the terrier variety (Fox or Rat Terrier.. we don't really know. We're too cheap to spring for the Doggie DNA test), which means he has a lot of um.. SPUNK to him. He likes to get places in a hurry. And by places, I mean one area rug to the next. He'll seriously do a full speed sprint through the living room and then literally do a flying leap onto the dining room rug 10 feet away. It's just the way he likes to travel. Everything is exciting, a big event, a celebration, worth a good butt wiggle, etc. Especially when mom and dad get home. Namely dad.

Anyway, on Sunday morning, we decided to play hooky from church so that this pregnant lady could try and tackle a few of her 1,674 pre-baby projects and actually cross a few off the list (Mission: Sort of Accomplished). Well this was big news for Duke. You mean mom and dad are staying home??? A family day??? SA-WEEEET!!

So what does my darling dog do? Well, he heads to the backyard for his morning fence perimeter check and sniff-out, then he um, takes care of some business. We can always tell when his bathroom experience has been ohhh, successful, because he comes tearing through the doggie door and bounds across the house like he's got a new lease on life.
He's literally lightened his load.

So we hear him barreling in and do a quick turn when he realizes our bedroom door has shut and we're inside changing the sheets. I can hear him race into the nursery, step-ball-change and race back out. Sheesh.

A few minutes later I head into the baby's room to get to work on the crib skirt and nearly pass out. There are faint paw prints across the carpet (we only have carpet in the bedrooms) and HORROR OF HORRORS, a tiny little dingleberry on my SWEET PRECIOUS BABY GIRL'S FLOOR!

OMG.

Are you kidding me?? Is it really so exciting that we're staying at home that you can't finish up your "business" before coming inside to see us??

Thankfully hubby breaks out the Resolve and papertowels while I give Duke a piece of my mind. Nevermind that the nursery is still where he sleeps at night- he's lost his daytime privileges in this room!

Fast forward to this morning, getting ready for work. I'm standing at my dresser, intent on selecting the perfect pair of socks to wear on the first official day of boot season, when I hear that rascal of a dog tear through the house and into our room behind me. Then hubby comes out of the bathroom and lets out a roar that he's done it again!!

Another dingleberry!!

What the heck is going on here?? This has never happened before these two incidents!

I head to the kitchen to see that Duke has not gone back outside as commanded, but is sitting on my beautiful rug, in the crouching tiger pooping dog position, and there is a full sized dog turd next to him!!!

AAAAGGGGHGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I scream and he's out the doggie door like a bat out of hell. Hubs comes running in as I take a step closer and realize that it is not, in fact, a dog log, but rather the remnants of his (dead) fox toy, who happens to have brown paws that look surprisingly like feces in the morning light.

Le sigh.

This is just too much for one pregnant gal to handle.

Manipulation, thy name is Duke

Meet our doggie, Duke.

Duke Diego H., to be exact.

He looks innocent enough, right?? Don't let him fool you.

Duke is not allowed on our furniture. He sheds too much.. plus he is a dog and therefore rubs around in the dirt outside and gets dirty and does not wash his hands enough for my liking and I make the rules around here, so that's the rule. Got it? Okay, there are a few exceptions. We let him sit on one particular chair with one of us, IF we invite him up there. No jumping up there alone. That's not to say I didn't catch him making a little nest for himself one fateful week on the Snuggie I left out on the ottoman (a warm blanket and an unusually casual dog when you walk in the door are dead giveaways), but we'll let bygones be bygones.

To my point.

A few short months ago, hubby started mentioning that maybe we should let our little buddy join us on our marital bed for some "family time." Huh. I wasn't so sure about this idea, but after lots of puppy dog eyes and pleading and extended pros and cons lists, I caved. My one stipulation was that he must lay on some specific towel or blanket, because oh, the shedding.

pure bliss

So now, a few times a week, we will let Duke come up with us on the bed for "family time," aka lounging in bed watching tv. And yes, he definitely does watch tv. However, it is very obvious to us that Duke seems to think that every night should be "family time." If we get into bed at night (and anytime, really), he immediately comes to the side of the bed and starts hopping around excitedly, does a little butt shake and whines. If he gets no response, he'll circle around to the other side of the bed to see if he has better luck with the other parent. Then he'll stand up on his hind legs to get a good look at us and our bed of doggie paradise. Sometimes we cave, sometimes we don't. No big deal, right? If he gets a "no" he hangs his head in utter defeat and pitifulness and sulks back to his doggie (ok, cat) bed and if you just don't look at him you feel no remorse. At least I don't.
I have a heart of stone, didn't you know?

Then last week he decided to pull out the big guns. He had done something similar to this before, but this time he went full force.
After suffering another "family time" rejection, Duke went straight over to my dresser, under which we store the blue fleece blanket (purchased for a measly $37 on the plane ride back from Hawaii) that he lays on when he's on our bed. He proceeded to wedge his fat belly under there and curl right up on that blanket. Then he alternated between staring forlornly at the wall and peering up at us with heartbroken eyes.

Sorry for the scary camera flash eyes.



His intent was clear.

We both laughed at it, after getting over our initial "what in the world is he doing?" It was just so hilarious and sad! But while I was content to let him lie there if he wanted and continue watching Seinfeld reruns, hubby couldn't let it go.

It was as though Duke had shot an arrow straight through hubby's heart.

So again with the pleading and "he just wants to be near us," and here I am having to be the strong parent and hold my ground, with my "but what would you be teaching him if you let him up here now?" and on and on. Finally hubby won out and our poor, depraved dog came up on the bed so he wouldn't miss any of the 10pm news.


Sidenote- this whole debacle has been VERY telling of what our future as parents will look like.

Then last night, he does it again! Only this time he doesn't want to go through the effort and humiliation of squeezing his ever growing tummy under there, so he just tugs at the blanket until it's out and in the perfect position to stare squarely up at dad and let the guilt set in.


Do you think he made it up to the bed??


You better believe it, that little stinker! I have a total mutiny on my hands.

What are we going to do when it's a cute little brown-eyed girl asking her daddy to come up on the bed, or one more cookie or new shoes or a diamond tennis bracelet??

Gaaahhh! I guess I'm off to bedazzle myself a "Bad Cop" baby tee.

ice ice baby

Well hello there, Mr. IcicleOutMyWindow!

Please do not break off and stab some unassuming creature with your 3 foot long saber-likeness..

This is Duke's most favorite window to stare out and daydream of catching varmints and keep up his regular neighborhood watch. That sort of event might scar him for life, and insurance is refusing to pay for any more doggie therapy.

Also, if you are, in fact, some sort of record setting icicle.. please send our prize monies post-haste.

Thank you and goodnight.