Austin had his physical yesterday and passed his hearing test… so now we know his constant “what?” and ignoring us is not due to hearing loss, but due to him being 12 and full of pre-teen angst. Is there a cure for that??

Christopher had back to school night on Thursday, his teacher was really looking forward to having him in his class… everyone knows (and loves) Christopher. He is such a sweetie. He had no concerns about Christopher’s math abilities, so now I am confused about how he did so poorly on the placement test at the charter school.

Also, I have a new Sophie pic for you all.

I got the cutest diaper for Sophie yesterday, hopefully I will have new pics of her wearing it up soon.

Please keep Bobby & his family in your thoughts. His grandmother passed from lung cancer last week. This happened a week after she was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed.

I am not sure who needed the nap more, Sophie or Daddy.

Don’t let the couch sharing fool you, the kitties hate each other.

Oh thank goodness. I got a knock on my bedroom door at 6:30 am from my oldest son, so I asked him what he needed and he told me he had found Sabin! I guess he heard meowing and looked in the back ans saw him, so he grabbed him right as he was ready to run off again. Poor kitty was scared out of his wits.

We had Austin leave him in our bedroom with some food because Isis, the Great Dane, would NOT get her head out of his butt. He “talked” to us and rubbed all over us for the next 30 minutes before he finally was ready to roam the house again. Jacob, my 4 yr old orange cat, was NOT happy to see him back at all, but he will get over it.

I woke Matthew up this morning by laying Sabin down next to him and letting him wake up and see him, he was so cute he said “Sabin! You came home!! Now lets get out of my room…” Matthew hates the cats in his room because they bug him when he is trying to sleep and have scared him on several occasions when he woke up to find something moving in his room.

He is now resting all over the house, in all his favorite spots and enjoying the easy life once again.

Yesterday afternoon around 3:30 I got a phone call from Austin’s school saying he would be getting an award at an assembly the next day at 1 and said they would love for me to attend. I asked Bobby to take a long lunch so he could come with me, but he opted to work a half day instead. So we get to the gym today at 1 and the very first name called is Austin, for an award for best in his class for fine arts. Nifty. They then proceed to call out names of other students broken down in 4 categories for each subject…. “Outstanding Student Award – Boys”, “Outstanding Student Award – Girls”, “Most improved – Boys”, and finally “Most improved – Girls”. They did all the subjects for 6th grade, and then 7th grade.

At the end of the ceremony, the Dean of Students said he had a surprise for the students. He went on to say that he got some extra grant money and decided that he wanted to award one student from each grade for overall excellence. Someone who maintained great grades, attitude, attendance, and went above and beyond as a citizen of the school.

He then went on to say that the first student awarded has demonstrated excellence in many ways, not only by being a friend to all in his grade, but by being cheerful and courteous at all times. He is the student who at the dances stands in the middle of the gym and rocks out the his air guitar all by himself without a care in the world. The student who demonstrates honesty by returning the snacks to the Dean when the machine accidentally gives him two because he “only paid for one”, the student who is always asking if there is something he can do to help his teachers, his peers, and the Dean.

Bobby and I looked at each other because that kid sounded a LOT like our goofy, care-free, honest little guy, but at the same time there are a LOT of great 6th graders at his school. The Dean went on to say that he could not imagine a more deserving student than Austin to receive the award!

You should have seen my little guy, he was SO proud of himself and his classmates were all so excited! His teacher and I were bawling our eyes out and Bobby stood up to grant his permission for Austin to receive the iPod (since the school will not give a student big ticket items without the parents permission). Since it was so close to the end of the day, the teacher told us to go ahead and take him home with us, and on the way to the car Austin says “You know, my iPod I just bought with my birthday money has a 30 day return policy!” LOL So we went home to get the reciept and took him Best Buy to exchange his iPod for something else. He picked up Guitar Hero III (a game where you play songs on the XBox on a life-sized wireless guitar), he then also got two games for the Wii, Super Smash Brother’s Brawl, and Sonic vs. Mario Olympics, as well as an iTunes gift card.

Right now the three little boys are playing the Smash Brother’s game, even though Matthew has NO clue what he is doing, his brothers keep praising him for doing well.

In other news, Austin and I went back to the Humane Society, and still no Sabin. On the way home we picked up some neon paper to print out some missing signs to hang around the neighborhood. Hope fully we find him soon.

Yesterday, when painting, we had the windows open to let in the cool air, and I guess one of the screens was damaged, because my Maine Coon mix kitty, Sabin, snuck out and he has not been seen. I hope his tummy gets hungry and he comes home soon, we all miss him so much!

I would love to know, are my dogs eating something that is causing this or am I just lucky to have two dogs to have these problems? Not my two current dogs, because I don’t remember going through this with Chloe except maybe once, but former dog Mika and now Isis. I do not have Isis on the same brand of food as Mika was on, nor do I have her one the same brand she was on the first time she had this same horrible bout with explosive poo. Makes me wonder if it is caused by a weed they are eating outside, or if this is normal dog stuff, but I never remember any of my childhood dogs having this issue.

Isis’ bed was finally sacrificed to the great garbage gods, when she had her first heat I was able to wash most of that mess (it looked like she had killed a small family of rabbits, and by “small” I mean 47), and we planned on keeping the gross one until June, when we have her spayed, but it looks like she gets the new bed now.

I am totally feeling the outside love right now… but hopefully that will pass as quickly, just like I hope this “bug” she has does.

Then Bobby gets this coughing/feel like walking death/puking thing that he is still recovering from.

Now Matthew has been coughing/sneezing/running a fever since last night. When I took his temp he told me he had a tiger in his ear (always the right ear) so off to the ped we go this morning. Good news is, he is tiger free, even better news is that he also does not have an ear infection, he has a cold. Bad news is, last night after he puckered up to kiss me last night, he coughed directly into my mouth, so I may be getting it soon.

Completely off topic… please pray for my Great Dane. Poor 100 lb dog is being rubbed on by a 10 lb cat and looking as if she has just been violated in the worst possible way. I hope she does not need therapy after this because she is acting very traumatized. There is a line from a movie I was trying to quote, but I just cannot seem to find it, however this scene from Ghost Busters works too.

Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

Poor Isis, she is involved in a disaster of biblical proportions…. she was touched by a cat. Poor dog.

Of course normal TV shows caused me to cry, then a story about a lactavist who set up a safe place to breastfeed at a gathering after being told she could not shade her and her infant years before.

Other than the hormonal outbursts, the day was pretty mundane, a friend came over to visit, I mailed off a check to the doula I want to hire, played around with the tax program, and pouted about my shoes & CDs. I just don’t have the money to replace any of them right now, and I needed them like yesterday. Tomorrow is another day, right?

She does this EACH and EVERY time she is alone. Be it when I am upstairs in bed, or when we are gone for 15 hours, or 15 minutes. Our solution was to keep her in the back yard with an invisible fence when we left (weather permitting) and it got turned off because she got stuck under the deck and before we could turn it back on she shredded the wires and now I will probably have to pay another couple hundred dollars I don’t have to repair it.

She has done this with homework, with Bobby’s $100 dress shoes (twice), with bills, with books, with toys, you name it. I am getting to the point where I am wanting to get her on an anti-anxiety medication like Prozac or Xanax for dogs. We tried crate training her, but that make her anxiety worse and she would have GI problems resulting in explosive diarrhea.

View of most of the mess.

Ongoing damage she has done to my floor rug.

Brand new yarn I was going to use to make something for the baby. Was white, now yellow with pee.

What was formerly known as my favorite shoes.

Christopher’s book he was reading for school, in part.

Matthew inspecting the damage.

Matthew laughing at the kitten.

I am off to google ideas on how to deal with separation anxiety, I am tired of dealing with all the damage!

Sabin needed his 3rd kitten shot, rabies shot and microchipping so Wednesday before we picked up Austin from school on his early release day we went to the vet and had him updated. We had lost his records so I had to have the rescue agency fax over his records. He did well, he was pretty nervous though. I decided to make an appointment for Isis for the following day since they were having a sale on microchipping and we found that hers had traveled down to her leg on last scan.

So yesterday, Isis drags me into the office while Austin and Christopher help me with Matthew. We find that she only needs one shot, not two and that her microchip was back where is was supposed to be so that saved us $40. I just got a call back that her heartworm test was clear. My 11 month old baby girl is 91 lbs, holy cow. The vet also mentioned she could stand to gain a little weight, she’s pretty active and thin, so I agree. I totally underestimated her strength and Bobby told me this is why he would not let me take the leash from him when we were at the park for the Dane reunion. I think we need to invest in some sort of special collar or leash to keep her from ripping our arms off.

Isis went to the Great Dane reunion for the breeder today and it was a blast!! We got to meet her brother from the same litter and he was SO sweet! We also got to meet about half a dozen puppies and about 80 other dogs for the two hours we were there. Matthew loved seeing all the dogs and playing at the park. Isis loved seeing the other dogs even though she was shy at first. Austin and Christopher had fun playing with the breeders’ grandsons. I loved playing with all the other dogs and it was a battle between common sense and my heart strings. Danes are amazing dogs! Thankfully the rain did not come out, neither did the sun, but I still managed to get sunburned.

Last week I saw a maine coon kitty on Pet Finder that I fell in love with. I could not find out the status of that particular kitty, but the person who answered the phone did say that he had some maine coon kittens that would be adoptable on Saturday (yesterday). It took one look for me to fall in love with this little sweetie. He was SO shy the first time I held him that I worried he would not be a good match for our family since we already have two adult cats and two large-breed dogs.

Two hours after he got here he finally started coming out of his shell and was still pretty shy with us, he was pretty playful with toys.

Today he is a new kitty, he loves to be held, and very cuddly and sweet. He will still run when you walk towards him, but he’s opening up. I trimmed his nails, cleaned his ears, and gave him a bath today and he did very well, he’s pretty trusting. He still does not like the other animals, and the cats don’t like him, but the dogs are quite curious and Isis got a face full of cat claw this morning as a warning she was in his space. He’s not quite litter box trained yet, he has had one accident, but he’s also used his box when we took him to it.

In December, Officer Ken Jordan was killed in the line of duty just blocks from my home while trying to apprehend a suspected drunk driver. The driver decided he did not want another DUI and shot and killed the officer in cold blood. For weeks the bridge he was shot was decorated with flowers, candles, cards, stuffed animals, and frequently visited by his fellow comrades. Every time I would pass that site, I would cry.

Well, I guess today was his birthday, because as I drove by this afternoon I saw a beautiful bouquet of roses, a bunch of balloons and a huge birthday card. I grew up around our men and women in blue; my father worked for the county and we frequently visited the court house and I remember often him introducing me to this officer or that officer and I also got to tour the local juvenile facility and getting to ride in police cars. We all grew up with a huge respect for the law and for police officers.

***

In an unrelated note, my house smells like a cat box. My cat started inappropriately urinating on the dog bed, the cat beds, etc. I though he was just expressing himself in a negative way, until I noticed he was visiting the cat box every few minutes and staying there for long stretches of time with limited results. This made me almost positive it was a urinary problem of some sort and I immediately called the vet and requested a drop-off appointment. They will call me when he’s done and the kids and I will be busy cleaning today and tomorrow. I could not find my cat carrier, so he had to ride on my lap with a leash & collar and in the 10 minutes while he was in the car managed to pee on my leg. He had peed in the cat bed right before we left too.

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General Matthew Cuteness:

Daddy was changing Matthew and he pulled a big old booger out of his nose, sticks the finger with the booger out at daddy and said “Here Dad, for you”.

~

Matthew likes to make himself burp, especially after he gets a drink, today after finishing my water he makes himself burp and it’s strained and really gross sounding and he said “Mmmmm, Juicy!” I am almost positive he was referring to the sound, not the taste as he had not had anything fruity to eat yet.

He is such a boy!!

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Forgot to mention, Austin has his first school dance today ::Sniff, Sniff:: My baby is growing up!!

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Now playing: Blind Faith – Had To Cry Today
via FoxyTunes

We are also switching food again, from the Canadae to California Natural. I would eventually like both dogs on the same food and I love that the California Natural has no grains, fewer ingredients (eight + vitamins & minerals). My Golden Retriever has allergies and is overweight, so I am hoping that I can slim her down, fix her allergies and eventually get both dogs on the same formula.