On Being Popular

My bug has been having problems with her social life lately.

She's learning that there are popular kids at the school, and she's pretty sure she's not one of them.

She has a love-hate relationship with one of the girls at school. One day they're best friends, the next day they're not talking and Bug is a social outcast.

She wants to change her image. "Mom, everyone sees me as a girly girl, and I don't want to be seen like that," Bug said. "I want to be seen as the cool sporty girl, like Gogo Tomago."

if you don't know this girl, you've never seen Big Hero 6

I told her that if she wanted to be seen as a sporty girl, she should probably try playing a sport. I'm pretty sure Gogo didn't spend her lunch recess in the school office reading every day.

She told me that her new crush is Brody. "He's a CCP," she said.

CCP stands for Cool, Cute, and Popular.

"What about David and Tony?" I asked, referring to her to two best friends (and crushes) since kindergarten.

Bug sighed and looked at me like I was brain damaged. Clearly, neither David nor Tony are CCP.

"Mom, how do you get to be popular?"

(Don't ask me, I was never popular.)

"Baby, the key to being popular is simple: be nice to everyone, and take pride in your hygiene. The mean kid is never popular, and the smelly kid is never popular."

The Agent chose this moment to cut in. "Don't worry about being popular. Do you know what the popular kid in my class is doing now? Wishing he was still popular. The popular kids in your class now are going to be working for you in 20 years."

(Shut up, Agent. You're not helping.)

I wish she could look twenty years into the future so she knows it's all going to be okay. 

Molly's Musings-- I'm going to be a BIG dog!

Hi. It's Molly again.

I went to the vet again, and it turns out I'm getting a little plump. I weighed in at 25.2 pounds.

My friends, I'm not even 4 months old. I am going to be a big dog.

But I still look little next to The Tall Man:

This was taken while I was waiting in line at the vet, and see how I'm not looking at the camera? It's because I was looking at my future. An adult pitbull (or AmStaff, as The Soft Lady calls me.... much nicer connotation than pitbull) was there-- HUGE!-- she had to have been 100 pounds! Her owner was holding on to the leash with all her might and could barely control her.

The Soft Lady just sighed. She saw the future too, and she's apparently not too happy about it.

Don't worry about her. She likes the STINKIN' CATS! Look who she lets sleep on her bed:

Stinkin' cat

I have finally been pricked with enough needles to be deemed presentable to be out with other dogs, so I get to start going on walks next week. The Soft Lady bought me a harness collar to practice walking on a leash, and I did awesome!  The Soft Lady was quite impressed with me, especially when I was in the vet's office with all the other dogs. I can't wait for her to take me to the park!

Until then, I am content to sit and watch tv with the Loud Boy:

 See you next week!

 

Weekend Update-- BK Was a Good Boy!

Hello, my friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

BK finally, FINALLY had a good week! He was green all week at school AND at the after school program! Praise Jesus! He got to pick a present out for being so good, so he picked out a mini lego set:

Meanwhile, The Agent stayed home from work and put together a new shed:

the kids helped once they got home from school

And I went to work and worked. And enjoyed a Jamba Juice:

6 servings of fruits and vegetables! 

On Saturday, we had baseball, and BK did... OK. His hitting was great, he hit it off the tee the first time every time he was up to bat. And he is absolutely the best thrower on the team. If it was just about hitting and throwing, he would absolutely be ready to move up to the next level. But the maturity just isn't there. He doesn't have the attention span to last even the three innings of tee ball, so I don't know what he's going to do next year when it jumps up to five innings. Still he's pretty dang cute:

When we got home, the kids and I did a bunch of laundry while The Agent slept, which really chaps my hide, but he did put together a shed for me, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Please excuse my messy house-- keepin' it real here. 

When the laundry was done, I added some new Jams to my nails. I am such a Jamberry fan. I wish I was a little better at applying them!

 On Sunday, we took Miss Molly to the vet, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon lounging with a book and a margarita while the kids played outside and The Agent grilled a rack of ribs.

A nice and quiet weekend!

Molly's Musings-- Nothin' Much

Hi! It's Molly again.

Can you believe it? No one in the family took a SINGLE picture of me all week. The Soft Lady took this picture of me a couple of weeks and it's still her favorite.

I am like twice this size now.

It was pretty slow around these parts this week. I am doing much better about going outside to go to the bathroom-- I only had one accident all week. 

My favorite person in the world right now is The Tall Man. I wait for him to lay down on the couch and then I take a running leap so I can curl up next to him. Luckily, he lays on the couch a lot, so I don't have to wait very long. 

It turns out that I am kind of a  sucky watch dog. The neighbors had some maintenance men working in their backyard the other day, and Mama Dog was going crazy! Barking and growling at the fence.... it was really making it hard to get in my 10 am nap. The Soft Lady was actually a little annoyed with ME, of all people! She said I need to learn to be a better guard dog. But seriously, what is there to guard? They were in the NEIGHBOR'S yard, not ours. If they were to step foot into our yard, then they better watch out! Grrr!

The Tall Man has been talking about taking me camping lately. He says it's important to get me socialized at a young age. I'm all for it! I hear there are SQUIRRELS in the mountains! 

Until next time! 

 

Weekend Update-- Ready for Bed!

It's 8:42 pm on Sunday as I write this. By the time I write it and add the pictures and whatnot, it will probably be close to 10.

I want to go to bed NOW.

Friday started out with me going to the school to watch this cutie sing and dance about the importance of going green:

He's so cute.... but then he messed it up throwing rocks at the school window. The start of a lovely weekend. 

On Saturday, we went to BK's baseball game, and that was a fabulous time. His punishment for throwing rocks was that he had to play the outfield. He didn't even care, he just loves the game. And, I know he's only 5, and I'm his mama, but he is INCREDIBLY talented! He caught a ball from center field in the third inning and threw it all the way home. The boy has an arm! 

Always ready.... even in the out field. Can't say as much for Coach Daddy!

After the game, I left The Agent and the kids at home to fend for themselves while I had a GNO. My two girlfriends and I went out to dinner and then to a comedy show. We love comedy shows-- such a great way to de-stress!

On Sunday, Bug had a birthday party, so I used the opportunity to indulge in a treat: 

Peach green tea lemonade-- my favorite summertime treat! 

I didn't buy anything all that exciting-- a bunch of cleaning products, new shoes for BK, groceries for the week-- but I did find three new books to ass to my Amazon wish list: 

Can't wait to start my Summer beach reading!

What did you do this weekend? Anything fun?

too young?

Bug is 9. Isn't she cute?

She's smart and pretty and witty. She's going to be quite the catch soon.

But for now, she's a drama queen.

"Mom, you HAVE to let me shave my legs!"

"Ummm.... no. The earlier you start shaving, the longer you have to do it for the rest of your life."

"No, Mom. You HAVE to. A cute boy sat by on the bus the other day, and then he saw my hairy legs and he looked at me with DISGUST. I'm wearing pants until you let me shave."

"I'm sure you're exaggerating. Your legs are fine. And you're about to start swimming, the hair will fade from the sun and the chlorine."

Bug didn't answer. Instead, she took my phone and took this picture:

Hmm... she might need to shave.

Molly's Musings-- Livin' the Dream

Hi! It's Molly again.

It was pretty quiet around these parts for the week, and The Soft Lady is all paranoid about her computer, so she's not going to let me play on it for very long. Apparently SOMEBODY--  not mentioning any names-- was chewing on a cord and it made something go haywire. But I hear that The Tall Man is a genius and was able to fix it, so all is right with the world again.

The most exciting thing that happened this week is that it rained, so I got to play in the mud for a bit!

The Soft Lady wasn't very excited to see that, and she threatened to give me yet another bath.

There has been some discussion on whether or not I think I'm human. Let me make one thing abundantly clear. I know I am a dog. I'm thankful I am a dog! All other creatures WISH they were a dog, especially the STINKIN' CATS.

But yes, I admit, I enjoy the finer things in life, namely the sofa. I'm not sure why Mama Dog insists on sleeping on the floor when there is a giant dog bed in the middle of the living room?

What can I say? I'm living the dream.




 

Where's Ana?

Ugh. It never rains but it pours.

My mother called the other day, in a frantic state. After her hemming and hawing for awhile and a lot of "I don't want to bother you...." I was able to piece together this story.

Due to the poor choices my sister Kari has made in the past, she is 20 years old with two children, ages 2 and 5, with 2 different men, neither of whom she is currently with. Kari and my niece and nephew live with my mother (We have different dads, and Kari's father, like her two baby daddies, is not in the picture).

Kari was doing an ok job taking care of the kids, but relying on my mom heavily for help, and my mom was allowing that to happen. Then Kari got a new boyfriend, and she pretty much stopped taking care of the children. Kari would just sleep the entire time she was at home, and as soon as my mom would come home from work, Kari would leave the kids with my mom and then go off to places unknown.

Finally, my mom had had enough. She's 61 years old-- she doesn't want to have to take care of two babies. So she told Kari she had to move out. Her logic was that if Kari was living on her own, it would force her to take care of the kids.

link

Maybe not the best decision, in hindsight.

Kari said she moved in with her boyfriend. That was a week ago. But then, my nephew's father, Drew, came to my mother's house.

Kari had dropped my nephew off for a visit and hadn't been back. THAT WAS A WEEK AGO. Holy crap, Kari has gone off the deep end.

"OK, so where's Kari?" I asked. And where's my niece, Ana?

My mother has no idea. Kari's boyfriend lives in a town 30 minutes away from where Kari works and from where Ana goes to preschool, and Kari doesn't have a car. My mother doesn't believe that Kari is staying with the boyfriend.

I told my mother that a more likely scenario is that she's staying with the boyfriend and not going to work.

My mother knows that Kari still must be in town, or at least traveling into town, because each time my mother comes home from work, she sees that Kari has been to the house during the day, picking up her mail and picking up more of her belongings. So she knows that Kari is ok.

But the question still remains-- where is Ana? And why did Kari leave Jacob (my nephew) and not return?

link

My mother wanted me to find out where Kari was. I live 40 minutes away from all of this drama, so there wasn't a whole lot I could do. But I called Kari and left a message. Then I texted her. Then I went on Facebook, but I saw that she hadn't been on there since January (is Facebook not cool anymore?).

I went on Instagram, and saw that she had posted a photo there just week earlier, so I left a message for her to call me there, too.

That was two days ago. No response.

There are other people I could try to contact-- Jacob's dad, Kari's other half sister, etc.-- but I don't know that I need to do that.    We know that Jacob's ok, we  know that Kari's ok..... we assume that Ana is ok.  Likewise, there are things my mom could do-- go to the preschool to make sure Ana is attending, drive by Ana's job-- but my mother is stubborn. She wants Kari to apologize to her.

Yeah, right. Kari is 20. An apology isn't likely.

Molly's Musing's-- Canine Racism

Hi. It's Molly again.

I am still ultimately cute, of course. I'm three months old, and I weigh 14.7 pounds. As you might be able to tell, my original collar is getting too small for me! The Tall Man had to go out over the weekend and get me a new one.  My feet are huge, I keep tripping over them. The Soft Lady is sure that I'm going to grow up to be bigger than Mama Dog. But for now, I'm still cute and little.

My favorite thing to do is sleep.

I am rather spoiled.

I am still not housebroken.... this has caused much grumpiness in the household.

I had to go to THE VET for more shots again, but this time, I was too big to fit in the carrier that's made for the STINKIN' CATS, thank goodness for that! So I got to walk in like a big dog on a leash! I was quite  proud of myself.... until I realized where we were going, and then I flat out refused to take another step! No, no sir, not me! The Tall Man had to carry me in.... but don't worry, I plan on getting big enough so that The Tall Man won't be able to even carry me soon.

But it was fun riding in the car on The Soft Lady's lap:

The Soft Lady's biggest worry right now has been finding an insurance carrier that will cover me. Did you know that most insurance carriers will exclude a pit bulls (and other dogs too) from their policies, even if they have no history of violence? It's seems wrong to punish me just because of the way I was born. That's like.... canine racism, that's what it is! And it's so unfair, because "pit bull" is really a general term, look at all these dogs that were considered pit bulls:

link-- Son of a B, this picture isn't showing up anymore. Imagine 6 dogs that all look different. 

Clearly, they all look different, and I don't look like any of these.

Luckily, The Soft Lady works in insurance, and after studying the policy and talking to her agent, The Soft Lady found a loop hole. The exclusion applies only to purebreds, not mixed breeds. A chat with the vet later, and the box for MIXED BREED was checked.  This means that my chances of being a show dog are over.... but I didn't really see a BEST IN SHOW trophy in my future anyway.

(The Soft Lady warns that some insurance companies exclude mixed breeds as well-- check with your insurance company to see what your policy says.)

weekend update: Happy Easter!

Happy Monday! Did everyone have a fabulous Easter weekend?

Friday night was uneventful. We worked and went to school, then came home and I made breakfast for dinner. I made these nests from The Pioneer Woman.... this is her picture, mine didn't come out this nice:

My husband wanted to watch Star Wars after the kids went to bed, but that's not a movie we own, so he settled on Spaceballs. I'm sorry.... the two movies just don't even compare. I need to buy the Star Wars movies now.

On Saturday, we had to take Molly for an early morning vet appointment, so we opted for quick breakfast smoothies from Jamba.... I had a Kale-ribbean  Breeze, which although tasty and filling at the time, did not stick to my ribs and I was starving by the time it was lunch.

I am starting a healthy eating challenge on Monday that I found here, and that requires 10 vegetables a day. That is a whole lot  of vegetables! So I figured I better splurge this weekend. We went out for cheeseburgers for lunch. They were served with a cheese skirt that was probably 18 thousand calories:

So good, yet so bad.

We had to run a bunch of errands in the afternoon, so it was dark by the time we got around to dyeing our eggs. We went with the shaving cream method, super fun and easy! Just spray a bunch of shaving cream into a pie pan, add some squirts of food coloring, and roll your egg around! The kids loved playing with the shaving cream, and the eggs have a marbled effect that I thought was really cool:

Shaving cream and two different colors

Here are the kids about to roll their eggs around

This is what the shaving looks like after you've rolled an egg in it. Cool swirliness.

after the eggs were completely covered with shaving cream, we took  them out and let them sit for like 10 minutes. 

then we wiped the shaving cream off

and revealed a marbled egg!

I thought they came out really cute, and it wasn't as messy as you might think. Strangely enough, The Agent was the only one who ended up getting color stained on his hands.... and he didn't dye any eggs.

On Easter Sunday, the kids were excited to see what was in their baskets:

And then we went to my dad's where I was there for 30 seconds before my dad said, "what did you do with your hair?" And then used his hands to try to flatten it.

I have naturally curly hair, and I didn't want to spend an hour straightening it. Get over it, Dad.

We have an egg hunt and the adults play, too. There's money in the adult eggs, so it's no joke. The eggs are camo colored, so they're hard to find:

This is a blurry pic, but there's an egg in there.

The whole group gets in to it;

And we were done hunting eggs (there were still four more eggs out there somewhere when we called it quits), we sat down for dinner:

and then went outside to play some ball: 

It was a great Easter weekend! Now it's back to work!