Life with a Puppy

I knew that raising puppies was hard and challenging before we adopted Freya our new beagle pup. Twenty one years ago, my family got our new puppy on the farm that I grew up on. Zeus, our Husky/German Shepherd/Doberman mix didn't disappoint. I fell in love with his cuddliness, floppy ears and his ability to sleep through anything, also our 10 year old pure bred German Shepherd was failing. Zeus was a farm dog, so he did frequent the house at least the inside. Zeus was a sweet dog and grew to be a great companion for almost 16 years. In his youth his form of destruction was refined wood. He didn't go for the random stick in the yard, no, he went for wheel barrow handles, shovel and pitch fork handles, the steps and benches of our deck, our wood siding. Stuff like that. Fortunately he grew out of all of that and later in life became a creature of comfort in the house.

So you see, I really did know what having a puppy was like. When Freya started eating the kid's toys, rolls of toilet paper, the baby gate that we used to keep her away from Amy the rabbit, I wasn't surprised. What did get me was having a dog who is constantly up on the table and the counters. One who gets on top of the washer and drier and other places that are "up". Now I have never had a beagle, but there seems to be no limit to her jumping abilities. Scott has had beagles before and he is even amazed at where she can get. The other day, she ate an entire lbs. of ground venison and then proceeded to throw it up on our bed in the middle of the night. What a lovely situation to wake up to. Yummy. Oh well, these are the life and times of raising a beagle pup. I am glad that her and Maya, our almost 13 year old Chesapeak, get a long pretty well. Last night Lizzy woke up crying from a bad dream and Freya went and snuggled with her for a while. She is a sweet soul even though she is still a bit crazy hyper. :)

February Blizzard - All Things Back to Normal

After our beautiful and very uncommon weather of last week, we are back to normal with our February blizzard, or so they predicted. Last night we did get 6-8 inches of new snow and it is still snowing, much to my dislike. At least the new snow covers the snirt and we didn't get as much as my parents did 2 hours south of us. ISH!

We also have a new family member, her name is Freya and she is a 9 month old beagle. Boy does she like the snow. This morning when I took her out, she looked like a snow plow in the snow. Way funny, I wish I would have had my camera at that point. I am thinking that she will run rabbits well, as she caught a trail just outside the door and wanted to follow it. Good thing she was on a lead. Miss Freya is definitely a sweetie. She loves to cuddle and sleeps with us, and she was not chewing on my shoe in the picture - it just happened to be there. :)

Before this last snow storm, the world around our place was looking like we were heading towards spring. The road in front of our house was free of snow and ice, our decks were clean and the driveway was glare ice. The seeds that the kids and I planted in desperation for spring are even growing. Yeah, growing things. It would be cool if we actually got some veggies from these. I will have to transplant them into bigger pots soon, but this was a great way to start them. They really like the sun room.

Heat Wave

Today is glorious! The snow is melting! Or at least starting to. It is currently 42 degrees out with the sun shining and I have been outside trying to rid our decks and sidewalk of snow and ice. I have accomplished a good chunk, but so much of it is still rock hard. This too shall pass. My hopes for the week is to be able to see the road outside our house. I mean all the way down to the blacktop. Sun you have your work cut out for you, but you can do it. Things are going to get pretty sloppy around here as we have at least 6+ inches of snow on the drive way that has been packed down. As that melts, lots of fun.

Yesterday Adin and I made pumpkin soup. It was very yummy, but very filling. This afternoon we are going to take some of the extra to our friends Kevin and Rebekah, along with some of the frozen pumpkin that I have in the freezer.

Spring fever is running high today. It even smells like spring out.

Spring Fever!!!!!

This weekend was great (except for the lack of sleep - by my own doing this time)! I was able to finish redoing my scrapbook of Europe pictures from College and get my seeds picked out. My sister is going to be ordering them this week as we go together on our seeds. Looking through all those great seed catalogs really got my spring fever going.

Our entire house has spring fever. I think the actual house does too, as I sat last night and listened to it creek and grown with the cold outside. On Sunday afternoon while the girls and I were watching the Superbowl pre-game (Scott does not enjoy football so he and Adin were out cutting wood) Lizzy looked outside just as it started snowing and exclaimed "More snow! We have enough snow!" I think that she may have heard mom and dad say that a few times this winter. Last night Adin and I were talking just before dinner and he says he is ready to get his hands dirty in the garden, the garden misses him. Too cute & I agree whole hearted. Poor Elle is ready for the warm, she has been running around the house in shorts or rolling up her pants so they become shorts. I just may break out the shorts (for me, not the kids) this weekend, as on Sunday it is supposed to be almost 40 F. After this week, I didn't even want to look at the temp, we are in desperate need of warm. This morning before Adin got on the bus for his afternoon 4K, I dug out 3 pots, soil and seeds. The kids and I planted some Cilantro, Sugar snap peas and some Bush beans. Not sure if any of them will grow, as I harvested them from the garden this last summer, but we "Got our hands dirty!" Now they are happily sitting in the sun room nice and warm.

Well it is time to get the girls to bed for a nap. Ha ha, good luck to me. They do not like to nap. If the sun is shining where you are, enjoy it! It is shining here and I love it (inside the house today.)

Spiraling

I have had panic attacks for as long as I can remember, but have only been on meds for a couple of years. Last night as I watched my tiny pill swirl around the sink after it slipped from my fingers just millimeters ahead of me trying to catch it only to see it slip down the drain, I stopped and laughed to myself. That is so like a panic attack; things feel like they are spiraling out of control and you are just one grasp away from safety. The last couple of weeks have been a bit stressful and taxing. This "wonderful" computer decided to loose my homework for an Early Childhood class that I have been working on all winter and I have now been trying to recreate it. Our truck fell apart and hopefully today and $1200.00 later it will be fixed. Scott and I have been trying to juggle life as a one car family since Monday - NOT good with our work schedules and 3 small children. I am looking forward to being a two car family again.

My cure for all of this is spending a weekend (starting tomorrow) with my Mom and Sister scrapbooking at the camp I used to work at. This is our quarterly scrapcamp - four days of nothing but scrapping, sleeping (very little), eating fabulous food made by Rhonda and reminiscing with friends and family. Way fun. Dad and Grandpa will be hanging out with the kids for the weekend.

Today is February 2 - Ground hog's Day, what will be the prediction for spring? I know I am hoping for a very early spring, I am way over winter. According to Staten Island's Chuck and Punxsutawney Phil of Pennsylvania we are in for an early spring as neither of them saw their shadow. I truly hope that they are correct. Spring come soon please, my sleeping garden beds are wanting to awaken.