A New Day Dawns

Okay, so here it is, my first official "blog". I stole the idea of a blogsite from a friend of mine (they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) and I must say this is going to be interesting. I hope that all those many people I send my Christmas "book" to (in the guise of a family newsletter) will appreciate my saving of trees by incorporating this blog as a continual update to our family rather than a once-a-year summary of the many days of our lives. I think this will be fun, and hopefully entertaining as well.

Right now the big thing in our home is the preparation for Halloween. For those of you who know me, Halloween is my favorite holiday. I LOVE Autumn!! The beautiful colors of the leaves, the crispness of the cool air (will it rain or will it snow?,) and the excitement of the Holiday Season upcoming (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, 4 of our 5 family members' birthdays, etc.) What a fun and BUSY time of year in our home.

The children are all decided on what they will be this year. It looks like Nick will be a dead football player, Hunter will be a dead (but awakened again) zombie, and Cecily is leaning towards a Dark Fairy. I'll probably be what Cecily was last year, and use my old wedding dress to be a dead bride (I like to get use out of the $1100 "costume", plus a "cursed" dress is best for Halloween, right?) Todd will be dressed as the "dutiful Dad who takes the kids out trick-or-treating while the wife stays at home in the warm house to hand out candy, BUT the Dad gets the first - and best- pick out of the kids' candy bags so the job really isn't so bad" guy. I don't think he's too excited, though. We DO have a back-up plan for trick-or-treating since Nevada weather is unpredictable and it has been known to snow here on Halloween night. We'll attend our church's Harvest party, but we'll make a few adjustments to our costumes first.

On a more somber note, our beloved Pug "Sadie" is officially deaf. The poor thing just cannot hear anymore. Luckily she's all of 18 pounds and 2-feet long of fluff so picking her up to take her places around the house (since she can't hear to "come") isn't too strenuous (thank goodness she's not a lab or a doberman!) Sadie is over 9 years old (that's 63 in dog years) and thus I suppose the woes of old age have hit the ole girl.

Barkley, our 2-year old mini-schnauzer, makes up for whatever lack of energy Sadie has. He keeps the household bustling for the rest of us. Recently the little pooper ran away - I KNOW! Gone for over three hours before I noticed he was missing (DON'T GO THERE) I was left with a tough decision... The kids were all away at the other parent's houses respectively, and Todd was upstairs sleeping in preparation for his 12-hour night shift at work. So... Do I go look for the little rascal (remembering ALL the "pains in the butts" Barkley has pulled in his short time on this planet) or do I act like I don't know he's missing (I mean, the only two who knew Barkley was missing was myself and God, and I knew HE wasn't going to tell anybody). I tossed my two options back and forth in my mind, probably a little longer than I should, and finally decided that dealing with the wrath of having Barkley in our family was a lot easier than dealing with the wrath from the kids once they found out he was missing. So, I put on my slippers, went outside in the 40-degree windy day, and started trapesing up and down the streets of our neighborhood calling out his name. To make a long story short, thanks to some candy-selling children (whom I had turned away about three hours earlier) we had our Barkley back, and nobody even knew he was missing. (Darn it, my ONE chance!) Ironically, he has been behaving better since his return. Hmmmmm, maybe an alternative to obedience school? I know, I know, I shouldn't go there either.