I'm not dead yet....

December is just probably our busiest month out of the year, and that was before instant parenthood.

So I give you a smattering of our adventures in the last few weeks:

~Medium Fry got a spanking while Gramma and Boppa visited, because she climbed up on her Little Tikes table (which she knows she's not supposed to do), and started pulling cd cases off the stereo shelf, tossing them to the floor, and was probably aiming for the body of the stereo next. Small Fry came over as I was holding Medium, reminding her that I love her, and said, "Cwy?" I said, yes, she's crying because she got punished. Then she went back into the living room, looked at my dad, and said, "Bad." Dad's eyes nearly bugged out, trying not to laugh.

~Uncle Hubby got tired of "girlie" movies like Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and Cinderella, so he popped in the VHS of The Lion King and it's been nearly a daily ritual since then.

~I waited too long to empty the lint screen on the dryer, because I do so much laundry that I forget to clean it with each load, and so when I went to clean it yesterday, most of it fell off the screen and back down into the dryer. I couldn't fish it out. So I ended up leaving a load of damp clothes in the dryer overnight, since I wasn't about to run it when it stopped drying efficiently and was getting really hot and just go to bed. So I started it this morning, peered outside at the vent, and determined quickly that I should go clean out the vent itself. On the freaking coldest morning of the year. I fished out a bunch of lint, got steam in my face for my trouble (thankfully not too hot; just hot air from the dryer hitting the frigid air outside), and nearly froze my toes off. (They are still chilly.)

~I spent most of Saturday baking. And I forgot to eat. Until Hubby ordered pizza, and I realized I'd had a Dr Pepper and assorted finger licks throughout the day as I baked. Yes, I know. Not smart.

~I realized I thought I was done with my Christmas shopping, but I'm really not, since I had the sudden reality-smack that, not only do I need to have presents for people from us, I need to have presents for people from the kids as well. Yay me. A little strategic mental reshuffling of presents already purchased fixed that problem, and I just have to find something for my three-month-old nephew now, from both us and the kids. I think.

I now need to go get munchkins dressed for the day, and get cracking on work as much as I can...it's payroll week, and I'm sure the boss will want to do everything by tomorrow!

Things you don't want to find in your washer

~Screwdrivers (although, to be fair, I found it in the dryer)
~Cough drops, with the wrapper hermetically sealed to the drop
~Roller-ball pens
~Roller-ball pens without caps
~Plastic wrappers of any kind
~Markers
~Industrial Sharpies!!!

It does not get any more exciting than this!

It's dinnertime here at Casa Fries, and I'm setting a bad example by posting on LJ while eating dinner with the girls.

Tonight's entree (for all four of us girls) is grilled cheese sandwiches, and...wait for it...letter-shaped tater tots.

Large Fry wasn't too enthused with actual tater tots when I tried those before. Now she's happily squooshing the leaked-out cheese from her sandwich into the holes of a Tater-B. Apparently this is a combo that works. Then again, she did think the alpha-tots were "cookies." If I could just get her to eat instead of play....

Medium and Small Fries are just as happily devouring.

Yes, I'm having grilled cheese and alphatatertots too. My sandwich has a bit more pizazz, though. I added garlic powder and leaf oregano. Yum.

Dessert will probably be more of those frosted sugar cookies that Hubby loves so much. I'll cut them in half for the Fries, which means I get the last half guilt-free. After all, I'm making sure half a cookie doesn't get left behind.

Why is it...

...that the phone always rings at the moment you are least inclined to answer it, or be able to answer it?

...that three perfectly happy and content children suddenly become little banshees the minute you're indisposed?

...that the children have no desire to play "huggie!" when they're clean, but only when they're covered in PB&J from their hair to their high chair trays?

...that motherhood is not allowed sick days?

...that I only have an appetite for cough drops and not real food?

...that I didn't complain yesterday when the P.A. prescribed doxycycline and I know how it affects me? (Oh, yeah, I forgot.)

...that the three-year-old has discovered she can blame the cat(s) for things?

...that I can't find another pair of little socks? (Not that it matters; Faith would whip them off anyway.)

...that I "lost" the classical radio station Wednesday afternoon at naptime, but found it again at bedtime that same night?

...that the three-year-old insists on smooshing her sandwich quarters together into "birthday cake"?

...that I wonder these questions when I shouldn't even be asking them?

It should surprise no one...

...that I often feel this way:

It IS Thatcher 3.0!

Janelle called briefly from The Seeing Eye today to tell me she'd been matched to her new dog (this will be her third), and he apparently is Thatcher version 3.0, referencing her brother's email last week. (He'd asked if she was ready for Thatcher 3.0.  Thatcher was her first dog, a yellow Lab/Golden cross who was very sweet; he was retired in February of 2005.)

Her new dog is a male yellow Lab/Golden cross named Aussie. She says they call him "Awesome Aussie."

I hope he really is! After Adele's craziness, she needs a good, solid dog that she can depend on.

I get to see her and meet Aussie on Saturday. I can't wait!

Because she's PSYCHO!

Awhile back, I got an email from my best friend Janelle about how she was seriously considering retiring Adele, her Seeing Eye dog, whom she's had only three years. She was still conversing with people at The Seeing Eye about it, and hadn't made a final decision yet. I asked why she was thinking of retiring Adele so soon.

The email I got back was succinct. "Because she's psycho!" Janelle went on to explain that Adele's had some problems ever since another dog guide went bonkers and attacked her at a public event, has grown to loathe cats with a passion, barks at anything that walks by the front door, is still a little skittish about traffic at times, and develops irrational fears (like being afraid of Janelle's scanner for a week).

Several weeks later, I got another email from her, with the subject line, "Well, I did it." When she had nearly half a dozen people at The Seeing Eye concur that it was time to retire Adele, and a fast approval for her application for a new dog, she made decided to go ahead and retire her. She was just waiting to hear which class she'd be in, and turned her efforts to finding a home for Adele if she could, rather than return her to TSE and have her adopted out that way.

Janelle emailed on Monday that she'd found a home for Adele. Adele will work through today, and will go to work with Janelle's hubby tomorrow (he's a manager for PetCo), get a bath, and be picked up there by her new owners. Janelle flies out on Saturday to TSE for her training class with her new dog.

Her brother, who's also blind and got a new dog last summer, and knowing she'd be a bit nervous about going and would miss her young boys while gone, sent her an email this morning, part of which said: "Try not to stress out too much. This could be a really nice vacation for you. I mean, you get a full-size bed all to yourself, an out-of-tune piano, and blind people to poke fun of. What could be better?" Encouraging, isn't he?

The cool thing is that Morristown, NJ, where TSE is located, is only about 3 hours from here. They have visiting hours on weekends when you can come see the students in the current class, and since it's a short enough trip, we're going to make a day of it, pile everybody in the car, and go see her and her new doggie.

I can hardly wait!