I love this poem

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Puppy, week #2

Okay so I knew that blue heelers, in general as a breed are high energy, high intelligence dogs.  I knew that I'd have to spend time every day wearing him out both physically and mentally.  Thankfully he's still just a baby so wearing him out physically isn't too hard and the mentally part follows the physical.  But what I've found is that I have to do it a few times a day even!    

Sweet little stinker likes to shake?  Nah, he likes to slap with a paw.  E can attest to that, he's sporting quite the scrape on his face thanks to Lil' G there.  He told the guys at work that it was from rough sex though.  Awesome.

Our biggest issue is G.  Big G.  As in the human G.  He will not leave the poor puppy alone.  He loves him but he also seems to think that the dog is his play toy.  We are constantly telling him not to pick up the dog because he likes to pack him around.

Lil' G likes to attack G because G runs and screams, etc.  I have said, "Calm and gentle, son.  Don't rile him up."  It's like I am talking to myself.  He screams and laughs and the dog is sinking his teeth into his arm.  In fact I was folding G's clothes today and several of his socks now have holes in them up around the ankle or in other places that don't normally show wear and tear.  I have explained to G many times that when Lil' G starts to bite he needs to tell him no and get away from Lil' G.  That way Lil' G knows if he bites (even in play) that the fun will stop.  Instead G just laughs and screams, "Ow!  Stop biting me!  Ow!!!"

This training thing is going to take awhile I can tell.  But it's not Lil' G that's going to be the issue, it's the human G that is.  I was afraid of that.

Now Miss Siren has not a single mothering bone in her body.  She never has.  She has more of the crazy uncle bones.  She's laid Lil' G out more than once and he has no question as to who the boss is among the two of them.  He does the typical puppy thing of running up to and biting at her, barking, trying to get her to play with him.  Sadly he doesn't know what to do with her when she does start to play with him.  Boxers play weird.  She boxed him once and sent him flying across the living room.  He got up, cleared the cobwebs and hid from her for the rest of the evening.  

I guess that tag means he's official, right?  I've put our name and phone number on him so even if he manages to escape us, he'll get sent back.  Poor little mite!  He despises the tag.  But he also desipes the collar.  He just don't like bling I guess.  

I weighed Lil' G tonight.  He weighs in at 12.6 pounds.  Heelers are supposed to top out at 50 pounds for males.  He's 8 weeks old.  What the heck?

Merry Christmas!

I got to do something that I haven't been able to do for awhile now. I got to attend a Christmas Eve service at church. We had intended to do a few errands in town and then attend the candlelight service but our errands didn't take as long as we had planned and we had hours before the candelight service was set to start. So instead we went to the children's led service. You know the one, where all the kids from Sunday School put on a play depicting the birth of Jesus. For some reason when I saw all those little children come marching into the sanctuary in their little costumes I choked up. G wasn't amongst them and I still wanted to cry. What the heck happened to tough C? 

After the service (okay and during) G had so many questions. So when we got home we got out some books and read him a couple of versions of the story of Christ's birth. Even though I've read these books to him more times than I remember this time he actually seemed to put two and two together. It was very sweet to see. 

We let G pick a gift to open. He picked "the big one from Nana," that he'd been eyeballing for a month. Nana didn't disappoint, he loves this set!


Poor Gunner thought he'd be clever...and he got stuck!


Do I know my E or what? Yep, that was one of his gifts from me.

That's our gift to G, a Nintendo DSi. At first he said, "But it's not a 3DS," and I almost blew my cork but then he got pretty excited about it.  I'm just happy to have another "tool" to shut him up.  Yep, I said it.



Aunty Isa & Brooklyn sent him the Thomas set he wanted! It's a super cool one, I even played with it.


We managed to have a lovely and quiet Christmas here at home, with just the three of us. But I have to admit something. I miss the loud Broden Christmas Eve's from my childhood, I appreciated them then but even more now that the loud is gone. I miss hearing different aunts or uncles reading the story of Jesus' birth from Grandma's bible. I miss picking a cousins name and then having to figure out the perfect gift for him or her. I miss telling them thank you for whatever they deemed perfect for me. While I love my little family of three I miss my big family at the holidays especially.

G #2!

Meet Gunner (spelled that way specifically even though everything Scandanavian inside me says it's supposed to be spelled Gunnar).  He's our new family member.  Isn't he sweet?  He's a blue heeler.  G is head over heels for him!

He was born on Halloween which means he's only 7 weeks old.  So young!  I've never had a pup this young but he's doing great.  He's had a few accidents in the house but he's picking up the potty learning thing fast.  Really it's more about us learning to watch him for signals.  He's a smart little critter and a little headstrong.

I picked him up from a lady on Craigslist in Washington.  The drive home was a little slow because I stopped often to let him out to potty.  And because anywhere I stopped where there were people the people had to go ga-ga over him.  He travels realy well, keeping my lap warm for the whole drive!

Santa #6

While waiting in line to see the mall Santa...

G: "And I'll tell Santa about Lego Chima. And about my pet penguin. And about all my friends, real and imaginary. And I'll tell them that we put the tree in the front window so he can see it when he come to our house. And I'll tell him about how sometimes I am bad but I don't want to be bad, it just happens. And then I can tell him about how maybe Siren will die and we'll get a new puppy. And that I don't like candy canes. And how much I love Lego Star Wars. And do you think he'll like me mommy? Is he a nice guy? I can't forget to tell him about Skylanders Giants and how we can trade them, I'll teach him how to play."
Stupid grown-up elf: "Okay, bud, it's your turn."
G: *statue*
Me: "Come on kiddo, it's your turn to go see Santa. Let's not hold up the line."
G: *statue*
Me: "Uh...you don't want to see him now? That's cool, we can leave."
G: "I'm not so sure about that guy mommy."
Me: "Son, I'm not so sure about that guy either."
G: "Will you go with me?"
Me: "You bet. Let's go say hi."

Santa: "Ho ho ho."
G: *statue*
Me: "What did you want to talk to Santa about?"
G: *statue*
Santa: "You don't want to talk to me?"
G: *statue*

Me: "How about we take your picture first, get that out of the way, then you can chat with him."
G: *cheeses it up for the camera*

Santa: "Good smiling! Now, let's talk about what I can bring you for Christmas."
G: *statue*
Me: "Oh for the love of pete. Do I need to tell him everything you want?"
G: *nods his head, has gone completely mute."
Me: "I'll send you an email."
Santa: "Sounds good."
G: *statue, takes candy cane offered to him even though he does not like candy canes.*

We walk away.

G: "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I forgot to tell Santa about Lego Chima!"
Me: "Dude."

Dear Santa...

Daredevil G

Reader G

 http://youtu.be/rn-sg7W5tvY

That's my boy, reading!

It's rudimentary but three months ago it wasn't even a possibility.  He learns so fast and so simply.  And as I expected, when I'm given the tools to teach him, he learns it.

tentacles?

Well, isn't that interesting?  I'm an octopus personality according to the Meyers-Brigg or whatever that's called.  I don't know that I agree with it though.  I try to be interested in what other people are doing, sometimes I'm more than interested, I'm actually invested.  And I'm not any smarter than the average person, so that part is off.  I used to be independent until I became a wife and then mother.  Now I'm smothered by companionship, obligation and love.  It's rough.

6. INTJ: Octopus

INTJs are independent types, wildly intelligent and creative — but rather un-interested in what anyone else is doing. They are often considered the most independent of all the personality types, and they work best when given freedom. They are acutely aware of their own intelligence, as well as what they don’t know, and their passion often lies in conceptualizing ideas and processing complex theories.

Your Type

INTJ

Introvert(44%)  iNtuitive(25%)  Thinking(1%)  Judging(22%)

• You have moderate preference of Introversion over Extraversion (44%)
• You have moderate preference of Intuition over Sensing (25%)
• You have marginal or no preference of Thinking over Feeling (1%)
• You have slight preference of Judging over Perceiving (22%)

He's good at it

Bedtime stalling

There is no actual video here, it's just a black screen but you can listen to what a typical bedtime is like here.  He loves to talk and most of the time I love to listen.  Yes, it's indulgent but really we have some of my favorite conversations at this point in the day.  And who doesn't love a sweet child's voice?

I realize he's a little, uh, how do you say?  All over the place.  Scatterbrained.  It's an age appropriate type thing I tell myself.  I think he's just a little crazy like his mother.

Now if you don't mind, I have a bag to pack.  It appears I'm taking a trip tomorrow and I'm going to need my warm wool socks.

The solar system according to G

G became solar system obsessed sometime this summer.  I found an old Time Life book that I had about the solar system.  It is a technical book but it has pictures.  It's also ridiculously outdated.  But he doesn't care.  He has had every word read to him more times than I care to recall.  He doesn't just like the pictures, you see, he needs the facts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf2mqKiBT4w&feature=youtu.be

Another one of the things that I love so much about living here is that it's rare that E has to work a night shift.  There's a certain amount of nervousness that accompanies having him gone into the night but that's a rare occurrence now.  That's why I laugh when a friend complains about her husband working late.  As in 8 pm.  Ha.  Try having him go to bed for an hour and then getting called out to something at midnight that will take him 4-7 hours to complete.  Then you can carry the worry about whether he's too tired to safely drive or watch his six.  His sleep is as important as his ability to shoot a gun.  Probably even more important I'll go ahead and say!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMfrRqpsSNc&feature=em-upload_owner#action=share

Most of the time when these two are outside it's after E has finished work (and so I'm beginning my work) and now that we're into wintertime, that means they're out in the dark.  One of them threw a snowball at the office window and I peeked out to see this going on.  Boys are so weird.  Girls don't play like this.

Oh yay, the liar liar pants on fire stage is here.

Aw, baby's first mug shot!

Me: "Hey bud, did you take one of those chocolate doughnuts while I was in the shower?"
G: "Nope."
Me: "Really? You do remember what a lie is, right?"
G: "Yep."
Me: "You remember what the difference between the truth and a lie is, right?"
G: "Yep. Telling a lie will get me in big, big trouble."
Me: "Okay, glad to clear that up. Now let me start over. Did you take and eat one of those chocolate doughnuts while I was in the shower?"
G: "Nope."
Me: "There's a reason I'm asking, you know. Do you want to think about this for a second?"
G: "No mommy I did not take one of dem."
Me: "How come there were six and now there are only five then?"
G: "I fink Siren took one."
Me: "Okay, that is plausible. But how do you explain all the chocolate all over your face?"
G: "There is nuffin' on my face."
Me: "Go in your bathroom and look in the mirror and tell me what is all over your face then."

*silence as he walks to his bathroom*
G: "Hey mommy?"
Me: "Yes son?"
G: "I'm kinda busted."
Me: "Ya think?"

A few minutes in the life of being G's mother

Me: "Okay, let's get some breakfast in you. What would you like? I can make you some eggs and toast, some scrambled eggs with cheese, scrambled eggs with cheese and some toast, some french toast, some toaster strudel, some yogurt, etc. What would you like?"
G: "Peanut butter sammich and cheetos."
Me: "You can have that for lunch. We're talking breakfast here."
G: "Oh. My stomach is only hungry for something wild."
Me: "You mean something wild and crazy like chocolate syrup on eggs?"
G: "No, like a wild animal."
Me: "Oh. Huh. Well we have deer, elk or grouse."
G: "No, my stomach is hungry for squirrel."
Me: "Hm. Okay."

I proceed to put on my snow pants, boots and grab the pellet gun.

G: "Whatcha doin'?"
Me: "I'm going to go get your breakfast."
G: "Wait, what?"
Me: "I'm going to go shoot a squirrel and fry it up for you."
G: "Huh? You are?"
Me: "You said that's all your stomach can eat so that's what I'll fix you for breakfast. But if I go to all this trouble and you don't eat it you're going to be in a world of hurt."
G: "I'll just cover it in ketchup."
Me: "Whatever, as long as you eat it."

I step out the door, put a round in and head towards the bird feeder where the squirrels like to steal food.

I hear him yell from the garage, "Okay, okay, I'll take scrambled eggs and cheese please."
Me, muttering under my breath: "Yeah you will, you little shit."

here we go again!

It's not like it's a surprise.  Snow.  Here.

G has been asking for snow for well over a month now.  So he's a happy camper.  I can't get excited for some reason.  Maybe because I know we have like 4-5 months of dark and cold now?  I never seem to appreciate summer enough while it's here.

G's a happy boy, that's what matters, right? 

His aim is getting good.  And he has no qualms about throwing snow at either of us.

Once he actually figures out how to pack a snowball it's going to start hurting.

He's a handsome little devil isn't he?  I love his features.

We had to hurry up and get our last jump of the year in since E was adamant that the trampoline was getting taken apart today now that the snow has fallen.  G absolutely loved making the snow jump.

He loves to stand just under the big trees and wait for the wind to blow the snow down on him and then he runs around screaming, "It's a blizzard!  We're trapped in a blizzard with no way out!"  If he decides to take up drama in high school I think he'll excel.

Hm, smack him for being slightly disrespectful or just be happy that he actually looked at me?  Option #2 please.

G told me he has to practice his sneak.  So he can sneak attack Daddy.  Should I warn his daddy to the winter mischief ahead?  I think not.

Does he look mad?  Yeah because I asked him what he was doing.  "Never you mind what you see.  I'm just busy over here."  Well okay then, so sorry.

He made me a snow angel.  In the middle of the road.  Which is why I was asking him what the heck he was doing.

I can't wait to break out the snowshoes, I thin he's really going to get the mechanics this year.  It'll be nice to have someone snowshoe with me even when E is working and it'll be nice to not have to worry about having to carry said person back to the car when he poops out on me halfway through our hike!