"I told you so"

"Ha, now who looks ridiculous? Thought you were so funny laughing at me, but now, now who has the last laugh?" (Berji)

Her Majesty

"... At last there swept into sight a sledge drawn by two reindeer. [only it was one]

The reindeer* were about the size of Shetland ponies and their hair so white that even the snow hardly looked white compared with them [except that it was a 35 lb dog]... Their harness was of scarlet leather and covered with bells. [or maybe it was a blue nylon jump rope with pipe cleaners threaded through beads for bells] ...

In the middle of the sledge sat a very different person--a great lady, [ now that is true--quite different] taller than any woman that Edmund had ever seen.
She also was covered in white fur up to her throat [well actually it was a blue twirly skirt, leggings and a long sleeved shirt with sequins on it] and held a long straight golden wand in her right hand [which looked remarkably like a toothbrush] and wore a golden crown on her head. ...
It was a beautiful face in other respects, but proud and cold and stern [ I think we call that look more like mischief, Clive].

The sledge was a fine sight [yes, FINE SIGHT it was] as it came sweeping towards Edmund with the bells jingling and the Dwarf cracking his whip and the snow flying up on each side of it.

"And what, pray, are you?" said the Lady."

(The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, p27-28)

*That is one TOLERANT reindeer.

Dogs+Mud= Mess

So it finally rained after 40+ days of no rain here in God's country. A whole 2 inches. A whole 2 inches on dry ground means mud in the morning. Well today is also grocery shopping day which means that the dog goes in the (muddy) back yard. The escape artist dog, whose escape route (digging under the back yard gate) I block with the trash can. Unfortunately it is also trash day so the trash can had to go to the curb. But no worries, me thinks, because instead of a hole to squirm under, Uc has a big ol' puddle, and she wouldn't want to stick her whole face in the water, right?
Well we set off for grocery shopping. We return to a very excited dog. Nay, two excited dogs (we are dog sitting) covered in mud. And ever so pleased to see us return and show us how industrious they have been with their time. So after convincing them that they didn't need to visit the interior of the minivan nor jump up on us, I herd the children inside while keeping the dogs outside. Then I set about throwing rocks into their escape hole. Squish squish go my feet in the gloppy mud. I coral the dogs into the back yard again, bring the groceries in and get lunch together for the kids. The dogs meanwhile look forlornly at us (as much as they can see) through the back door.

Apparently they dug all the water out of the puddle to leave a gloppy muddy mess to squeeze under. Too bad I just can't fully appreciate the ingenuity it took.
They were finally let back inside after much hosing off and scrubbing dried mud off their fur. They acted somewhat insulted that they should have to get a bath after all they had been through to create such a welcome back party for us. And now we get to clean the inside of the house too!

Silly Dog

We spent the last three weeks in Tucson, living in a hotel room while Dr. Daddy did some lab work at the U of A. The kids and I tagged along because Tucson is cool, we got to see friends there and 3 weeks is a long time to have Dr. Daddy away. Uc tagged along too. She loves going for walks and runs along the river. But I think she was missing some of the familiarity of home.

snuggled down in my bag to sleep

when I moved my bag up off the floor, she cuddled with a bear

Now that we're back home Uc is happily curled up in her chair again.

Along the Greenbelt

We took the kids for a walk along the Greenbelt- a trail that goes along a creek.

Eskil got the cushy ride

of course, we had to stop at the creek to let Eirena and Uc do their traditional rock throwing/fetching routine

Uc has come to grips with the fact that being in the water makes her wet

so she shakes herself off (while still in the water!)

and then makes off with her prize

After Eirena threw rocks, Adisu and Eirena did some rock climbing. Unfortunately I was keeping an eye on Eskil so didn't get pictures of that. But apparently Adisu did really well. A fun little excursion for a Saturday afternoon.

Sibling time

Eirena reading "Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel" to Eskil

Eskil playing with Uc's tongue - what? Uc isn't a sibling?

Adisu manning the sprinkler so Eirena can wash off the truck

You Know It Is Cold When...

We're supposed to get snow tomorrow- I realize that for some of you this is a normal occurrence. Not so here in "God's Country", and even the underfoots with the fur coats are snuggling down under blankets (wimps).

The Underfoots

I've come up with a new term to describe two 2 year olds, two cats and a dog: Underfoots. Anyway, on Saturday we took the most energetic (and stir crazy) of the Underfoots to the school playground near our house.


Fun on the slide

Adisu loves his football and has quite a good kick

Eirena doesn't really like the slide for sliding purposes, she likes to hang on to the bar and swing

She also really likes a real swing

Uc had vast amounts of energy to expend. We go some of it out playing fetch with her

We love seeing her jump and run- she's pretty fast!

Me? what did I do?

"How did you know I was digging in the mud?"

Road trip!

Last week Dr. Daddy had to do some work in a lab in Tucson. Eirena, Uc and I tagged along. It was great to be back in Arizona and see some mountains again! After driving for two days we were all a little stir crazy, so we headed up to Mt. Lemmon.

We all really liked the opportunity of stretching our legs and smelling the fresh pine-scented air. (Well I don't know if Uc noticed the pine-scented air...)

We let crazy mutt off her leash and played fetch with her. She loved the chance to jump over logs and run wildly around dashing from thrown stick to thrown rock. And it wore her out so well she didn't even think about puking on the way down the mountain!

We also got to see some of our friends while we were there. I'm not sure if Eirena actually remembered them or not, but it didn't take her long to warm up to them.

Our hotel was literally right across the road from Trader Joe's. (happiness!) Eirena and I were quite pleased with that scenario. Uc on the other hand, was thrilled that I let her chase bunnies and lizards in the dry river bed. (She did run into a rattlesnake, but it warned her and she actually heeded its rattle-y warning!)
Although we didn't see too much of Dr. Daddy during the few days we were there due to his odd work schedule, we kept ourselves busy enjoying the dry heat and revisiting some important places.

Open Defiance

We're in a hotel for a few days. The dog is with us. The dog is in the dog house. Yesterday I took her on two walks giving her ample time to relieve herself. Then we went out for dinner. When we came back she had gotten into the trash and eaten bits of plastic and left remains of spring onions across the floor. Then we noticed a pile in a corner. And then I was getting into bed and noticed a huge wet spot. (We were gone for no more than 2 hours.)
She spent the night whining in the bathroom.
The next morning Dr. Daddy took her out to use the facilities. She refused. We brought her back inside and went to breakfast. We were gone 30 min. During that time she felt the irresistible urge to pee on the couch cushion.
She is normally good about such things. And when I am in the room with her she has no problems following the rules. So it seems that she is just mad that we left her in the room. Any ideas of what to do? I'm a little afraid to leave her in the bathroom for fear that she will shred the door. But obviously this behavior is unacceptable and can't continue.

Why I am tired...

I'm ready to move out to my own room. Oh wait, technically I am in my own room. Then why am I not sleeping? Let me explain the nightly routine.
So not only do I have to get up to pee twice a night, but Berji has to cuddle with me. Not just snuggle in of course, but knead, then snuggle, then purr loudly in my ear, by which point in time I'm ready to change positions. I finally fall asleep. Then I have to go pee. Repeat the above.
Then Uc starts grooming. Not just licking, but the smacking slobbery type of grooming. I yell at her. I fall asleep. Then Berji starts scratching the carpet. I yell at her. Fall asleep. I hear Uc gnawing on something. Turns out it is either my underwear (yes, she is gross, weird and has destroyed more than one item of clothing), a box, or she is now pulling things out of the boxes under our bed and chewing on them (today it was a palm tree). I yell at her. I start falling asleep and Efendim starts scratching. Then Uc starts chewing again. Then they decide to play chase. I have to pee again. I finally get up... its hopeless. No wonder I want to take a nap everyday!

Now the simple solution would be to kick them all out. Oh... but have you ever tried to kick a dog out of your room? Not so easy. She will whine at the door. And scratch and whine. And bark. And the last time Efendim was left out the room he jumped up on the computer (downstairs), crashed it to the floor and bent the power cord all in a search for food. No, much as I hate it sometimes, I think it is better for us all to let the animals be in the room with me.

Weight lifting for dogs- sort of

I was talking with a friend the other day about how I wish dogs could lift weights. It really isn't as entirely random as it seems. Shockingly, I have often chosen an extra hour of sleep over getting out of bed to walk/run. I often lift weights on the days that I don't do aerobic exercise, but poor Uc is left with energy unspent. So if only someone could figure out a way for dogs to do some weight lifting,I reasoned, that would be better than nothing. So this friend I was talking to mentioned attaching weights to the dog while taking it on walks to add a little more strain. I imagined the ankle weights that velcro on and thought how funny that would look. And then it hit me... the doggy backpack!


Thank you REI outlet clearance! We actually got this so that we wouldn't have to carry water and food for Uc when we're hiking, but I figured a couple of liters of water might slow her down. The picture is of her post-walk/run. She looks pretty tired, doesn't she? I actually didn't have to hold her back once. (It may have had something to do with the fact that she is still getting used to her backpack, but a little weight didn't hurt either.)

method for fun on a hot summer's day

Girl gets bottle of bubbles.

Girl blows bubbles.

Dog tracks bubble blowing progress.

Dog catches bubbles mid- air,
racing around the room like a nut

Girl bursts into giggles.
Repeat.

At least Eirena is amused

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"what is this?"

"how do I get it off?"

If I make it tight enough to stay on, she can't sit or lie down. If I leave her the comfort of lying down, she can walk right out of it. Suggestions? (Other than permanently fixing the situation in a few weeks.) Eirena was highly amused and ran around saying "Uc you have a diaper on your bum!"

Energies

When we go running or let Eirena go running, we have often told her it was "to get some energy out", either of us, the dog or her little body. So now when she is running she tells us that she has "lots of energies to get out", or maybe Uc has lots of energies. So here are some pictures of Uc and Eirena getting their energies out yesterday:

Dr. Daddy played "pounce and chase" with Uc

Uc loved it!

Eirena practiced her hopping and jumping on the firetruck.
And in the end, energies were gotten out and everyone went to bed at the appropriate time. Success!

A day in the life ...

This morning Dr. Daddy and I made plans. (This actually is a little unusual for a Saturday.) We would go down to a park downtown that has a running path along the lake and then when we got back to the park Eirena would get to ride the mini train they have there (that she got to go on for her birthday). So we organize ourselves. We get coordinated. We get in the car, two adults, a child and dog in tow. We drive to the park. They are now charging $3 for parking!!! Well we're NOT going to pay $3 for parking. So we look for another entrance. It is blocked. We drive down to another park that is also connected to the running path, but that too is blocked/charging for parking. By now we are a little disgusted. It turns out that they only charge for parking on weekends and special holidays (when families would want to take their kids to a nice playground).

So we are now driving around downtown looking for a place to park and run that isn't too far away to get back to the park. Meanwhile, our precious dog decides to live up to her nickname "Uc-a-pukes". She made her commentary on in-town driving all over the floor of the car. Eirena screamed because apparently that is what one does when the dog pukes. It stank. So Dr. Daddy rolled down all the windows just as we came to a stop light. Our precious dog decided that her puke was so bad, she would just hop on out of the car through the open window at a traffic light. I ran out to go get her while Dr. Daddy went through the intersection and pulled over to a safe spot to clean up the former contents of the dog's stomach. (I am one of those people that laughs at inoppotune moments and really, I thought this was pretty funny.)

We finally did find a place to park the car, get on the trail and run to the train. As we were pulling up to the ticket window (but not quite stopped) Eirena decided to get out of the stroller. And tumbled onto the ground. She wasn't injured and had a fun train ride. Dr. Daddy wore the dog out by running her another 5 km. And we headed home.

Thankfully we don't have too many of these sorts of days.

Hiking

We went hiking! It was an 8 hour drive to get to the Ouachita National Forest. Eirena was excellent in the car and even took a nap.

Uc was pretty good too, except that after 7 hrs and 45 minutes of driving we had to go around some tight corners. Uc doesn't "do" curves on the road. She puked all over the car. Thankfully we were almost there and she didn't have anything left in her stomach when we were driving over the dirt road.
Eirena and Uc were very excited to be out of the car and able to explore. We camped at one trailhead the first night and things went quite well. We decided to not actually hike that trail, but a longer one, called Blue Bouncer Loop. We headed up the forest service road and saw a couple of people getting ready to go 4-wheeling. We asked them how far up the trailhead was, but the man told us there was nothing up ahead but an ATV road. (This should have been a warning to us.) Well we drove on and found the trailhead-unmarked.
In the beginning the trail was marked with a swatch of paint on trees at random intervals. After 0.9 miles there was a sign pointing us to the Blue Bouncer Loop trail. We were set. But the trail obviously hadn't been used in a while. It was getting a little overgrown, with thorns. Then it started to get really overgrown with thorny vines that looped over and under you. And there wasn't actually a trail. No path-like structure to be seen after the first 1.5 miles in. We were just going from painted tree to painted tree bushwacking through the thorns. After lunch the painted tree markers thinned out and then disappeared altogether. And there was no trail. Dr. Daddy suggested that we could either pretend to follow the trail or go with the topo map and go down to the river. The next day we would meet up with the old ATV road. We decided to follow the topo map. We found a decent camping spot that night and Eirena had tons of fun throwing rocks and sticks into the water. Uc, who had been very excited to be outdoors was exhausted, but happy.
The next day Dr. Daddy led us to the ATV road which was actually identifiable. Eirena walked a good portion of that back to the car. We then had lunch and did another trail in the afternoon.

Dr. Daddy fighting the thorny vines- its hard to see but all the foliage is pretty much wrapped up in the thorny vines.
The ATV road- that was very pretty

One major issue that we discovered with the place, other than the fact that the trail disappear and was replaced by thorns, was that ticks infested the place. Yuck, gross, eww! At every break we performed regular tick checks, but if we come down with a random illness soon, you'll know why. :) Now we're just trying to be careful about not bringing them back into the house.

Eirena says she had fun, and seemed to really enjoy herself, both hiking and camping. (Notice the gaping holes in Dr. Daddy's pants? Thank you very much thorns!- You should see his arms!)
Pretty scenary wasn't it?

Update: The Ouachitas, we decided, were not friendly to us. Dr. Daddy has broken out in the worst poison ivy rash he has ever gotten. The rash is pretty much all over him, but concentrated on his forearms, which is oozing and just downright gross. I considered pictures, but thought I would spare you. (And we're still pulling ticks off the dog.) At least at this point in time, we're thinking it isn't worth making another 16 hr drive again. :)

Someone is confused around here!

This morning Dr. Daddy and I were having a quiet breakfast (Eirena was sleeping in) when our attention was grabbed by Uc. Our female dog was on top of Efendim (male cat) and was *ahem* making thrusting gestures with her pelvic area. Now either I am very confused as to what she was doing, or she is confused as to both gender positions and species. I grew up with only male dogs so it is possible that she was doing some mysterious actvity that I was unaware female dogs did. But sure didn't look too mysterious. Thankfully Eirena was sleeping.

Keeping Busy

We used to keep Uc in my closet while we were out in order to limit her mischief. Well then we moved her to the downstairs bathroom so she would have a little more space (and removed/hid EVERYTHING). When we neglected to put the toilet paper in a cupboard but instead left it in the far back corner of the sink, we found it mauled and chewed on the floor when we returned.

This past Sunday we had friends visiting so instead having them remove everything from the bathroom, we decided to just put the dog back in the closet upstairs. Now this is the closet where, with great effort, I keep all my clothes on hangers. Actually the longer dresses are in the other closet so that Uc couldn't gnaw on them in boredom.

So we went to church on Sunday. And then there was a church picnic. I left the dog in the closet with her "blanket", a bone and a chew toy. When we returned 80% of my shirts were on the closet floor. A couple of hangers had come down with the clothes. On the plastic ones the hook part had been chewed off. And the bone and chew toy? Untouched.