Random Thoughts and 'Chicken and Biscuits'

Since my brain has officially become dormant from spending so much with no real schedule to speak of, some random bulleted thoughts are all I can muster.

Well...here goes!

• My puppy has a rash. It's not serious and hasn't affected him in the least, but it's not so pleasant to pet him right now. He's on antibiotics because it was infected when it first broke out. Now, it's more dry and scaly. His short coat hides NOTHING and parts of him feel more like I'm petting a really warm bearded dragon or something. Just takes me by surprise, I guess! He's getting better now...nothing a little doctor recommended Benadryl and an oatmeal bath won't take care of now!
• School starts (for us, anyway!) in two weeks from today. I am ready, but I'm not ready.
• I am starting to chart my sleep patterns on this new app I got for my iPhone. SO COOL. I just wish the graphs could tell me why I wake up with headaches! (I blame the ceiling fan, but my polar bear of a husband wouldn't be able to sleep without it...and that wouldn't be any fun for ANY of us!) Tylenol and a cup of coffee seem to do the trick for me.
• Hmm...I guess I AM sort of ready for the weather to cool down then! No fan blasting on 'high' right at my face would be a nice change...
• There was quite a list of things that I wanted to get done before school started. I am happy to say that I tackled the most important of them: Cleaning the girls' room. It took me a bit longer to start, since I needed to check my immunization records to see when my last tetanus shot was and all. (KIDDING...mostly.)
• Yes, I finally joined the iPhone way of life. LOVE IT. This phone is going to totally change my life, I just know it! I have apps to balance my budget, check real-time traffic reports, monitor and graph my sleep patterns, check the prices of items in other stores while I'm shopping, log my caloric intake and exercise...and on Tuesdays, it makes my dinner and wipes my behind for me! (That last app wasn't a free one...but totally worth it!) *giggle*
• 14YO is learning to play tennis right now. (Literally..right now!) She seems to love it and I really hope she wants to play it this year with her school. It just seems like it won't take up as much time or stress her out as much as most other sports do. I want her to find something physical that she can enjoy for the rest of her life. (Lord knows I never did!)
• I was just looking at a Justice catalog that came in the mail. They do have a lot of cute clothes for girls, but don't those people know anything about school dress codes? Our district doesn't allow clothes with holes in them...even if you paid extra for the holes! The shorts are too short and many of the tops are too skimpy. These kids go to school FIVE DAYS A WEEK most of the year. I'm not buying clothes that they can wear just the other two days of those weeks!
• I'm not sure I'm okay with aging, even though I seem to be trying so hard. I never thought that I would, in my mid-30's, be so concerned about how many hours of REM sleep I get AND how much dietary fiber I consume in a day. HOW DID I GET HERE??? And where did I put that new wrinkle cream I bought?
• I seem to be in a 'Katy Perry' sort of mood lately. She really has great music, but I can't help but wonder what in the hell happened to her when she was growing up? Traumatized and bitter, yet so catchy!
• I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do, but I'm pretty sure that you shouldn't do anything that you wouldn't want to end up on YouTube! If we all lived like that, the world would be a better place. (But not nearly as interesting, huh?)
• Things aren't usually what they seem to be. This thought has actually kept me from so much unnecessary stress. Oh, I still stress about things, but they are usually things I have some control over. (Yet, I fail to do them correctly anyway, so what does that say about me?)
• Okay...I'm going to have to end this with a video I found last night on a friend's Facebook page. Because it made me giggle. We need more things in our day that make us giggle. So, if this video doesn't do it for you, then Google some 'Yo Mama' and/or blonde jokes and make someone else giggle unexpectedly today. You never know when someone might really need the laugh.

Dealing with Annoying Neighbor Kids

Do you have some kids that live in your neighborhood that just leave a bad taste in your mouth?

We have these two neighbor kids that are the sort of obnoxious that you only usually see in sitcoms. Seriously. They whine, they pout, they are bossy and just plain mean. Somedays, they seem to wander the streets looking for someone to play with. I used to dread them coming by, but they were nice enough to my kids and I could keep an eye on them all while they were here.

Now, my own kids don't want to play with them anymore!

They were so bad the last time they came over that my 7YO actually FAKED AN INJURY to be able to come inside and escape them. She whipped up fake tears and everything to be able to come inside and lie down for some 'quiet time.'

I'm not really excited about the fact that she was able to do this, especially since I know she'll probably use it against ME at some point, but you have to give her credit for ingenuity!

This is fresh on my mind because they just knocked on the door. Yes, we are all home. Yes, we have nowhere we have to be anytime soon. Yes, we hid like it was some twisted game of hide-and-seek. Answering the door and explaining that the kids cannot play will produce the most horrific session of whining and crying. We've had this conversation time and time again. Usually though, we are actually getting ready to go somewhere and I can truthfully tell them that the girls can't play. But, I'm not that good of a liar and I'm afraid that the next time I answer the door it will be to tell them that my girls do not want to play with them.

I can't do that! After all, they're still just CHILDREN! It's not their fault that they're so unpleasant to be around! Is it? I can't fix them and I certainly can't fix their parents.

So, here we sit....blinds closed and doors locked on this hot summer day...praying that they don't come back. They gave up after ten minutes of knocking and trying to peer through the windows. I feel so bad about ignoring them, but I think I would feel so much worse if I answered that door. I'm a big chicken, I know.

What would you do? Do you have a situation like mine and how do you deal with it?

Me and My Dogs

It seems that so many things seem to make sense...then a realization hits you one day and you realize that you never really understood this thing that you thought you did.

Let me back up a bit...

Acquiring this new boxer puppy has opened up my eyes in so many ways. First of all, I am never more thankful for having old carpet than when we have a puppy or small child in the process of 'potty training.' Accidents happen, and it's a lot easier to keep my cool when I know this carpet has been peed on before. I just keep a spray bottle of carpet cleaner handy and plan to steam clean them more often. Thank goodness for these warm summer days! I just hope he has the hang of this thing before the weather gets cool and carpets don't dry as quickly. We are crate training him, but puppies live even more 'in the moment' than adult dogs do.

Let's just say the word 'spontaneous' would be an understatement.

I was browsing through an old magazine about boxers the other day. It's nice to do that when starting to deal with a new puppy because I sometimes do need reminders that boxers are NOT like most dog breeds. It really helps me keep my patience and laugh more because they are more like clowns than dogs. (Well, except for the scary makeup! *shudders*) I know I'd read this particular article before, but I didn't take the same message away from it that I did this time. They were talking about how it can be really hard to get a boxer to focus on a task because they are bred for multiple purposes. They are bred for guarding, herding, and hunting. All three instincts can seem to counteract each other with one seemingly simple task at hand. It's almost as if their head is just too many places at once to finish the job.

Yep, story of my life...

That's what wrong with most PEOPLE, I think! We are all driven to do so many different things that we often drop one ball to pick up another. Sure, modern conveniences make being a stay-at-home-mom easier than ever before in so many ways, but at what cost? A few decades ago, a mom would finish the breakfast dishes and then start making lunch. In our house, the breakfast dishes are what I might make time for (or get my 14YO to do...gotta love that age!) in order to start cooking dinner. (But if they're not in my way, probably not!) Lunch is usually just one long grazing session that starts a couple of hours after breakfast and ends (HOPEFULLY) a couple of hours before dinner. I've even thought about investing in a pressure cooker for the sole purpose of being able to start cooking dinner even later. (And we already eat dinner later than anyone else I know!) Don't get me wrong, because I still love my slow cooker...but more often than not my plans to throw something in for dinner get foiled by my own procrastination.

I need to put the chicken in the slow cooker right now in order for it to be ready for dinner, but I will probably forget now and remember when it's too late to do it this way and be forced to scramble when we're already hungry and it's already late and....

I guess you could say that I have more in common with my dogs than I'd ever realized. That would explain a lot, wouldn't it?