Shhh, I Love Snow

In the separation, I got the girls, he got the dog. Sometimes, though, I get the dog, too.

That is how I found myself on an early morning walk today in the new fallen snow.

Shhhhh, I love snow. It's not something I can shout from the rooftops around many adults, but give me a room of 6 year olds and I would become the Grand PooBa.

Something about the snow brings out the kid in me. We walked on an untouched bike path; Gretel sniffing through every bush and me making interesting footprints. That's right, if someone were to go out and follow us, they might be wondering what the person belonging to the big footprints was up to. I walked sideways, I marched, I dragged my feet and I walked backwards. I stopped at a circle manhole cover and made a smiley face. Because I had a dog with me, it seemed more normal. I am pretty sure I would not have gotten up early and walked around on the bike path to make footprints without her and if I did someone might have called the police.

I loved snow as a child. I skied, I sledded, I made snow forts, I threw snowballs, I ice-skated on ponds...winter was fun! As an adult, it is not as fun. I picture the grayish people in Frosty the Snowman complaining about the snow when I think of adults and snow. When it snows, you don't call up your adult friends and say, "hey let's go make some funny footprints". Adults have to worry about the shoveling, the snow on the roof, the icy steps, the unplowed roads, basically, you have to be RESPONSIBLE.

There is not a lot of snow on Cape Cod in a typical winter. I have grown to accept this. Well, at least I have repressed my childhood love of a great snowstorm and realize that the Cape has more sand than snow.  That is, until it snows a little and I find myself outside in an untouched yard and lay down and make a snow angel.

Gretel is 4!

I never had a dog growing up. Our pets were more on the "small, live for a few months" nature. I had gerbils and fish and that was about it. We were all allergic to furry things and we were on the go so much, that "real" pets didn't fit in our family.

That changed almost 4 years ago when we were shipped a labradoodle from Idaho who was called Gretel. I picked a labradoodle because she was hypoallergenic. The girls picked her because she was cute. Matt didn't care, he just wanted a dog because he had grown up with lots of pets.

We were hoping she would ease the anxieties of K with lots of snuggle time. (It still works) I was hesitant because I knew I would be this puppy's main care giver. It's true, I was and am. Sometimes, when I walk her, it still seems surreal that I have a dog. Me the "non-dog" lover.

We couldn't have asked for a sweeter, more patient dog. Yesterday she turned 4! It was fun to look at some pictures of her over the years.

Happy Birthday Gretel! We love you!

Hali-toe-sis

Conversation on the way to school the other day. (K, B, Gretel and me)

Me: Dang Gretel, your breath smells horrible.

K (backseat): Oh, Gretel just farted in my face.

B (frontseat): I think my breath smells too. What can I do to make it stop smelling?

Me: Brush your teeth.

B: I have been!

Me: You need mint tic tacs.

B: But I only like the orange ones.

Me: Maybe you and Gretel have halitosis.

K and B: What's that?

Me: It's a disease where you have bad breath. You know, it has the word "toe" in it for a reason.

Yeah, that gave them something to think about for the rest of the day....

Doggie Daycare

When we welcomed Gretel into our family, she was a puppy and I was a newbie when it came to dogs. Always allergic to them, we never had one growing up. Thankfully, nonallergenic dogs were invented and we were able to get Gretel, who is a labradoodle. She was a chewing, pain in the ass when she was a puppy, but now at almost 4 years old, she is FANTASTIC! She is the most patient, gentle dog who totally prefers to lick than to bite.

Enter the little dude who I nanny for. Today was the first day little dude met Gretel. She gave him her cursory licks and it was love at first site (um, lick). Gretel even got her tennis ball and "tossed" it out of her mouth to him. He threw it back to her. Pure bliss in dog and 2 year old world. He watched her drinking some water and then eating some of her food. He decided to feed some to her and wound up making a path of food across the living room. When I asked little dude to clean it up, he put all the uneaten dog food in the water bowl. Very cute and very funny.

After awhile, Gretel got tired and "tried" to take a nap. Little dude could not bear to watch Gretel sleep with no toys, so he went to her bucket of toys and put stuffed animals all around her. Then, little dude went to the bookcase and found a book about dogs and put that near her too. Then he "blew" her nose with a kleenex.

Gretel thanked him with a big lick!

Dang, they are cute!!

PS> Fabulous give away tomorrow!!!

I love the Beach (yes, even in the winter!)

Despite 2 days of frigid weather, Sunday turned out rather mild (relatively speaking). So I had my sister's dog, Bruce, take Gretel for a walk.

Haha, actually KK, B, Bruce, Gretel and I went for a romp on the beach. Bruce just likes to think he can drag Gretel around.

B and Gretel did a little dancing...


B, KK and Bruce did a little posing.


B and I did a little posing...


Then B went crazy and did a backbend....


and then couldn't get up,so I "tried" to help her, but wound up laughing too hard.



KK and Bruce weren't done with their posing yet....


Lest you all think I left K out of this fun, frolicking, beach time, she was at a horse party for the afternoon!

Keep in mind..... Santa (and B) are watching!!!!!

Frag'n Friday!

Welcome to a special addition of Friday Fragments. Why is it so special you ask? Well it is Melisa With One S's birthday today!!! It is also K's half birthday! Go spread the birthday love around and stop by Mrs. 4444's to tell her I puffy heart her, too.

*We were driving to the dentist yesterday and passed a car from C-lab. C-lab is a place that draws blood, takes pee etc... K could not believe that their was actual blood in the car with some older man driving it.
"Ted Kennedy had more security around him and he was dead! This guy is driving people's BLOOD with no security or armored car!!!!"
She doesn't come out with one liners too often, but when she does, they are good!

*She also told me that some kid got busted in school for having soda in his locker. Evidently he had like 7 sodas in his locker and was handing them out to his friends. The guidance counselor confiscated them. The science teacher explained to him that sodas were unhealthy. And he came back with, "Well 2 of them were healthy, they were grape!"

*My father in law was "Quahoggin' Mama" for Halloween. I have no words other than what a good sport.
*I know you all love Gretel and she's always into something.... Here's the latest. Once again I left her in the backyard (you would think I would have learned my lesson). She is attached to a 40ft wirey thing and has the run of the backyard. When I looked out the window to find her, I couldn't see her anywhere.

*
Yup, she had dug herself a nice little tunnel under the deck. I literally had to pull her out.

*She is a very patient dog for the most part.....

*I am doing a little better getting to people's blogs sooner than later. I am also enjoying checking out some new blogs, courtesy of all the bloggers doing Georgie and Amy's Secret Santa (see button above). I do love Christmas and a little birdie told me today it is in 50 days! Ack, get me to the mall!!!!!

*Oh, if you need any seaside holiday ideas, check out my friend Becky's etsy shop or her blog. She is one of the most talented people I know (and really nice too!).

Happy Weekend!!!!

Scallop Season

Scallop season opened on November 1, but for some ancient bylaw, the guys were not allowed to go on Sunday, so it officially started Monday. This once was a huge money maker around these parts, but through shifts in tides, sands, etc, it has been pretty weak for about 20 years. For whatever reason, this is the year it has turned around. So I introduce you to the scallop shanty where one opens scallops.

This is what scallops look like.

This is what they look like when the shell is opened. Evidently they have muscle and guts around the scallop that one has to peel off.

Matt is showing the girls and his nephew the fine art of opening the scallops in a very cramped scallop shanty.

K shows me the cool way to open them.

B found a crabby in one of hers.

Remember Where's Waldo? I made Where's Gretel?

And here it is, the fruits of their labor.

For this little bag here, a fisherman would get about $20 to sell it to a fish market. You, as the consumer, would have to pay about $50 for this amount. Unfair? Yeah, I think so. Place your wholesale orders now!

The Vet

Gretel has not been feeling well the past few days. No real diagnosis from me the "not such a pet expert", but just knew she was not herself. She was tired, wasn't following me around the house, not getting up every time a door opened, basically just not herself. I tried to get a vet appt during the day, but couldn't get one until 6:30 tonight. K, B, Gretel and I drove the 20 minutes to the vet and herein is the scenario that followed...

We arrive at the vet, Gretel sniffs the entire yard, pees and I bring her in (where she sniffs the entire room). K brings her book and questions, B brings long division which she just learned and wasn't getting. G is trying to sniff everything while I stand on her leash and help B with division. 

me, "How many times does 3 go into 6?"

B, "18"

me, "Aurgh! That's 3x6!"

We get called into the office room. I kid you not, it was like a regular Dr's office where you sit in the examining room for 15 minutes. G sniffed, I picked things off of her, B struggled with div/mult, and K was reading a poster on dog  gingivitis. Then K checked G's teeth and decided she was almost stage 4. I told her to look at her own gums and compare. Then she proceeded to have a hot flash and took off 3 of her 4 layers. Can you have a hot flash when you are 11?

The Dr came in with no bedside manner whatsoever! She didn't even comment on how cute and clean G was. (Yeah, she was clean because she rolled in horse shit this afternoon and I had to give her a bath). She asked me what was up with her and I told her it was a feeling that I had that things weren't right. She basically rolled her eyes and asked me to help her put G on the table. Unfortunately K and B were at G's tail end . The "kind" Dr. stuck the thermom. right up G's ass right in front of the girls. They even studied the gingivitis poster just to avoid that scene. Then the Dr. said a bunch of words that resulted in drawing some blood. The words included Lyme Disease, Addison disease, poodles, blahblahblah....

She took G in the back room and we went back to the waiting room. K and B weighed themselves on the "dog scale". They took off at least 5 pounds for clothes. How do they learn that at such a young age? We don't even own a scale. G came out quite happy and finally noticed the cat in a basket on the counter. She growled at it and then ignored it and went back to sniffing. I told K to put on her 3 layers even though her face was still bright red. We finished B's division with the knowledge that she needs to practice her multiplication facts. The Dr. comes out and rattles off "antibiotics, plain wet dogfood, lyme test not positive for lyme, but other tick borne illness, platelets, maybe another disease, won't know for a few days, keep her away from horses and quiet for a few days." WTF. 

That bedside manor was received to the tune of $210. Poor little doggie.  Poor little wallet. Then I proceeded to have the hugest allergy attack on the way home which resulted in allergy medication and inhaler, a shower and a large glass of wine. Yeah, so it's not a proven fact that wine helps furry allergy attacks, but it sure helped take the edge off the evening. Now I have to go look up random words on google and find some multiplication flash cards. 

Dashing Thru the Kitchen?

I stated my expectations early yesterday, hoping that "Santa's watching, you need to help me clean up around here" would be enough. HaHa. All I had to do was mention Santa and the girls decided to reenact the big night complete with Santa, sleigh and 2 reindeer. 

This is what they said to me, "Get your camera ready. This will be great for your blog." 

This whole thing went on for over an hour, it was quite involved. In this first picture, you see the back of Santa's sleigh with lots of gifts. Please notice Melisa, they put in a tiara just for you!

Next, we have Santa B trying to help the lead reindeer K convince reindeer G that this was going to be great. Santa can't move much due to his overstuffed belly. He kept demanding cookies and milk every 5 minutes!
Reindeer G took a break from the action as Santa and his reindeer trot off through the kitchen. Notice DH in the background with coffee. It was a very long day for him. Hear the pity dripping sarcastically from my words? You have to read previous post to completely understand.
After an epic turn around in the hallway, it was back into the family room. (There you will see DH on the couch, where he spent a good portion of his day saying, "Never again...")
And here we have the team complete with all the kinks out of the system and ready to ride on the 24th. 
HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!

Sunny, Warm Spots

This post brought to you by "she who rules the roost" (otherwise known as Gretel).

We set the tree up the other day, put on decorations yesterday and today I got around to sweeping up the needles. After sweeping, I put down the tree skirt that one of DH's relatives made us for our wedding. Gretel has been pretty much ignoring the tree, even though it is in the middle of the kitchen. Until, that is,  I put the comfy tree skirt down. Not 2 minutes later, this is where I found her....

Actually a nice sunny spot with a clean blankie sounds pretty good to me about now, too!

Fall

This is the reason people don't come to Cape Cod to view the foliage.

Could my yard BE any more BROWN!!!???

Looked who popped into my picture taking frenzy this morning without being asked.....

Um, does someone need a little attention?

Tough Life

This is what I have been sharing the couch with during my convalescence. Yeah, we lead a tough life.