Smiling Mom

Well we knew it would hap­pen even­tually. We just didn’t know when. Our 1100 sqft house just got a lot smaller.

Non­nie and Grandpa came to live with us. It was a hard sell, but as Hubby and I loo­ked around the ins­ti­tu­tion that they were living in, we deci­ded to open our hearts and our play­room to them.

It’s the least we could do.

Non­nie and Grandpa sleep a lot during the day and are up making noise all night long. Honestly there have been a few nights where I’ve nee­ded to put in ear­plugs just to drown out their sound.

Oh and let’s talk about their smell. Although they can bathe them­sel­ves, their habi­tat lea­ves something to be desi­red. Once a week I let them out of their room so I can clean, wash, and scrub every inch of it. They get so stinky so quickly.

But they are family, and it’s the least I could do.

Then tonight after some intense exer­cise, I told Non­nie and Grandpa it was time to get back into the play­room because frankly I was sick of the mess they were making around my home. Well unfor­tu­na­tely Non­nie felt that Grandpa was inva­ding her space and so she attac­ked him.

I broke up the fight.

It was the least I could do.

Now Nonnie’s ear is split in two and Grandpa is a bit bloody around his jugu­lar, but all is fine.

Hey, lis­ten. Fami­lies stick together. When someone needs a home, we will provide.

It’s the least we could do.

Meet Nonnie-she’s a he. We call her him our tran­nie ham­mie.

And Grandp-smaller but feis­tier, he’s a crowd favo­rite.

Kayla’s not so sure if she likes them or not. Most days she just tole­ra­tes their exis­tence.

But the kids are espe­cially thri­lled that Non­nie and Grandpa are here to say.

And to be honest, I don’t mind having them here either, stinky cage and all.

I am NOT in the mar­ket for a new dog.

I am not.

No, really. I’m not.

But I’ve become mildly obses­sed about get­ting a shed-less dog when our sweet Kayla croaks.

She’s 4.

And she’ll most likely be with us for another 10 years.

But that’s neither here nor there.

I’m obses­sed.

Mildly.

Just for research pur­po­ses only.

Seriously.

I have deci­ded, much to my husband’s strong oppo­si­tion, that our next dog will be a poodle mix.

They don’t shed.

I’m sold.

I’ve researched the Poo­gle.

The Coc­ka­poo.

The Gol­den­doodle.

The Saint Berdoodle.

Even the Yorkipoo.

Obses­sed. Mildly obsessed.

But I love my lab. So I keep coming back to the Labra­dor Mix.

The Labra­doodle.

The mini-Labradoodle.

The Toy Labradoodle.

Then I found this site.

Not the best site to navi­gate. I espe­cially hate the words that follow you around.

But look here.

I found the dog.

The Dog.

That.

I.

Must.

Have.

I neeeed her.

She’s a Tiny Toy Labra­doodle Puppy.

Seriously. Can you see why I must have her?

My heart aches when I see this picture.

Those eyes.…

So I sho­wed her to Hubby.

And he melted.

He said I could have her.

And I smiled.

Then I told him the price.

And he laughed.

Sigh. It was a good pipe dream.

Now, if I could just come up with $2200…

Got any idea?

Anyone?

Ya, me neither.

Sigh.

After our cam­ping trip, Hubby began doing exten­sive research on exactly which client we should use to create our digi­tal photo albums.  I just assu­med that I’d use iPhoto’s built in book maker.  So I men­tio­ned that to Hubby.  But I’ve also had expe­rience with Blurb.com’s ver­sion.  Both see­med good to me.

So Hubby chec­ked them out.  He made books using each client.  But he just wasn’t happy.  Each had something about it that wasn’t so great.  In iPhoto, it was hard to make cap­tions, as it wasn’t built into each tem­plate.  In Blurb.com, Hubby didn’t like the sta­tic look of each page.

So he chec­ked out Shutterfly.com.  And loved it.  Shut­terfly gives you the option to totally cus­to­mize each page.  Each back­ground color and design can be made, cap­tions can be put on each pic­ture, and there are a ton of dif­fe­rent page layout options.

This pro­pe­lled me into get­ting orga­ni­zed.  Yes­ter­day I sor­ted all the pho­tos I have into fol­ders by birth year for both of my kids.  In BC’s first year of life, there were 1100 or so pic­tu­res alone.…  Next step is to sort through those pic­tu­res and find the top 100 or so.  Oy vey.  I have a lot of work to do!

I should start this by saying that I was one of those girls. I was the girl who belie­ved with my whole heart that I could change my man.

Go ahead and laugh. I know. Because I now laugh at the youn­ger gene­ra­tion for the same thing.

But I belie­ved that I could, in this par­ti­cu­lar area, change Hubby.

Hubby always has told me he was going to buy an RV when he retires.

SM: OK Hubby. That sounds great.

I hate to drive long dis­tan­ces, hate the idea of spen­ding buc­kets of money on a gas guzz­ling vehicle which will sit in our dri­ve­way depre­cia­ting as we don’t use it. But this was a battle I wouldn’t have to fight for many years.

I could change Hubby’s mind.

And then it inten­si­fied. By it, I mean his desire for an RV. He wan­ted one now.

He had a 5 year plan. What was the plan? To buy one in five years. No plan, just a desire that he called his plan.

But I knew bet­ter. I could change him. I did the math and knew there was no way we could buy an RV in 5 years. Heck, we can barely afford our mort­gage let alone gro­ce­ries each month!

Then the con­ver­sa­tion went from an occa­sio­nal men­tion to an every frea­king time we saw a damn RV type of fixa­tion. Do you know how many Northern Cali­for­nians have RVs?

A LOT.

Then.….. we took a cam­ping trip this wee­kend with our dear friends who hap­pe­ned to be spor­ting the almighty fol­ding tent trailer.

I had been tal­king these up off an on for months now. Aside from them being about $40K chea­per than an RV, they use no gas, insu­rance would be chea­per, and sto­rage would be less of a concern.

Hubby step­ped one foot into the trai­ler and fell in love. He was sold.

We, folks, are buying a tent trai­ler. Hope­fully next spring, but it’s a go.

I feel like I’ve just won the lot­tery. Hubby no lon­ger wants to spend an asi­nine amount of money on an RV which would be under used and over pri­ced, and now is exci­ted, I mean EX-CITED about the fol­ding tent trailer.

Wait a minute. I don’t know if I should look at this as if I’ve just lost upwards of $10K or if I’ve gai­ned $40K.

I think I’ll look at it as gai­ning $40K.

See women, some men can be changed!