Saturday Evening Post

I stole that title from somebody who blogs so seldom he'll never know I stole it. I couldn't think of my own title, so... :-)

Wednesday morning we had devotions, then headed to the library and got there just as they opened. We were gone less than an hour and returned to a crying puppy. So we left him in the bathroom, as we've been doing, until he finally stopped crying... THREE HOURS LATER!!! He cried for four whole hours before he finally wound down to a low, defeated whimper. I couldn't believe he cried for so long! I went to the door and opened it... and he wasn't there. I looked on this side of the room--nope; the other side--nope; behind the door--nope. It didn't make any sense! I called his name, then he started whimpering again... from the BATHTUB! When we leave him in the bathroom, we arrange his stuff so:

Apparently he made it from his bed up to the top of his box, then onto the tub... and fell in?! Who knows. All I know is that he was there for hours and hours--no wonder he cried for so long! It was cold in that room and he had nothing soft or warm to sit on, just the cold, slick tub. And he had nothing to play with, nothing to chew on... except, of course, for the rugs that were draped over the edge of the tub! He was apparently trying to pull himself up out of the tub using the rugs...


All of those pieces had to come from somewhere, right? Well...

James handled the news amazingly well when I told him we had our first (and hopefully only) puppy destruct-o job. He was mostly concerned that this might start a pattern of chewing up things he's not supposed to chew up. I tried to assure him that unless he's trapped in a bathtub, I really don't expect him to do anything like this again--and we are now arranging the bathroom differently in an effort to prevent the bathtub incident from happening again. :-)

We had an afternoon cleaning spree that day, which felt good. The kids helped out with the floors and I worked on emptying all of the ashes out of the fireplace and cleaning up all of the wood chips and grime from the stove and the bricks. It looks sooooo much better! It's actually been decently warm the past few days and we haven't needed a fire since then, so it's still clean. That makes me happy. Though it will make me happy to have a nice, crackling fire again one of these days, too. :-)

That night we watched our newest video acquisition from the library: A Muppet's Christmas Carol. WHO KNEW that the Muppets would be too scary for my kids?! HA! My boys are the biggest sissies, I tell ya'! The ghost of Christmas future isn't very Muppet-ish... just a great big cape with a black opening where a head would be and long, bony fingers coming out of the sleeves--very Grim Reaper looking. ~sigh~ Joe and Sam were both a little disturbed when I tried to send them to their dark bedroom immediately following that movie. Ha! We talked for a little while, had good devotions and they went on to bed with no problems... though they wanted to make sure I was going to be in the den until they fell asleep, just in case. Ha!

Thursday was spent doing a lot of computer stuff. I worked on a header for the Alabama Evening Light--that was a train wreck. Never could come up with anything I was happy with and when I finally created a graphic it goofed up every time I tried to save it--chopped part of the fill color out! It was crazy. I don't even remember how I finally got it to work, but it was such a relief to be done with it. I worked a little bit on our Christmas letter and I secured James' Christmas gift that day. THAT feels good. :-) That night just before church I listed the play fort and the trampoline on Craigslist.

Apparently I listed both items way too cheap because I was swamped with calls and e-mails all that night and the next morning! By noon the next day both items had been hauled off and I had cash in my pocket. Good thing, 'cuz I've spent most of what James left with me. He'd better come home soon or I'll have to go and sell something else. Ha!

Katie had the itch to cook (or perhaps she was tired of the pizzas and peanut butter?!) so she mixed up a hamburger stroganoff for dinner... at 3:00 yesterday. We have no schedule right now, so it worked! We threw it in the oven, then made a run to the grocery store down the road because we were out of bread. And we needed to try the new Snickerdoodle Blue Bell ice cream. :-) The kids LOVE it. I think it tastes amazingly like snow cream (lots of cinnamon), with chunks of cookie in it. YUM. :-)

The only other thing I remember doing is researching cameras. Mine is getting slower and slower (we've had it for four years and taken thousands and thousands of pictures with it--I guess it's bound to wind down at some point!), so we've sort of been on the look-out and I wanted to know what to look out for.

Today has been another nice day. The kids have been so good and kind and thoughtful. It's a nice change because I was about ready to hurt 'em. HA! They've been playing together really well most of the day--and they cooked my lunch today, just because. I was in the den and they suddenly appeared with a tray--a plate with a ham and cheese sandwich and chips, a bowl full of Ramen, and a small plate of nachos. And sweet tea to drink. It was way more than I could eat, but it was great! I've got the best kids in the world. They had even included a note saying how sorry they were for being bad and disrespectful and they wanted me to know that they love me. :-)

Tonight I finally got around to stringing the new lights on the greenery and hanging it over the front door and the boys' bedroom door. ~whew~ DONE decorating now!

In Charlie news, he's beginning to go to the door and whine or scratch when he needs to go outside (WA-HOOOOO!!!! Soooooo exciting!) and I'm hoping he'll be doing it EVERY time he needs to go outside in the very near future. AND he slept with Katie last night. WA-HOOOOOO! I slept on the big bed in her room, she slept on the small bed. I had to go thump him with a paper towel tube several times (Clarksons' suggestion) when I first put him over there with her, but he finally settled down and then stayed with her all night with no problem. :-) Of course, when he woke up and needed to go outside at 7:00 I was there to take him... while Katie kept on sleeping like a rock. I don't know how I can let him sleep with her if she can't wake up to take him out when he needs to go! ??? Anyway, we're making definite progress, so that's good. In fact, right now he's in bed with her and I'm on the other bed typing. I'm winning! I think...

That's all for now. One last shot, though...