Ella's 1!

It was Ella's birthday! We can't believe she is one year old already. We had a small window of time to have a little party last night. Micah was busy trying to night fly, so we made a cake and had a little party. Ella was tired and cranky but she knew what to do with the cake. Of course!

A few hours old.

One year old and enjoying her cake!

I put this picture in because she always has her tongue hanging out. It is pretty funny.

The Back Yard!

Here it is. A picture of the finished product. The man put down tons of dirt, grass seed and some crazy furry stuff. In the really bare nasty places he put down the dirt and seed. In all the rest he put down the fur. I should have took a picture of the dirt before he put on the seed. The seeded areas just kind of blend in now. But you get the picture.

This is a picture from upstairs. All the grayish brown areas are seeded.

Dog Debris Update!

I have an update on the state of our yard. Micah's first call to housing was a vague, "we'll note that in your file." Neither Micah nor I thought that was good enough. Micah called back again and spoke to one of the inspectors. They agreed to have someone come and "assess" our yard. This was AFTER I picked up over 100 piles of poop, puked a half dozen times, and it still wasn't done!!

I know what you are thinking...why would I pick up the poop, right? According to the paperwork we had 48 hours to fix the problem. Well, it had been warm and dry but it was threatening to rain and there was no way I was gonna pick up soft poop. I decided I better put on my big girl pants and go outside to pick up some poop. I put Ella down for a nap and then took Porter outside to be my bag boy. I started picking up the poop with a shovel. It was so disgusting. It makes me want to gag again. Porter wasn't going for it. This is how our conversation went:

P: It's took yucky mommy, I don't want to do it.
Me: You can do it. You are such a good helper.

P: No mommy, it's gross. It smells. I want to go inside.
Me: You are doing fine...you can do it.

Pause.....then I started puking. I should mention that I am not a puker. I hate to puke! For me to puke....that was some seriously disgusting stuff! Porter took a moment from his incessant whining to watch me lose half my breakfast. Then he started again.

P: I want to go inside. repeat 6x
Collecting myself....giving myself a mental pep talk....
Me: Porter, we can do this. We are tough.

P: No mommy I am not tough.
Me: Sure you are
P: I'm not! I'm not tough enough!

Me....puking again. "okay, go in the house."

I continued to pick it up telling myself I could do it! Gosh darn it! After I got to 100 piles of poop and it still was not done...I was pissed and puked out. Then I went inside to call Micah. He called the housing office and that facilitated them sending someone out. Today a very nice man came to the door to work in the yard. He spent all afternoon picking up crap, and filling the bare burned out places with dirt. Tomorrow he is going to put out grass seed. Maybe I'll take a picture of the yard with all the dirt. Just to prove how gross it was!

I am so grateful it is getting taken care of.

Dog Debris

This post is a departure from my usual topic of interest. Usually it's my kids or some crazy story, but today I am talking about dogs and their debris. So, if you happen to love dogs you might want to stop reading now because for the most part I HATE them. They stink, they lick themselves, they bite, they bark, they poop everywhere, they shed, pretty much they are just disgusting.

You are probably wondering why I want to write about dogs if I dislike them so much, right? Yesterday we gotten "written up" with the housing office for having dog debris in our yard. I was so stinking hot when I read the notice. The snow just melted off last week and we found a back yard full of COLOSSAL dog poop, chewed up toys and a water bowl. Gag me with a spoon, will ya? Gross. I don't have a dog for many reasons, one of those being that I don't want to pick up the poop, why in the world would I want to pick up somebody else's dog poop. Gross. I was beyond annoyed that we were in trouble for someone else's stupid dog. Micah called the housing office and complained.

I grew up with dogs, and the one that was alive most of my youth was a spry dog named Buck. He didn't EVER poop in our yard. He always went in the field or somewhere else, but he was definitely smart enough to leave the yard clean. I don't like the idea of walking barefoot across the grass and encountering poop, or even grass stained poop. Gag, oh, I am making myself sick.

When I was little I remember going to visit Grandpa Schulthies. His dog Sam was licking me and I was letting him. Grandpa said to me, "Don't let that dog lick you, don't you know that dogs lick their bums?" BARF!! That cured me. I have much too vivid of an imagination. Do any of the cousins remember getting that line from Grandpa? And is it my imagination or did he name all of his dogs Sam? Or something similar.

I also think it just might be in my genes. Who knows the story about Grandma Evelyn shooting Grandpa Ray's dog? The dog had bitten one of the kids so she shot it. HA HA HA HA!!! That cracks me up. She must have been tough.

And my last reason for thinking dogs are barfy? This is a good one...I was watching some kids once. It was a favor for someone after I was married. They had two dogs and a cat. Their house was COVERED in hair and it did not smell good. The dogs indicated that they wanted to go out. I let them both out. The biggest dog just kind of walked around the yard, but the little one took a big poop. I thought to myself, "Gross, now that dog is going to come inside and Dogs don't exactly wipe their bottoms." Bad thing to think. Not five minutes later the dogs came back inside and that nasty little dog dropped it's butt on the carpet and drug his hind end all over the place.

That is of the many reason's I don't like dogs. Excuse me while I go barf now.

Insomnia

I HATE HATE HATE to be woken up in the middle of the night. I know what you are thinking...then why have kids, right? Ha ha ha!! Well I am up at 1:45 in the morning with the baby. She's long since gone back to sleep, but here I am fixing a post on my blog that wasn't showing pictures. I hate to be woken up in the middle of the night because then it takes me forever to go back to sleep. I'm not a sleeperiner either. That's probably not even a word, but you get the picture.
As soon as my eyes start cracking then that is it. Got to get up. Tomorrow I am gonna be pooped from my middle of the night adventure. What are you? A morning or night person? And are you the same as your spouse? Me? Not so much...the man can SLEEP IN. I am learning to accept that gradually, it's not making me so crazy anymore. He's great at getting things done at night. Me? I am absolutely worthless after about 8 pm. Put me to bed or you might see something cranky. My good husband puts up with me though! Let's hear it! What are you? am or pm?