Life Goes On

How could it not with this smiley little face making me happy every day?

I guess that title may sound a little dramatic since after all, Marlee was just a dog.  But, as anyone with a pet can attest, they are like part of the family and things are different once they aren't there anymore.  I'm sure if this had happened five year ago, I would be worse off than I am now but with two little people named Calleigh and Aubree to distract me, I find that I'm able to put painful or depressing things behind me much easier (e.g., the Patriots losing on Sunday).  As long as my girls are healthy and happy, the other things can be dealt with.  That's not to say there weren't times this week that I had a good cry.  The worst was on Monday night when I put Dewey in his crate for the night and he was all alone in there.  That was pretty hard.  In your mind, you think of them as little kids and I just felt horrible that he had to go to sleep not cuddled up with his little sister.  To his credit, it didn't seem to phase him.  The next time it got me was on Tuesday afternoon when we went for a walk and I only had one dog to take on the walk.  You can't help thinking, "The last time we went for a walk around the neighborhood, there were two dogs."  (Side note, she hadn't been in walking condition in awhile but it's been forever since we went on a walk because of the chillier weather and earlier sunset).  I'm sure people do this all the time with their loved ones that pass away.

As I lay (I hope that's the right tense of the verb.  I hate the lie/lay thing) in bed on Monday night, just reflecting on the ten years of her life, I realized that there was one thing I should have done in my blog that I didn't.  Someday when I look back at this, I'm sure I'll want to remember specific things about her. So without further adieu, here's my list of things about Marlee.

She Loved:

• Green peppers
• Getting in the trash
• Running around and around in a circle while Duncan yelled "Boot, Scoot, Boogie!"  (This is where Calleigh got the nickname when she went through that phase of calling herself "Boot Scoot and Boogie.")
• Sunbathing
• "Singing" when you would prompt her with your own "singing."  I can hear her now.
• Sleeping
• Licking your ears (including the inside)
• Getting into any sort of food product that's anywhere in a vicinity that she could possibly reach.  Way worse than Dewey!  We always knew she was the instigator.
• Chewing on dirty tissues (and other unmentionables) out of the trash
• Walks.  Boy, as soon as you said the word "walk" she would go bonkers.
• Treats from Grandpa

She Hated:

• Taking baths
• Swimming (complete opposite of Dewey.  Amazing how brothers and sisters can be so different even in dogs)
• Other dogs at first (unless it was a Greyhound.  Somehow she knew they were her "relations.")
• Cucumbers (pretty much the one food she wouldn't eat.)

On that note, I think that's a wrap on my Marlee writings.

On to other things..This week has flown by unlike last week which seemed to drag for some reason.  Since I haven't written about what we've been up to since last Friday, here's a recap of our activities:

• Sabbath I went solo to church because Duncan had to be off his repaired knee for 24 hours.  The girls were actually really good in church (I was trying to figure out how I would quickly remove both of them if one acted up since I couldn't just leave one there while making a hasty exit).  Aubree ended up coming to Calleigh's new Sabbath School since there was only one of me.  She was way better behaved than Calleigh (oh my word.  Every few seconds, it was "I want the purple doll."  "I want the big broom." There were all these props for each of the songs and Calleigh only wanted a certain one which resulted in a few tears when she didn't get particular thing.)  

Aubree fitting in perfectly with the new Sabbath School.  That's Calleigh's head behind the book.

• Saturday night and Sunday morning was work for me as we anticipated the big game which obviously turned out to be a major dud.  Oh well.  I immersed myself in work Sunday night and I quickly forgot about what happened.
• Monday, well, you know what happened in the morning.  Later in the morning, I picked up the girls from Ron and Elaine's and we went to Amaya Papaya's where we hadn't been in forever.  It has been so long that Aubree was actually able to inherit Calleigh's old shirt and I purchased a new one for Calleigh (you get 50% off on Monday and Wednesday's if you wear the shirt).  The place was packed (I'm sure from the rain) and there were lots of kids to play with.  At one point, a little girl, probably a few months older than Aubree, went up to Aubree and pushed her down.  She actually fell backward and smacked her head.  The mother wasn't even watching so you're like "What am I supposed to do here?"  Aubree wasn't seriously hurt or anything but I guess the mom must have finally looked over and seen Aubree crying and her daughter standing there because she came over and asked if something happened.  I felt like such a tattletale!  

Calleigh doing her dress up thing.

Aubree latched on to this baby doll when she first arrived and didn't put it down.  When we left, she wouldn't stop bawling.  I almost felt like we were forsaking a real baby.

• Tuesday began the three day stretch of what I would call, perfect weather.  Temps in the mid 70's with no humidity and bright sunshine.  Just gorgeous.  If every day other than the week leading up to Christmas could be like that, I would be a happy camper.  Anyway, we hit up story time with Yolanda and Emma and checked out a bunch of books.  Calleigh is going through this thing right now where she only wants to read "new" books.  So much for reading the sames ones over and over.  I can't complain actually.  We checked out about nine of them and of course, we've already ready them all, several times in fact, and I'm thinking that I should have checked out WAY more.  I would have gone back today but the library isn't open on Fridays.  The only problem is that they're regular books (not board books) so they are easily damaged.  Aubree likes to "read" them too so I have to keep a close eye on her.  
• Wednesday we went over to Yolanda and Emma's house.  I actually dropped them off there while I had to take my audit stuff into the hospital.  It was so nice not having to take them!  They love Emma's house because she has so much stuff and a backyard with a swingset.  Yolanda said that Aubree was as good as gold so I'm so glad that she really and truly is past the stage of being a Mommy's girl.  The highlight for me was when Yolanda made pasta with homemade tomato sauce (that she threw together right then).  I swear, it was probably one of the best things I've ever eaten.  Yolanda was so happy that I liked it that she said she was going to "cook for me every time I came over."  She said she loves making people happy with her cooking.  I'm totally game!

Have I mentioned that Calleigh likes to play dress-up?

Aubree's favorite phrase is definitely "Look Mommy."  No matter what she's doing, sliding, coloring, whatever, I always hear an excited "Look Mommy!"  That's what I heard when she got to the top of this slide and started doing the splits.

• Since I checked the weather for Friday and saw that it would be rainy (NO yard sales.  Friday rain is like the worst thing that could happen to me), I decided to forgo Walmart on Thursday and just do Publix.  There were a ton of deals at Publix this week and I spent about two hours on Wednesday night getting my coupons and game plan together (it was SO nice to have a free night to do what I wanted.  I was done with working in the evenings, at least for now).  I had about 35 coupons and nine bags of stuff which cost me $38.  The highlights were getting 8 4-packs of YoPlus yogurt for $0.25/each and 6 bags of Kraft Mac & Cheese for $0.09/each (this is a new "fancier" kind of Mac& Cheese that I guess just came out).  The poor lady at the register must have taken at least 10 minutes to go through all my coupons but she was as nice as can be.  Thankfully it wasn't very busy and I didn't turn out to be "that lady in the line who slows it up because she has a thousand coupons."  Those people are only slightly less annoying than the people who pay with a check (who does that???).  

After Publix, we went to the playground.  It was just too nice a day not to do something outside.  Calleigh discovered a lady bug on the slide and although she wouldn't touch it, she was intrigued watching the other little girls handle it with care (sortof.  I actually can't say whether it was still alive or not when we left). 

• So yeah, we had a terrible thunder and lighting storm during the night last night and I thought to myself, even though it was the middle of the night, "Yup, no yard sales tomorrow."  Well, as it turned out, we did go to one and I got new picture frame.  It was something at least.  Anyway, afterwards, we went to Walmart and lo and behold, they got new carts!  Now that may not seem like very exciting news to most of you but let me tell you, those monstrosities that they had before were like trying to push tanks around.  They didn't move well at all and it was just awful.  Not to mention that none of the straps on the seats worked so I was worried about Aubree falling out.  The new carts are awesome.  They're as smooth a ride as can be.  It's honestly like getting a new car.  So it was very happy shopping for me. 

Can you tell this is the end of the shopping trip?  Aubree looks like she's had it and Calleigh wouldn't even look at me. But check out the new carts!

I did accomplish couple of other things this week.  I got an organizer for Calleigh's drawer that separates her undies, socks, and tights.  Doesn't sound like much but she's into the tights phase right now and she's always pulling everything out of the drawer to find a pair.  Something had to be done!  I also got a shoe organizer that hangs over her closet door to put shoes in and we've put all her hair stuff in some of the pouches too.  She insisted on sleeping with the closet door open because she wanted to be able to see all her stuff.  Who knew organization could be so exciting but she's quite tickled by it all.  The other thing I did, which really, I have to tell is pretty gross, was clean our dishwasher.  I discovered mold in it and something needed to be done.  My first thought was to call Steve Conrad and ask him for advice but then, I thought "Just Google it."  So I did and of course, there were numerous instructions on how to take care of it.  Take care of it I did and I'm pleased to say my dishwasher looks all new and shiny and is mold free.  But boy, it was a doozy of a mess.

I bet you'd be surprised what you'd find in yours if you undid a couple of bolts in the back.

I had no idea what nasty surprises awaited me once I took off the strainer looking thing.  Yuck!  I guess I should have taken an "after" picture too.

I guess that's about it.  Oh, my one closing thing is from Calleigh when she was talking to me the other day about Jesus and where he is.  She was perplexed on how Jesus could be here but also somewhere else too.  So she told me that "There must be many Jesuses if he's everywhere at the same time."  I told her that "No, he's omnipresent.  He has the ability to be everywhere at once."  She really does love to ask the questions that are virtually impossible to comprehend.  You just have to accept them to be true.

Happy Sabbath!