My Weekend Went Well(s)

This is just for you, Rachel!!

This weekend we kept my two oldest nephews, Conner (6) and Micah (3). Keep in mind that last weekend, Chris and I kept my youngest nephew, Lucas (19 months) for 3 nights. We are LOVING aple juice and Goldfish these days!!

Our weekend started off with pizza and Jumanji, which was actually a little more scary that we remembered it being!! The boys watched some Wow Wow Wubsy (sp??) before they went to bed to help calm them down.

We got up in the morning and went to McDonald’s for breakfast before our big visit to the Fort Worth Museum and Science and History and the Omni. But before we left, we tricked the boys in to thinking all they had to wear was Uncle Chris's clothes!!

The boys loved the museum. Here are some pictures:

This is Micah in a dinosaur footprint!

We finished off the day with hot dogs and a ride home.

Did I mention the hot dogs were from QT??!! I know – I can’t believe we did that either, but the boys liked them and I checked to be sure they were 100% beef instead of piggy and cow parts…ewww.

The Liquid Closet

Thursday night we had some couples from church and both of my brother-in-laws come over for the Bama vs. Texas game. As we were getting ready to eat before the game, we began talking about my little puppy, Ollee. One of our guests, Mark, likes to refer to her as a rat just to try and rile me up. He began poking fun at Ollee and me...I'll come back to this conversation at the end.

Most of you who read this have at least heard of Ollee. There's a picture of her in my previous post. She's a little Yorkie who will be a year old in April - and she is the most high maintenance mammal on four legs I can think of. I'm dedicating this blog to Ollee, as I "out" her on all of the embarrassing circumstances she has brought into our life.

Every Monday night we invite high schoolers into our home for Bible study. About a month after week got Ollee, we had to suddenly cancel Bible study .... because Ollee was at the vet having her little Yorkie bottom shaved. That's right. Butt shaved. Ollee hadn't pooped in a day and a half and she was becoming pretty sluggish. We called the vet and the nurse told us to bring her in and let them "have a look" at her. So, since I was at work, Chris packed her into her little travel carrier and took our little baby to the doctor. Verdict? Constipation due to (forgive the crassness of the following) hair clogged opening to the exit tunnel. "What!?" we said. "Oh yes. This is common for young Yorkies. We'll just clean and shave the area - and now I guess you'll know if this happens again! ha ha!" Yeah. Ha ha. $93 and a monkey-bottomed dog later, all the plumbing was working.

Next - Ollee had a cough. I guess it was a cough. She started making a funny noise that reminded us of what it would sound like it we had a cat who coughed up hairballs. It seemed to be more frequent so we took her to the vet. He opened her mouth and then crossed his arms as if he didn't even have to think, "Oh - she's got tonsillitis." Hmmmm - Didn't really know dogs could get that. What do I do? Give her cough drops and chicken noodle soup? "I'll give her an antibiotic shot that will work for about 2 weeks and we'll see her again in 3 weeks to make sure she's doing okay." And again, $93 later, we had a coughing dog with swollen tonsils hoping to get cough drops in her stocking.

Finally - for now. My little Ollee got stuck in a glue trap. Yeah, glue trap was new to me, too. To enlighten you, a glue trap is a humane mouse or other icky critter kind of trap for indoor extermination.

We brought Ollee with us to Chris's parents for Christmas. When we go there, we often stay in their garage apartment which has a little critter problem, just due to age. The day after Christmas, I got out of the shower to find my little Ollee with both of her front legs and part of her face glued to what I though was the back side of a large rectangular sticker. Golly Ollee! I leaned down to pull the sticker off and my thumb stuck to the paper. Great - what is this? Ollee was surprisingly being very quiet, hopping around on back legs and a face-two-front-leg-combo appendage. Realizing I wasn't going to be able to get Ollee out of this and a little concerned because she was trying to eat the glue, I ran panicked over to the house towel-headed and pajama-panted. "Chris! Ollee is stuck in the glue!!"

"What!?"
"The glue - on the paper - and she's trying to eat her way out!" Realizing how silly I was sounding and seeing all of my in-laws and my husband a bit amused at my panic, I calmed down. "Okay - she's gotten into something and I'm gonna need some scissors and someone to hold her down to get her out." We all laughed and Chris helped me cut her out of the glue trap. Then we had to rub baby oil on her fur to get the glue all the way off of the fur on her feet and on her face. Seriously. We rubbed baby oil on my dog.

So - going back to the conversation at the beginning of the post - you can see why we (mostly me) get a lot of grief from those who know us about Ollee not only actually being a rat, but also being my baby. My argument is often this: Oh no she's not. She's doesn't sleep in our bed and we would get in so much trouble if we treated a child like we treat Ollee. When she gets annoying, we just shut her up in the bathroom or the laundry room...That's why we can't have kids! We're so used being able to put things that annoy us in the closet.....

"Oh no," my friend, Mark, said. "You can do that with kids. Benadryl. It's the liquid closet."

I'm doing it...

This morning I sat down to see if my sister, Rachel, had posted anything new to her blog. When I do that, it is usually followed by a click on my friend Chelsie's or Ashely's blog and then from Chelsie's I click on Jamie's .... you get the idea.

So Today I decided I'm finally gonna start my own blog. I used to write ALL the time - well, everyday at least - in a journal. Yesterday as Chris and I were putting away Christmas decorations and moving some memorabilia to the attic, I came across all of my journals from high school and college. It struck me as a little bit sad that in the last two years some of the biggest changes of my life have happened and I haven't written about them!! I got engaged, I graduate PT school, I got my first real job, I bought my first house, I got married, I became a youth minister's wife, I GOT A DOG - for crying out loud! Any way - these are events that should be chronicled, for my own sake at least!

So Chelsie - I'm gonna begin by kind of copying you (if that's okay) to get me started. Hopefully I will then come into my own little style. I love how you do the "what I've been reading," "what I've been eating," etc.

I do actually have an event for this post, though! My china cabinet! My Gwe-Gwe, my dad's mom, passed away in October. Over the holiday's my family pretty much completed the dividing of the estate, selling the house, and all that goes along with that. I ended up with a china cabinet, a bed, a rocking chair, and some really awesome pictures. Today you'll see the china cabinet, but without her china in it yet. Right now it has some dishes my MeeMaw bought from Cox's a long time ago with money she had saved - just because she liked them, she said. I love them. And here I go - I'm going to "chronicle" whey there is a bowl missing: I broke it. Ask me if you want to know how, I'm not ready to make it public...

Now - about the china cabinet... It is VERY OLD. On the back was this tag:

Lena Ullrich is the mother of my namesake Lydia Ullrich who was my Gwe-Gwe's mother. So, this china cabinet was a gift to my great-great grandmother when she got married. How do ya like that history lovers!! And, I know that her husband was struck by lightening and killed at some point after their seventh child was born. The woman who originally picked out this cabinet not only bore seven children, but raised them for the majority of their lives on her own. So, even as old and feeble as this cabinet seemed as we moved it and put it together yesterday, I'd say it's something of a symbol of strength for Chris and I. Enjoy the pictures!