Cloudy with a chance of rain

At least it didn't rain. And since it didn't rain, we went for a walk on the trails at the lake. There are awesome views on the trials. We had a great weekend!

My back still hurts!

We built this house only 8 years ago. When we started the house we had zero children. I picked some of the best carpet you've ever seen and loved it AND it was white. In the last 8 years we've had two kids. Is the carpet white? Absolutely not. I cannot stand it. In the formal living room we have some pink paint, chocolate wax (from a candle that was knocked over), a few juice box stains, and a BUNCH of dirt. I've had these carpets cleaned a million times and still we get MORE stains. So, on Wednesday night I'd had all that I could take in the den/play room. While Jentry and Jason were playing Wii cheer (Jason is a pro, might I add), Gunnar and I ripped up the carpet. I wondered how hard it would be to pull it up and I found out...it's not hard at all. In 15 minutes all the carpet was up and I had a bare concrete floor. Jason and Jentry heard me hauling the carpet out the backdoor and came to see what the noise was. Jason stood and shook his head like, "what in the world were you thinking?"
Thursday I headed to find new flooring. Bingo, bought it and took it home with me in the back of the big ole suburban. We unloaded it and then I tried to figure out someone that could come and install it. No one, no one, no one was interested in laying it.
We took Jentry to school on Friday morning and headed to the dentist. (Did I mention that Gunnar chipped one of his teeth on Thursday after he got new ones on Monday and Tuesday?) As soon as we finished there, we came home. I gave Gunnar the day off from school, he needed it. Little did he know that he was about to become my personal assistant! We started laying flooring and by 7pm my back was killing me from bending over, my foot had a bruise on it from where I had dropped flooring smack down on it, and I was tired, tired, tired. I quit. But only for the day.
Saturday morning I woke up at 5am, having this horrible dream that my grandmother was moving in with us. (Not horrible because it was my grandmother. Horrible because I don't like any company for extended periods of time. They just make too much noise.) I got up and went back to laying flooring. I headed to the gym from 9-12, watched Jentry's basketball game at 2:00 and then back to laying flooring. I finished the entire room at 6. I am ever so impressed with myself.

The problem is, Jason wanted to rip the carpet out of the living room today. I told him he has to give me a little more time. My back still hurts!

Missing teeth

Gunnar has had quite a time with his teeth, and I mean from birth to now. When he was little he had no teeth one month and the next month he had nine. He had the cutest little smile when all his teeth came in. When it was time to start losing teeth, he started just like other kids his age, first one on the bottom, then the other bottom, then to the top.Then the problems started. At the next visit to the dentist he said we were going to have to extract a few teeth that were causing damage to permanent teeth. Wow, we had a 5 pulled the next month. A few months later he had to have 5 more extracted.After all that dental work was completed, the teeth started coming in one at a time at a rapid rate. His teeth were looking pretty good (aside from the fact that they are huge, something that he unfortunately inherited from me) and then it happened...

On the way home from the YMCA on Monday, a lady was gawking at a wreck and she veered into my lane going about 20 miles per hour. I slammed on my brakes and even though the kids had on their seat belts, Gunnar hit the hard plastic console directly in front of him. It was a LOUD thump so I was looking back expecting to see blood gushing. No blood. I asked the kids if they were alright and Jentry sang, "yes, I'm ok" to the beat of whatever song was playing on her ipod and then I listened for Gunnar and asked again, "Gunnar are you ok?" He said, "yeth". Yeth? I pulled over and looked at him. I could hardly believe my eyes, his front teeth were knocked off 3/4 of the way up, both of them. I went to the next exit, pulled over and looked again, this time turning the light on in the car, trying to assess the damage. He looked like count dracula. These two teeth were completely gone from the middle going out and then there were two fangs that came down on the sides. It was a flashback to my childhood where I, myself, knocked out many teeth doing some of the dumbest things you've ever seen, i.e. diving in the swimming pool with no hands, a wooden jump rope handle hitting me in the mouth, walking into a window, etc. I knew from experience that if the nerve was exposed he was going to be screaming soon, very very soon. We turned around and went back to town hoping beyond all hope that we would be able to find the kids dentist. (By this time his office had been closed for 30 minutes.) Thankfully, we did. (Fortunately I was too excited to take a picture before the dentist started.) We spent a few hours in the dentists' chair and looked like this. The teeth looked a little pigeon toed but I knew it would get better in the morning. The next morning we went in again and he fixed them completely. Thankfully, he has two front teeth once again. At least he has them before we report to the orthodontist Tuesday morning!

I love little kids!

They always say the funniest things. I was walking around on the playground at the school today and a little pre-kindergarten boy ran up and handed me a sight word card.

(I guess a kindergartner had dropped it.) He said, "hey, do you know what this says?" I said, "we", making sure to give him a big w and e sound so that he would never forget it. And I'm sure that with my southern drawl, he never will!

He looked at me so funny and said, "no it doesn't, we is spelled w-i-i." I laughed out loud.

We had a busy, busy week that didn't include...

the little dog! Yeah for me! Jentry thought it would be appropriate to add a happy picture so she took one!

It was a busy week. Jentry had her 2nd basketball game of the season. I thought I'd add a few pictures but they were taken with my iphone so they aren't the greatest. But hey, who really cares?

Gunnar has gained 8 more pounds since I last weighed him. I'm talking about in about 2 months time. He was so super skinny and wearing a super slim pant but we've made it to only slim and I love those chubby little cheeks that you can squeeze!

On Saturday we went out to dinner. It's becoming a ritual around here and I kinda like it! Gunnar and I were sitting across from Jentry and Jason and I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Are they twins or what? Then 15 minutes later while waiting for the check I took another one.

Oh my, they are twins.

Sorry I don't have any great stories for the week. Surely I'll have something better by next week!

Oh how the weekends fly by

don't they?

I promised the girls at the gym that I wouldn't post anything else about the little dog from down the road. They're tired of hearing about it (although, I secretly think they like the stories because they keep asking). And, I thought that I would stick to my word until...

YOU GUESSED IT...tonight, little dog appeared. BUT, thankfully for him, it wasn't in MY yard.

I ran to the grocery store about 5:30 and upon my return there he stood, in the neighbors yard! I could hardly believe it. I looked around to see if anyone was coming to get the dog but, nope, no one. Can you believe it? I thought that for sure they had gotten that dog and put it on a leash or at least behind a fence. I pulled in my garage, expecting to see that little tail wagging within a few minutes but he never came. I hope he stays at the neighbors house.

Tomorrow, hopefully I'll have something new to talk about. I'm kind of tired of the little dog myself.

There is a song...

that talks about a cat that that someone tried to get rid of. The chorus goes:

But the cat came back the very next day,
The cat came back, we thought he was a goner
But the cat came back; it just couldn't stay away.
Away, away, yea, yea, yea

And that, my friends, is how I feel about that little dog down the road. We were doing so well, hadn't seen the dog in days and then like a poof, it appeared, once more.

So, I was in the living room trying to make sure that every Christmas decoration was put away and headed to the attic when I noticed some long hair walking by the glass oval in the door in the front living room. I did a double take because I could hardly believe my eyes. Dang, I thought, the dog is back AGAIN. I walked over to the door and quietly unlocked it. I was going to sneak up on this dog and scare it to death. I ripped the door open, screamed and the dog took off, just as planned. The ONLY problem is that it ran into a garden urn that I had just purchased. The urn wobbled from side to side and then fell off the front porch and onto the sidewalk. The dog was no where in sight but as I approached the urn I could see that it was no longer in just one piece. Dang dog. I threw the kids in the car and down the road we went.

I drove up in the driveway, there were three cars home so I knew someone was inside. I could see the front door was open and there was a little boy playing in the backyard. As I put the car in park, the front door slammed shut. I knew they saw me and couldn't believe I was back. I went to the door and rang the bell about 11 times (I counted). No one came. As I walked back to my car I peered around the side of the house and the little boy asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was looking for his mom or dad. He proceeded to tell me about who all lived in the house and then said his dad was in the barn and that he would go and get him. Yeah, I thought, I have yet to deal with a man at this house.

The guy came around the corner on a cell phone and asked me how he could help me. I started in with the whole story beginning with the black lab that so graciously gave us puppies to the stolen Christmas cards, and all the way to the broken garden urn. He said, "dude, I'll have to call you back" and hung up the phone. Then the conversation proceeded:

Guy: "That's not my dog."
Me: "Then whose is it? Two ladies have retrieved it from this house in the last week."
Guy: "It's my wife's sisters' dog."
Me: "So it lives here, at this house."
Guy: "Not when I'm home."
Me: "Well, then I guess you don't care if I take it to the pound."
Guy: "Actually I do because she wouldn't like that."
Me: "Then come get the dog, now."
Guy: expletive

I went back, got in my car, drove back to my house and waited. Sure enough, he followed. He swooped up the dog who, might I add, was sitting in the broken pot. (I loved it that he could see the evidence and the dog was sitting in the urn.)

That was Saturday, January 3rd. As of today, we haven't seen the dog since. Two days and counting...