Dog shoes

Last night I wrote a blog about why I bought my granny dog some shoes. Here is a picture and a short video of her wearing her dog shoes. The video is of her walking in the street where she makes the most fuss. The guy at the pet store said that the salt on the road could irritate her paws as well as the ice/slush getting stuck in her paws.

I chose a particularly high end brand of dog shoes (thank you tax refund!). They are called Muttluks which I think is an incredibly cute name.

Thursday

I almost forgot that I was trying to write a blog every day this week. Today I tried to walk the doggie and it was almost too much for her little paws. I heard on the news this week that snow and ice gets stuck between their toes and becomes painful. This does happen occasionally, but was a big problem today. Sarina decided she couldn't go on and I almost had to pick her up and carry her. I did talk her back into standing up and limping the last 200 feet of our journey. To prevent this problem, the news they suggested spraying nonstick cooking spray on the bottom of the dog's feet, smearing their feet with vaseline or using dog booties.

I went with option #3 and bought shoes for my dog. I successfully got 2 shoes on her and tried to go for a short walk in front of the house. The doggie managed to remove one shoe and I put it back on and she then removed the other. Tomorrow I will trim the excess velcro (as suggested on the dog shoe website) and embarass our dog who will have no way to remove the shoes.

I will be persistent with our little granny dog until she gives up and the dog shoes win. I will post pictures once I take them.

Good old Ohio.

This quote about todays gigantic snowfall is from the Toledo Blade. After living in Buffalo for a year it makes me smile.

"An overnight winter storm dumped 3 to 5 inches of snow in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, closing most area schools and causing numerous vehicles to slide off roadways and into ditches early Wednesday morning."

I have mad skills with a snow blower now. I also am perfecting my winter driving skills. My shoveling skills are amazing. Next up is to work on my nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills and computer hacking skills.

musical tastes of Tom Brady

I was making an effort to blog every day this week. That lasted for one day. Good for me!

My daughter's love of the movie Labyrinth is disturbing. She wants to watch it every day and even wants me to download the soundtrack so she can rock out in her room. She says David Bowie is the best singer ever. What a cool kid.

I admit her musical tastes are quite eclectic. She listens to all 3 High School Musical Sountracks which is pretty typical of a pre-tween. She listens to a couple homemade CD's of college fight songs and Marching Band music. I hope she doens't become a turbo band nerd, but I fear that it is in her blood. :(

Now I am about to add the Labyrinth sound track to her CD collection. This secures her status firmly in the weirdo category right next to David Bowie.

Corrupting my child

Since the weather remains to be icy cold and my face gets wind burnt after 10 seconds outside, I borrowed a butt load of videos from the library. The young one has been expanding her movie horizons lately and successfully watched Jurassic Park and Labyrinth. She fell in love with Labyrinth and watches it over and over. The Dark Crystal is next on the list!

She has also been quite interested in the movies that Nick and I watch. This weekend we watched Silence of the Lambs. Tom Brady wanted a recap of the "beginning, middle and end" of the movie. I told her that it was about a bad man in prison who killed (and ate) people. He helped the police find another killer if the police promised to give him a jail cell with a window. The bad man in prison ended up escaping. Then they caught the bad guy. Here is a video of her describing the "beginning, middle and end" of Silence of the Lambs. You might not understand a word she is saying, but I thought she portrayed the drama perfectly.

Nick was at the dinner table with Tom Brady explaining the reasons that some creatures eat their young. His main reasoning is that rude and disrespectful children get eaten by their parents. This conversation was all in fun and Tom Brady had the comment "just like in Silence of the Lambs!". Now I fear that I may get a nasty letter from school requesting that cannibalism not be discussed at home.

Now off the topic of cannibalism, Tom Brady had a friend over to play on Sunday. Of course, Tom Brady wanted to watch Labyrinth. I had a bit of trouble deciding whether or not to show this movie to her friend because it isn't rated. Tom Brady was also concerned because the movie has "fart noises". I asked her friend if her Mom would approve of a movie with flatulence. Her friend replied with "I fart all the time and my Mom doesn't mind".

Candy for Sale!

Just in case anyone's mouth is watering for some chocolate, Tom Brady's school will be selling chocolate from Niagara Chocolates. I have no clue if this chocolate is any good, but if you were just dying for a chocolate rabbit, let me know! I will be in Toledo the week the candy is delivered (last weekend of March). We don't know anybody in Buffalo who we want to bother about a dumb candy sale so consider yourself bothered. This is supposed to be a pretty big fundraiser so maybe the chocolate doesn't taste like the bottom of a garbage can.

Candy Catalog

Barack Obama and Tom Brady

Hi i'm tom brady you may know me from some of moms blogs. on the left is tom brady (real) and on the other side is ME!

barak obama we saw him on TV in are classroom ( i do not know if the whole school watched him)

Nick is hot.

I'm sure you all know how hot my husband is. I was looking for some motivational pictures to inspire us to trim down a bit. I was unable to find any of myself but I did hit the jackpot with some shirtless pictures of Nick

.

I did find one of me lifting my skirt. Ha ha.

Stuff Tom Brady Said

Today Tom Brady has the day off from school. She has said a few things that made me laugh.

1. Nick and I have been discussing healthy lifestyles a lot lately because we are both following Weight Watchers at the moment. Tom Brady has been told if she doesn't eat healthy food she will not be big and strong. Consequently, she has decided that I am short because of junk food and inactivity. I was working out with a DVD this morning and Tom Brady said: "Good job Sarah! I can see you getting taller already!".

2. Also in a discussion about why we don't call anyone fat (even if it's true) Tom Brady asked: "Instead of calling them fat, can I say they have a big belly?".

3. Completely off the topic of healthy lifestyles, Tom Brady said: "Barack Obama is so happy he is getting a free trip to Washington DC tomorrow".

Staying Warm in Buffalo

In case you haven't seen the commercial for the Snuggie, watch it here:


This is one of my favorite commercials so I decided to make a few to keep us toasty warm.

I found a pattern online and started sewing. After a discussion with some friends this week, we decided that the Snuggie would be sooo much more warm with a pocket in the front to keep your hands warm when we aren't answering the phone like the lady in the commercial.

Here are the results:

Here is a standing up picture of the revolutionary pocket.

Here is a picture of Nick working in his Snuggie.

Leaving Town

Here we are in January again trying to budget Nick's vacation days which brings us to the topic of VACATION. We haven't been anywhere aside from Niagara Falls in over a year. All of Nick's days off were spent visiting Ohio. So we have decided that we want to go somewhere. A few problems arise:

1. Sarah doesn't want to go anywhere where the weather will be above 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I hate hate hate warm weather.

2. Tom Brady doesn't want to visit Disney World. If you notice in every single advertisement they use fireworks. Fireworks = SCARY! I was there a little over a year ago and tried to look at Disney through the eyes of my daughter and it sucked. She would hate it even if we promised no fireworks.

3. If we go anywhere that would require a hotel stay, it would be quite a drag every night after 8pm when Tom Brady goes to sleep and Nick and I have to watch TV on mute with closed captioning for 2 hours until we get to go to bed.

4. We aren't quite financially stable enough for a real vacation like an Alaskan Cruise, a trip to the pyramids in Egypt or a scuba vacation in Australia.

We have decided to visit the Lowcountry of Charleston, South Carolina. Land of Sweetgrass baskets and our good friends from college. Weather permitting, we should be there in mid February when there is probably not much to do but hang out. We are looking forward to lots of doing nothing and not freezing our butts off. Even better, we will not be melting either like the last time we went during the month of July.

The best part is that I made a reservation to rent a car from Thrifty Car Rental. I chose to use their "wild car" special. I pay a turbo cheap rate for a mid size car or larger. It will be a surprise what I get. Woo Hoo! I love surprises. No Toyota Yaris for us!

imagination

Sometimes I wonder if Tom Brady is imagination deficient due to her excessive time on the computer and Playstation 2. However, I occasionally see evidence that there is hope for the future. I found these dollhouse dolls on her bedroom floor wearing some helmets from her mini football helmet collection. Tom Brady has caught me posting a picture of her toys. She has something to say:

Hi evrybody this is tom brady cool Huh? cool photo well how is this
cool this you see is ......... my Miami helmet doll has been on the high school softball team well ......... my dolls are different every singe time i play with them
okay the next one is........ my Jets -helmet -player is in college for florda gators okay the last one is.................... the denver broncos baby it's just 3 months old.

This is Sarah again. Lets give Tom Brady a round of applause for her blogging debut. She did a great job with the explanation of her dolls.

Busy Beaver

Someone made a comment that she doesn't know how I keep busy. I truly don't feel like I had a productive day, but when I thought about it I was quite the busy beaver.

6:20-wake up
6:40-hygiene
7:00-breakfast for kid, pack kid's lunch, shoes/coat/backpack on kid
7:40-go outside to shovel driveway/sidewalk so kid can get to bus
8:00-breakfast for me and computer time
9:00-get ready to go to store
9:30-actually get to store. have 6 ink cartridges to have refilled. this gave me time to read.
10:30-visit neighbor/babysitter to ask her if she can babysit this afternoon.
11:00-walk dog. also counts as a little exercise for me!
12:00-lunch/phone call with pattie. sorry for eating in your ear!!
1:00-Dr. Appointment. It took 1.5 hours to escape waiting room. ARGH!
3:00-Get home and start cleaning kitchen (didn't clean up after lunch)
4:00-Start dinner prep. make tomato sauce/chicken parmesan
5:12-it is right now and dinner will be coming out of the oven momentarily.
5:30-Eat dinner
6:00-homework/reading time
7:00-Put jammies on kid, read bedtime stories
7:30-kid's bedtime!!!!!!!!!!
8:00-now I sort of juggle housework with TV shows.
9:00-stop doing housework and just watch TV
10:00-probably go to sleep.

social butterfly

Tom Brady brings home another scrap of paper with kindergarten hieroglyphics scrawled on it. Apparently this is a phone number and probably makes more sense when held up to a mirror. This is a phone number for girl "A". I will call her Alexa. Tom Brady was supposed to have a play date with this girl over the holiday break, but it didn't happen. Apparently they are planning a play date for an afternoon this week.

So Tom Brady gets a phone call from girl "B". We will call her Bernice. Tom Brady's half of the conversation goes a little like this:

"No, I really do like you! But I like other people and have other people to talk to."

"Okay, here's the deal: Alexa is busy on the weekends so she can come over for a playdate on a weekday and you can come over on Saturday"

"Sleepover? Yes! I have a High School Musical sleeping bag and I can bring it!"

Tom Brady hangs up and says that Bernice said "I'm hanging up now". I really hope kids don't just start showing up on the doorstep.

Back to Normal

It is almost 9am and life is good. I gave Tom Brady a bath which can be a day-ruining activity. Tom Brady HATES baths but didn't put up too much of a fuss. I then decided to get myself a shower and asked Tom Brady dress herself, let the dog out and get herself breakfast. It took a little coaching, but after my shower I came downstairs to her eating cheerios and yogurt. The cereal bowl was the size of her head, but it was so nice for her to exercise some independence. She had also found yesterday's paper and was reading the sports page. What a grown up little person.

I hope I can be as grown up as Tom Brady and get myself to Weight Watchers today. This might be painful.

They saw me coming a mile away. . .

Today Nick returned to work and I attempted to return to my daily routine. I had high hopes of cleaning the house. First I had some errands to run. Unfortunately for Tom Brady, she was still on vacation from school so she got to run with me all day long. Here is our day.

1. Complete daily hygiene rituals. This occured with no obstacles out of the ordinary. Just Tom Brady whining about why she hates brushing her teeth and changing underpants.

2. Leave house and head to Delta Sonic for car cleansing. Delta Sonic is a way cool car wash that washes the interior and exterior of your car. They will also change your oil while you relax on a couch next to a fire enjoying something from the Dunkin Donuts that is right there in the store. After that you can fill your gas tank with the cheapest gas in the neighborhood. Our brown car really needed a good cleaning on the inside. After our sudden trip to Toledo this week and all of the driving around Thanksgiving, it was a mess. I also had them shampoo the seats because the vomit stains really show up on black interior. They did an amazing job and I forgot to tip.

3. Pick up desperately needed household goods. The traffic in our neighborhood is insane during the holidays and that makes it almost impossible to go out for cat food and sandwich bags. Mission accomplished.

4. Go to bank, drop letters in mail box and then go home to drop off brown car with wet seats due to recent shampoo.

5. Pull white car out of the garage and replace with brown car. Drive white car directly to Goodyear Store for annual state safety/emmissions inspection. We should have gotten it inspected before the end of November, but we parked it in the garage and never took it out until now. While car is getting inspected, we head across the street to the mall to browse.

6. Darn Goodyear Store calls and says I need $400 of repairs for my car to pass inspection. I also need a new battery. I tell them to skip the battery if I can pass inspection. I thought I could shop around for a cheaper one (first stop: Dollar General!).

7. After 3 hours of repairs, they tell me my battery is close to death and they had to jump my car to get it out of the garage. I told them that I was hungry and I was glad they were done with my car. I go out to my car only to discover that it won't start and it appears that my battery is dead. I immediately return to the store and buy their overpriced battery because I was not in the mood to argue. Yes, they saw me coming a mile away.