Fabulous Army Life

We've officially lost our minds. My family (parents and siblings) are taking a cruise this week. Since the tickets needed to be secured several months ago while Hubby was still deployed (and we had no idea what our next assignment would be or what his next job would be), we were not willing to chance it so we did not sign up to go. It was a wise decision ... any military Family can tell you making long-range plans is not easy. The losing our minds part comes in, though, as we agreed to watch all the family pets while they were away. We currently have in our home: a 15-year old Cairn Terrier (ours), a 2-year-old boxer (my sister's), a 6-month-old Labradoodle (my mom's) and our 3-month old boxer puppy. There's a lot of canine craziness going on at my house right now! Honestly, though, they are having a great time together. Landri the Labradoodle is the sweetest little girl ever, a fluffy cloud of black curly hair who is always wearing a smile. Beaudreax, the black...

As I write this, yesterday's snow is melting so fast in the 48 degree sunshine that it looks and sounds like it's raining outside. Add to that the artillery that is ba-bamooming out of Fort Hood and you'd think it was a regular thunderstorm ... until you look outside. After yesterday's grey, snowy day, it is bright and sunny today. Snow is melting fast and only one of our three snowmen still stands. The boys will be slushing around in the mud after school today looking for remnants of their frozen playland, but I fear all they'll find is a big mess. I'm amused by the amount of hot chocolate we went through yesterday ... as if trying to stuff an entire winter season into one twenty-four-hour-period. My boys and their dad spent a vast majority of the day outside in the snow, with me popping into and out of the scene, taking photos, replacing soaked winter gear, gathering snowman couture, and yes, making more hot chocolate. In a twist of humor, one of the funniest ...

If you are a die-hard dog-lover, I should have some great posts for you as I gush about our precious new puppy. If you're not, you may want to just skip anything tagged "puppy" or "Leo" ... it'll save you some time. =) New puppy Boxer Leo and fifteen-year-old Cairn Terrier Shadow are really getting along well ... Shadow is showing more spunk with a puppy in the house than she has in years. She often initiates play, grabbing one of Leo's toys and running off with it so he'll chase her (which he always does). Leo, for his part, is a wonderful addition to the family. He is learning his place in the hierarchy well and makes life very fun for all of us. It's funny to me how dogs, pack animals that they are, instinctively know things like: Daddy is the alpha male, the current dog rules over me, and I have to find my place to fit in with my new 'pack.' Leo understands that Daddy is alpha male, that I rank next (and that I am his primary source o...

Sweetheart roses, fabulous chocolates, wonderful day with wonderful family and friends ... plus two amazing boys, a cute new puppy, and the most incredible husband ever HOME with me. This was a really good Valentine's Day! All in all, I think Valentine's Day is a pretty hokey holiday ... largely dreamt up by retailers and restaurant PR teams. Sometimes I think it's pretty amazing what we can find to spend money on in this country. But I fall for it all and get all the cutesy gifts and snacks for the day. We had pink sprinkled cinnamon rolls with blackberries for breakfast (on our red and pink heart paper plates) and gobbled up pink heart-shaped marshmallows for a snack on the way to church. We all wore red and exchanged cards and gifts to demonstrate our undying love for one another. Yep, I know it's hokey but I play along anyway! We started the day with our Valentine's exchange. I always like to get the boys a collection of fun stuff ... a book, game or toy, stuffe...

So we have the puppy, the kennel, the collar, leash, toys, treats, and new boxer books. Next on our checklist is a name! We've brainstormed lots of boy puppy names -- everything from Mr. Paws to Rocky to Cannon -- but needed to meet our puppy before making a final choice. The boys began our search by throwing out the names belonging to some of their favorite games. This gave us choices like Pikachu, Wartortle, Pidgeotto, and Dragonite (from Pokemon) and Bakugan names like Tuskor, Griffon, Juggernoid, and Terrorclaw. As they continued to shout out crazy names, I picked up on the name "Leonidas." I asked them about this name (a dragon Bakugan that happened to be one of their favorites). I liked this name so we looked it up online (to ensure there were no negative connotations or satanic worship links) and found that it was also the name of a King of Sparta! We even found this summary of the movie "300": In the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas and...

After weeks of research, days of debate, and a couple of hours of prep work ... we have a puppy! We adopted a boxer puppy today and love him already. We used www.puppyfind.com to look at lots of adorable puppies. It's one of the best websites I found in my search and we are so excited to have found our new family member there. The breeder is in the local area. She was fabulous with us, sending us emails, photos, and giving us lots of fun tips on our new puppy's personality traits. We met her tonight just to see "Simba" ... but came with a new kennel, leash, collar, dog food, and chew toys, um, 'just in case' we wanted to leave with him. She brought one of his litter-mates along for the ride and I seriously considered coming home with two new puppies. Sanity won out in the end, though, and we only have one. Our 15-year-old Cairn terrier, Shadow, was very patient with him when she met him tonight. I've been worried about her reaction. She was our fi...