Awwwwww POOP!

So, we live in an area where a lot of people have dogs. This drives Teller nuts as he is, by nature, anti-dog. We all have to walk our dogs so they can get exercise, peruse the surroundings and of course, relieve themselves. There are stations everywhere providing not only a garbage bin, but little bags to pick up each dog’s little droppings. Very quaint situation. We like it. When the bags run out, we utilize grocery bags to pick up after Teller. It’s like, recycling.

However, I seem to draw closer and closer to the conclusion that there are simply too many dog owners near us who are, well total and complete morons. They must be. You see, I know it gets confusing. The first time I walked outside, as a dog owner, I thought, “Why where will I pu… oh, nevermind. They have these quaint little stations with bags and such. How nice. Everyone here must be so responsible. How nice this will be.”

I didn’t account for the idiot factor though. I am often short-sighted like that. As usual I think, these people are adults. They really should know better than to leave their dogs’ poop laying around where kids play. My own kids, who I will admit, seem to be responsible beyond their years, often remark that people really should pick up after their dogs. My instinct isn’t so nice. I want to catch them in the act, run up, snatch the dog, leash and all and run off into the wilderness.

What we find hilarious though, is a neighbor who way more than once has stopped us outside and asked if we pick up after our dog. “Yes,” we reply showing a bag from our pocket, “always.” She stares for a moment, disbelieving and remarks at the amount of poop lying around that is clearly from small dogs. We acknowledge this fact with solemn gestures of understanding and walk away. We both think, does she realize that 98% of the dogs around here are indeed small breeds? Is she an idiot? And, if so… is SHE not picking up after her dogs!? Before we get too deep into our conspiracy theories, Teller crouches… Awwww Poop!

To extinguish any misunderstandings this post was written in part, or in full… in this case, in full, by Brian.

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Some Great Advice

“These are uncertain times.” “We’re in a recession.” “It seems no one, and no job is secure these days.” We’ve heard all the phrases being tossed around like cupcake recipes. They are all too pertinent these days, and so are the phrases. But, what can we do? Is there some way to secure one’s position at work? Is there some guarantee we can have that we’ll be employed tomorrow? I now seek answers to most of my questions from the ones who have reinstated my conservationist attitude, and concern for our planet and others. The ones who somehow defy all logic with a terribly simplistic rationale.

I was leaving for work one evening. It was my “cool job” at the mall. Usually, on my way out, I get the standard barrage of goodbyes and I love yous, but this day was different. Somehow, this day would prove to me more insightful. As I approached the door to leave, the girl shouted, in her normal upbeat tone, “Bye dad! Don’t get fired!” It escaped her mouth as any other statement would both matter-of-factly, and optimistically. I, of course, stopped dead in my tracks, turned to my wife and, as is our usual response, we both laughed the words, “What did you just say?” In stereo, our kids replied, “Don’t get fired.” “I won’t. Thanks.”

I quit soon thereafter.

This post written by the wise and mysterious man of our home.

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Angel at the Pharmacy

Well, The Boy ended up at Urgent Care last night. He started complaining about his ear in the afternoon, and by dinner time, he was screaming, and then he just fell asleep on the couch, which is never a good sign with him.

I was at an event for work when all this went down, so Brian took him to Urgent Care. I met them there. After seeing the doctor, we walked down to the pharmacy (it’s in the same building). While we were waiting for the prescription, a very sweet lady came over and said, “I’m so sorry your son isn’t feeling well. I’ve heard him crying since you came in, and it’s just breaking my heart.” We thanked her and continued to wait.

Because of all of his crying, The Boy was getting a little snotty, so I asked him if he wanted me to go find some tissue. He started crying harder and told me not to leave, so I did not leave.

Before she left, the same lady brought over a package of tissue. She gave it to Brian and said, “I heard you ask him if he needed some tissue, and I heard him get upset. So, I bought this for him. I hope he feels better soon.”

I have never been more touched by anything. A perfect stranger, out of the goodness of her heart, buying a package of tissue for my little boy. It was such a kind and loving thing to do, and it brought tears to my eyes.

I will always remember this woman. I am convinced that she is an angel.

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BOYS!

The Boy is on a roll. Twice today he has come out of his room, during nap time, to tell me that he had done something ridiculous.

Conversation #1

“Mom, I have something stuck in my nose.”
“What is it?”
“I dunno, part of that ship game maybe” (cardboard travel Battleship)

Sure enough, I found a wadded up piece of cardboard up his nose.

Conversation #2 – 20 minutes later

“Mom, something is stuck in my throat.”
“What is it? Another piece of the game?”
“No.”
“Well, what then?”
“Maybe part of that measuring thing with the dinosaurs on it” (wooden ruler)
“Did you have it in your mouth?”
“No.”
“Go get it.”
He brings it to me.
“Why is is wet?”
“I was maybe, I might have been chewing on it”.

What the? Why do boys do things like this??? Can anyone tell me how to make him stop??? You’d think he would’ve learned his lesson when this happened.

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FIRE! Or, maybe it’s the wind…

Allow me to set the scene:  It was a cold and windy night…as cold as Southern California can be on a Sunday night in March.  It was 1:40 am or so.  Everyone in the apartment building was fast asleep, dreading the sound of their alarm clock signalling the beginning of a new week.

Suddenly, there is a noise that is simply ear piercing.  Like no noise we have ever heard.  We jumped from the bed, and run to the kids.  We take them out in their pjs, with no coats, and our tiny dog follows us.  We find everyone from the building out there, and man are they angry…not scared….angry.  Why are they angry????

Because the wind tripped the fire alarm.  At 1:40 am.  We went back inside, and waited for the noise to stop.  When it finally did, we tucked the kids back into bed…I’m sure they were asleep before we shut their bedroom door. 

Brian and I, however, laid in bed for hours, listening to the wind, and hoping that it didn’t set the alarm off again.  It didn’t.

I finally got to sleep, but when my alarm went off in the morning, I thought it was the fire alarm.

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Cheeks are Cheeks

Lately, The Boy has been walking around scratching his butt. Last night, I took a look, and found that it was a bit red. So, I put some antibiotic cream on him and had him go put pajamas on.

A few minutes later, I mentioned that his cheeks were looking a little red, which they tend to do when he gets warm. With his killer grin he said,

“Maybe you should put some of that butt medicine on my cheeks and stuff then.”

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Chicken Nuggets

This just struck me as funny.

Yesterday, we were on our way to an out-of-town party, and stopped at Wendy’s for lunch.  We were waiting for our meal at the drive-thru window.  We got our drinks and were quietly conversing among ourselves when suddenly, with great force, the lady inside opened the drive-thru window and screamed:

DO YOU WANT ANY SAUCE FOR YOUR NUGGETS??????

I jumped.  Brian jumped.  The Boy jumped.  I think The Girl may have screamed.  We said “No Thanks”, got our food, and drove away.  Before we even had the window completely rolled up, we were all cracking up and screaming:

DO YOU WANT ANY SAUCE FOR YOUR NUGGETS??????

So, if you are ever out somewhere and hear someone (or a whole family of someones) screaming:

DO YOU WANT ANY SAUCE FOR YOUR NUGGETS??????

It’s probably us.  Come on over and say hi!  Or just scream:

DO YOU WANT ANY SAUCE FOR YOUR NUGGETS??????

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Just Between Friends

My best friend Rebecca and I have started a new blog together!  We grew up together in Michigan, but then I had to go an move to California.  Now we miss each other all the time, especially our monthly Girl’s Night!  So, we decided to do a blog together!

Our blog is called Oceanside Lakeside. Please go check out our first post and let me know how you like it!

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Bikes and Kites

This past week, I went to a conference about autism.  While the conference was great, and I learned a lot about autism, I also learned a lot about my own kids, who are not autistic.  At one point in the conference, the speaker noted that, somewhere between 12 and 18 months,  normally developing children learn that they can manipulate the minds of others.  In other words, they learn that they can mess with people…trick them, if you will.  I thought about my own kids, and sure enough, that’s right about the time they started playing tricks on us.  She also mentioned that kids start lying around the age of 5 or 6.  Again, I see that in my daughter…she’s unfortunately right on schedule.

Today, in my own completely unscientific research, I determined that around the age of 4 years and 2 months, children learn that they can make another person feel guilty.  Here is the story that lead to this important discovery:

We were getting ready to go to a party at a local park this afternoon.  The Boy, having just gotten his bike tire fixed, really wanted to bring his bike to the park.  I told him that we couldn’t bring the bike because I wasn’t sure if there were sidewalks at this park, and because his bike wouldn’t fit in the car.  He wasn’t happy, but he accepted this answer.

After we had been at the park for a while, The Boy asked me to push him on the swings.  I pushed him for a while, and after he got off, he looked at me with this sad little face and said:

“I’m sad.” 

I asked him why he was sad, and he replied:

“I’m sad because we didn’t bring our kites!” 

I apologized and said that I hadn’t even thought about it, to which he replied:

“But they would have fit in the car, Mom!”

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Back In Business

Wow.  It’s been over a week since I’ve been able to sit down at a computer when it wasn’t work related.  Between being without internet because of the move, and then having to play catch up at work, and then having two 12 hour days in a row, it’s been a looooooooooong week!  Let me catch you up!

February

We made it through February with only my rib injury, which technically happened in January.  No one was hurt or sick, and most importantly, nobody barfed!

Moving

Last week was our big move.  And by big, I mean we moved about 100 yards to the north.  We recieved the keys to the new place on Saturday night, but unfortunately, the apartment was not clean.  Like, at all.  So the ladies in our leasing office were absolutely fantastic, and had everything pretty much fixed by the next morning when we were ready to move in.

It took us about 3 days to get everything over here, because we figured, “it’s such a short move, so we won’t rent a truck”.  HUGE MISTAKE!  We sort of forgot that our move involved going up three flights of stairs.  Poor Brian had to do almost all of the heavy lifting by himself.  Then for the few days after we were finally moved in, we were both so tired that we couldn’t even think about unpacking, so we are still surrounded by boxes.  But, hopefully that will be taken care of this weekend.

Work

I’ve gone to two seperate conferences this week, which have been very interesting.  While I enjoyed the conferences, and felt that the information given was great, I did have to endure 2 twelve hour days in a row…thanks, of course, to Los Angeles traffic.  The experience also made me wonder if I am really in the right field, but that’s another discussion for another time.

I am also frustrated with work for a few reasons that I won’t get into here.  In short, though, I am frustrated with budgets (or lack thereof)  and politics.  It’s making for a stressful time at work, and I am having trouble coping with that.

Blogging

About a week and a half ago, my friend Becca and I decided that we are going to do a blog together.  I am very excited at the prospect of working with her on this, and as soon as we get up and running, I’ll let you know!

Also, I have written a guest post for Glblguy over at Gather Little By Little, which is a personal finance blog.  This post is a bit of a departure from what I would normally write about, but I really enjoyed writing it!  Go check it out!  Right now!  Go!

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