Poop Licker

I am SO grossed out.  No wonder I have never had a dog living in the house with me before this.  It's almost unbearable.

The wedding reception went late last night as I had to stay and re-set the room after the reception was done for a job fair scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.  By the time we cleaned, broke the room down, vacuumed, re-set the room and shut down, it was already after 12:30.  I didn't get home until close to 1:00 a.m.  

Needless to say, I was very tired when I came home.  I was in my bathroom washing up when I heard the puppy come in behind me.  I have a dish of water in there for my cats and I heard the puppy lapping up the water.  Brain not working well, I thought, "Boy, she's really thirsty!"  Then it hit me:  she shouldn't be drinking so much water this late because she'll just have to go out and go potty soon.  So I turned to stop her and she wasn't at the water bowl!  I looked and saw her in the shower.  I thought she was licking up water leftover from my husband's shower.  Nope.  Not even close.

After my cat had emergency surgery in May, he's had some challenges with the litter box.  Hurley won't go unless it's perfectly clean and doesn't smell (meaning we have to have fresh litter in the box at all times - easier said than done).  So he's been finding a pristine place to urinate and also for bowel movements.  My shower!

You got it.  Hurley pooped and this little dog that I once thought was too adorable for words is now a cat poop licker upper.  She lost a lot of her cuteness, I can tell you that!  I yelled at her to stop and she kept going at it.  I started to gag (remember when I was laughing at my husband for gagging cleaning up the dog poop?) and yelled for my husband.  It was about 1:30 a.m. and, although he was still up because he waits for me to get home, he wasn't too quick.  I grabbed the dog, tossed her out the door, turned around to clean up the mess and the dumb little poop licker is SO fast she was already back at it!  I gagged again, this time almost throwing up, and grabbed the little creeper a second time.  I tossed her out and tried to keep my foot on her to keep her back.  She was like a bull charging.  Chris finally came it and got the dog.  AND he cleaned up the cat poop.  

Sadie tried to lick me after that.  Like I'm going to let THAT ever happen again.  NOT.  Sick.  Gross.  I think she's going to need her mouth cleaned out with a disinfectant.  I'm not even sure I want to reach in there to do that!  All I can say now is, "Why?????????"

Winning, Wind and Weddings

What a day today!  My son and daughter had football games today and wouldn't you know it?  We have high wind advisories with gusts over 50 miles per hour and with the wind chill?  It felt like 43 degrees today.  Brrrrrrr!

My son's team won their football game today at the high school stadium.  I'm quite pleased as the team has lost their last 3 games.  =(  The team isn't very good about blocking and a lot of the kids just stand there and watch as the other team flies around them.  It's been disappointing to watch so today was a good day for the team.  They needed this win!  Jonathan had a pretty good game, too.  He made a touchdown, scored a 2-point conversion and ran for a lot of yards.  And he's very sick!  I can't imagine how well he would have done if he was feeling well!

After Jon's game, Maddie cheered.  I didn't get to stay and watch because I brought Jonathan home to shower and drug up.  He's coughing so hard he's vomiting.  Not fun for him at all.  Chris stayed with Maddie and said she did a great job cheering in the chilly wind today!  She was very happy to come home and get warmed up, though.

And now, I am off to work at a wedding reception.  Hopefully the guests and the bride and groom won't get blown away by the gusts (and I'm hoping to get out of work early because I'm very tired!).  

Enjoy the beautiful fall colors!

Dirty Shoes

We don't claim to be masters of anything.  I freely and honestly admit that.  Including potty training a puppy.  That's not going so well.  We have Sadie trained to the point of the front door.  She knows she has to go and she's supposed to go outside.  She just can't open the door and we haven't figured out a way for her to tell us she has to go.  Yup, she's been laying down poop at the front door two times now.  I'm just happy it's not on the carpet as tile is a LOT easier to clean up.  But still.  It's smelly, disgustingly gross and highly unsanitary.

So what do I do with a husband who doesn't smell and/or see it and walks THROUGH it, not realizing that he did as he walked DOWN the stairs on the carpeted steps to see if he can figure out where the SMELL was coming from and walks back UP the stairs before he realizes what he did?  I have to be honest.  I'm not sure what situation is worse.  The puppy or the hubby?

As I type this, my dear (sometimes doofus) husband is cleaning up the mess.  Occasionally I have a wicked giggle escape as I hear him start to gag (I know, I'm quite mean!) but it's a good lesson for him to learn.  I guarantee he'll never step in poopy again.

Now if only I can figure a way for the puppy to communicate that she needs to go outside, life would be, well, back to normal.  Sort of.

God's peace to you all!

Cakes Galore!

My mom taught herself how to decorate cakes and she always made us the prettiest birthday cakes, year after year, when we were growing up.  It was always so special to be able to choose the color of our flowers for our cakes!  We also loved eating the leftover frosting on graham crackers...my Mom was so cool!  

Shortly after my daughter was born, I took a Wilton decorating class with a couple of my girl friends.  I was very unsure if I would be any good because I really don't have any notable skills.  It was fun and I realized that I DID have a talent:  I can make frosting roses like no one's business!  And it turned out that I am pretty good at almost all of the flowers:  violets, poinsettias, mums, daffodils, daisies - I found a creative niche!

I'm very anti-fondant as I think it tastes like crap, plain and simple!  I'm not going to go through the time and work to make a delicious, moist cake and not have good frosting on the top.  It's a package deal.  And yes, fondant is amazing to work with because it's smooth, easy to cut out shapes, and it's easy to create forms and designs in the fondant.  It looks beautiful.  But I'm into the look AND the taste - it has to be joy on the taste buds.  So I boycott fondant and strictly use only buttercream frosting.  I even skip royal icing because who likes to chip a tooth on a hard flower that looks pretty but tastes like a rock?  Everything made in royal can also be made in buttercream if you know what you're doing.  And I think I do!  =)  So here's some pictures of cakes I've made.  No fondant, just pure buttercream goodness in every bite.

Princess Fairy

My nephew's graduation cake using an edible cake topper from The Memory Boutique!

Order YOUR cake topper here at The Memory Boutique using your very own picture!

What's to explain?  It's a soccer ball... =)

Ignore the mess in the background...just look at the cake.  It's an erupting volcano.  Did you get that?

Lady bug using the Wilton pan.  I think from now on I'll use my own pans to form the body.  She looks funny!

Whipped this baby out in 30 minutes for my son.  He likes football.   A LOT.

Bad lighting but it shows the pretty roses on top!

It's hard to make a bad-ass cop car using a VW bug pan.  Oh well.  It's a "Herbie" cop car!

Love lattice!  Lighting is bad in the pic but the more I look at it, that's good because the lattice isn't straight!

Just plain fun.

First Communion cake for a boy.

My daughter's First Communion cake.  

I love this.  It looks so pretty on the side (and it covers up a lot of non-smoothing-of-the-frosting issues!)

My daughter's 9th birthday - my son helped decorate this cake which was a flower pot.

I have three orders pending and I'm sure to have fun creating these:  one over-the-hill cake, one tarantula cake and a cupcake order for a sweet little girl to take to school for her treat.  Just for the record, I'm not licensed so I am legally not able to "charge" for my cakes.   But most people have been generous and made donations to my children's "college" funds.  It works out in the end.  =)  

There's No Room for Bullies

Plain and simple.  Bullies do NOT belong ANYWHERE.  We're dealing with a personal situation involving bullying and I can tell you that it HURTS, it's SAD, it's INFURIATING and I will not tolerate it.  

If you know someone who's been bullied, won't you take a moment and let them know that they are wonderful, special, necessary, unique and loved (and any other adjective describing how great they are)?  They deserve to know how special and loved they are and that they do NOT deserve to be treated this way.

If you know someone who IS a bully, won't you take a moment to enlighten them?  NO ONE likes a bully.  As a matter of fact, people have very negative feelings and attitudes towards bullies.  Who wants to be disliked so much?  Bullying also means that this individual(s) has some self-esteem issues.  Help them get help so they can heal and stop hurting others.  It takes a village to raise a child and it also takes a village to help them with their issues.  Don't turn your back on anyone in need and don't be afraid to speak up for what's right.  It can make all the difference in the world to someone in need.

Sadie, Sadie, Sadie

I found I have a little time between sick children and getting them (and myself) to bed.  So here's the puppy story!

Jon & Maddie with Chloe

We ended up getting Chloe, the blind-in-one-eye dog.  The kids couldn't wait to get her home after meeting her last Sunday afternoon (especially Maddie) so, after church, my husband took the kids to pick her up.  I was teaching a faith formation class so I warned them I wouldn't be around to help until almost 9:00 p.m. but they wanted to get her anyway!

When I came home, the dog was on the futon with Maddie.  Chloe was shaking terribly bad.  She vomited shortly before I came home and I noticed that she was running into walls and falling down the steps as she had no depth perception.  It was terribly sad.  She even walked down the hallway right into our cat, Hurley.  She didn't see him and he slapped her.  After that, her nose kept twitching because she was smelling everything.  I realized quickly that she was in fact blind in both eyes, not just the one.  It was a terrible night.  She wasn't eating, she wasn't going outside to relieve herself and she acted completely scared and nervous.  

My husband said we should take her back and I agreed with him.  So the next day, I made the difficult decision to return this free doggy.  I cried.  My kids cried.  I cried all the way there and I cried like a baby while I was there!  The poor woman felt so bad for me and my family that she offered us a puppy.  

The REALLY good news is that my Aunt Margie (who's been a widow since 1997) wanted to get another dog after her sweet dog, Penny, died a few months ago.  Aunt Margie called me on Monday out of the blue to order a cake and I had a feeling that I should mention the dog needed a good home.  Long story short she took Chloe home and they are wonderful for each other and madly in love!

Here's Sadie!

So yes, the kids went and saw "Baby Girl" and fell in love with her.  She's a bundle of energy and she's the perfect fit for our family.  Now if we can only get her potty trained, life will be good.  =)

Sleep Deprived

This is a long story saved for another day when I can think straight and type well.  In any event, the ending of that long story is that we have a puppy and her name is Sadie.  She's a Coton de Tulear and is a ball of energy.  She's like Tigger on steroids.  She's funny and makes us laugh.  She's also learning to potty train and she's a pain in the butt.  But we love her.  And I'll share the story how we ended up with this crazy little doggy another day.  For now, here's her mugshot:

Our Newest Family Member:  Sadie Carafeena Lyals (name chosen by the children!)