2 hours

Penny had to go to the vet today for an appointment and we left Piper alone for the first time ever. We've left her outside with Penny for several hours, but never by herself. Even the cat was inside because it's a rainy day. We have a big dog house, plus a covered porch and I put a fluffy blanket on the porch for her as well.
Two hours later we came home to this:

My marigolds!

It's hard to tell just how big the hole is, but if we were gone another hour she could have fit under it.

Also, there was mud allllllllllll over the dog, and the door, and the window, and the walls, and the blanket, and I could hear her barking halfway down the street. *sigh* Lesson learned.

Of course she needed a bath...

disproportionally cheery

Perhaps my expectations are low, but I'm having a good day today because the puppy learned to bark at the back door when she wants out, and I sold something on a garage sale site to someone who wanted to meet me at a place I was already going to be. Furthermore, I was going to donate those things tomorrow so I made $25 when I expected to get nothing. Funny how little things like that can make you feel disproportionally cheery.

Speaking of cheery, I think x*nax has the opposite effect on me. I took a x*nax when we had bad weather and noticed a deep depression for 3-4 days afterward, which makes sense when you think about it.
This is not the first time it's happened, but I take x*nax very infrequently (I've had the prescription for over a year and still have 13 out of 20) and it's only .25mg, in any case. In addition to that, it doesn't seem to help very much, if at all. So... I guess I need something else for anxiety.

Speaking of anxiety, my inlaws are coming to visit for d's 1st Communion. (this Thursday until next Wednesday) We're so ridiculously busy right now with soccer, gymnastics, school, d's 1st Communion, and other activities, plus we leave for vacation 3 days after they leave, and well... it's a  bit stressful. So, to make myself feel better I planned up a yummy meal for each night they'd be here. I like to cook and it can be nice to cook for some new people who might appreciate it instead of kids who would eat boxed macaroni or cold cereal at every meal and be perfectly happy. So, that will be my cheery thing to look forward to from Th-Wed. That, and the wine club shipment I'm expecting before the end of the week.

See? Cheery.

6!

Dear O,
You are six! You are my quirky child, always dressing yourself in mismatched clothes and rain boots, and definitely always being just YOU. You are a wonderful, sweet, boy. You are completely obsessed with lions, so much that you have at least 8 in your bed every night.
 You love LEGOs, Star Wars, and lots of different types of music. You love arts and crafts, and you're very creative. You recently started gymnastics and you really enjoy it.

I learned to walk at 8 months so I could keep up with my brother!

I'm one!

 I love how you know what you want, and how you don't care if you're different than everyone else. I hope you never forget that different is wonderful.
Happy 6th, big boy!

A Day in the Life of Piper

Oh, this pup! She's a big, fluffy ball of energy - oftentimes wet.
A day for Piper consists of running around like a crazy mess:

Swimming:

Practicing her tricks:

Getting more energy out on the trampoline:

Digging in the sand box:

Driving Penny nuts:

Trying to share a bath:

and, finally, resting in her favorite spot:

The Village

People are fond of saying, "It takes a village..." in regards to child rearing. I can't say that I necessarily disagree, but what of those of us whose natural "village" is nowhere around?
I know I'm far from alone in the fact that I have no family anywhere near here, but I've never been more jealous of those that do. Of all the children on both sides of my family, my children are the only ones who do not live less than 30 minutes away from at least one set of grandparents, not to mention aunts/uncles/cousins and extended family.

There are many reasons I wish we lived closer. For one, I would love for my kids to have a closer relationship with their cousins, their grandparents, and the rest of the family. If we see them at all, we see most of our family members only once a year, a few twice, and very few are able (or willing) to make the trip to visit us. It's not enough for me, and certainly not enough for my kids to develop strong relationships with them.
Secondly, selfishly, I would love to have some help. I'm not going to lie; parenting is hard. I'm feeling the strain this week more than normal with D working overtime again, and playing rugby and soccer/gymnastics for the kids.
Yes, I have amazing friends who are more than willing to be there when I really need them. However, it's not the same as asking the grandparents to watch your kids so you can go to the store or the doctor or on a date, or have the kids spend the night on a random Saturday, or have them over for Sunday dinner or for your kids' birthdays.
Third, I just miss them. Well, most of them.

I believe we've hodge-podged together a nice little village for ourselves here, but it will never be the same as family for me. Not because I don't love my friends like (and oftentimes more than) family, and not because I can't count on them (I totally could) but it just isn't the same. As much as I love my friends here, they also have small children, jobs, lives, and all the same sort of struggles we do. We can vent together, hang out together, have fun together, and even rely on each other - and that's nothing to sneeze at so I don't mean to discount it. I just selfishly want more. I want the friends I love, the place I love, and the family I love all near each other.

Perhaps I'm romanticizing it a bit. I know my family well enough to know that we'd get on each others nerves often enough. Still... I've started questioning if I can really live my whole life never again living near family. We can't keep on visiting two far-away states several times a year, especially when the travel is so one sided. (Well, perhaps we can, but I'm weary of it. The other alternative is not seeing family, and that is also not a good option.)
Will I be sorry later, when my children don't have the relationships with family that are built at a young age? Then again, how could I move them away from the home we love, and the people we know and love? Moving & starting over doesn't appeal to me, not in the least.

So, village-less parents, how do you manage? And can someone round up my 15 closest family members and make them move down South? 

"I didn't mean to eat all your gum!" Miss L said, while looking at me over the edge of the table with her big, innocent eyes. I guess that's true if you consider that "didn't mean to" means that she remembered I keep the gum (off limits until you're 5!) in a high cabinet, that she pushed a step ladder over to it, opened a new box and proceeded to unwrap and eat - not chew, EAT - every. single. piece! She left a paper trail from the kitchen alllll the way out to the trampoline in the yard. *sigh* This was while we were in the middle of a math lesson, and by the time we were on our reading lesson, she had let herself out of the back yard (which none of the kids have ever done, miraculously) and went around the front and rang the door bell to come back in. That's when I declared that the fully fenced back yard is off limits, without me.

Whoever said that girls were easier as babies/toddlers was a big LIAR. All the boys have done their fair share of naughty deeds, but Miss L takes the cake. She has done all the things the boys did, all the things I thought I had escaped with the boys, and then some I hadn't even thought of yet. We used to call C the Tasmanian Devil, among other things, but Miss L has even surpassed his naughtiness! Worse, she has the charm down, so manages to escape the wrath of her brothers & Daddy, at least sometimes, and even I have to laugh and shake my head at her antics.

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It's bad weather season here, and I feel so stupid admitting it, but I cannot control my reaction to the weather no matter how I try. When I was on citalopram, it helped my anxiety overall, but it did not touch my panic during the weather. X*nax, meditation and yoga, deep breathing, even alcohol, don't work. (Yes, I realize I should not medicate with alcohol.) I should probably take two X*nax, or try something else, like therapy.

At the first sound of thunder I have a strong physical reaction, and I'm a mess until it's over. We get a lot of thunderstorms here, and it's so frustrating to have to check the weather before I can plan anything. I know that if it's bad weather I will flake and not go, no matter what the event is. I check the weather along the way when we have road trips, and the forecasts for when we'll be on vacation because I don't want to be away from my storm shelter when there might be a tornado. However, when I'm at home I'm still a mess, in spite of the storm shelter. *sigh*  I know, logically, how very, very, SMALL the chances are that anything will happen, but logic has no part in my panic.

It's not like I'm afraid of heights and can just not go up a sky scraper, because there is no escaping the weather. Unless I up and move to the desert, I'm going to have to deal with thunderstorms and possible tornadoes.
I just don't know how.

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Some friends invited us to share a house with them, at the beach, for a week in May. It's a great time to go, before school lets out, and super cheap too. I'm so excited! BUT, I'm nervous about traveling with other people! These friends are GREAT, and we all get along so well, and they have kids too so it's not any of that.

However, I'm somewhat (a lot) of an introvert, and often need privacy and quite a lot of time to recharge. I'm not sure how introverts travel with people without getting super stressed out. ??
I've never traveled more than a night or two with anyone other than my family or D's. Even then, when we stay more than a couple days at my parents, or my inlaws, I get so cranky because there is no privacy, no time alone, etc. I think I *will* be able to carve out some time on this vacation, but the last thing I want is to seem rude to our friends. Tips?

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Piper & Penny are doing great together. Piper is full of life (read: hyper!) and so smart! She already knows sit, speak and paw, and she's *almost* completely house trained. She and Penny play and run around together and although Penny gets sick of her boundless energy at times, for the most part they really get along well.

She likes the water a little bit too...