Fred

Freddy…he’s a total pain in the ass. He barks so much that our neighbors wrote us a letter saying that their “quality of life” has declined since we got the dogs. He has eaten every dog bed I’ve bought within a day. Thanks to Fred, Gus has to sleep on the hard floor. Every time I turn my back, Fred is on the kitchen table. Fred has eaten the molding and drywall in the basement. He isn’t as muscular as Gus; he’s scrawny, he wouldn’t make it as a show dog.

BUT, Freddy is a love. He is determined to climb on a lap. He readjusts his position to be the dog closest to the human doing the petting. Gus lays down first, then Fred plops himself on top of Gus. He’s the cuddler and the nurturer. And, if you need your ears cleaned, he's your man...I mean dog.

Check The Weather. I Think Hell Froze Over.

Do you see what is parked in my driveway!!!

You see it too, right? I’m not imagining its there?

MY DREAM CAR!!!

I know its not nice to boast, but I can’t help it.

It has curtains!

Just What I needed

I came home from work tonight and found this waiting for me on the kitchen table.

Steve said he just found her making it. She gathered all the supplies herself. Her idea. Her words.

This is the nicest gift I have ever received.

Ahhhhhhh

I know, I know. Everyone with a blog in Seattle is going to write something about the weather today. Can you blame them? It was something like 53 degrees. It didn’t rain at all. The skies were blue. The UPS guy was wearing shorts and whistling a happy tune with the robins in the trees. Fred and Gus stood in the yard with their necks stretched out, noses pointed toward the sky, absorbing as much warmth as they could. Finn and I walked to the post office and coffee, then picked up the good dog and walked to school to get Niamh, then dropped off Gus…I mean the good dog…and rode bikes to the park. We were outside. We were warm and dry. I turned the heat off in the house.

Note: I have no idea what a robin looks like or sounds like. It was the first bird breed that popped in to my head so I went with it.

I considered slipping in to my teeny weenie bikini and getting some color for our upcoming trip to Hawaii, but then the $165 package I bought at Seattle Sun Tan would go to waste.

I’ll stick with this bad boy instead.

And the cream that’s meant to help transform my Irish skin to that of someone born with an iota of pigment.

I’ll buy anything…but that’s not the point of this post…its just a fact.

5 in 1

It all began with a scheduled play date with Drew.

The day before the play date, we made plans to have Hayden come over the next day, after school.

Hayden has a brother who is Finn’s age and who will start school next year with Finn, maybe even be in the same class. We thought it would be a great idea to introduce the two, so we also invited Wyatt to come over.

About 2 minutes after the double date was arranged, I realized we were double booked…Drew was already supposed to be coming over.

Because Drew, Hayden, and Niamh all hang together on the playground at school, we figured they wouldn’t mind sharing their play date. We would just have them all over to our house together!

A few hours later, I decided that I wanted Jaya to come over too. I miss the kid. We haven’t seen her ‘round here in a while. So, I texted her. I text Jaya directly because most of the time she texts back for her mom anyway.

Jaya was happy to join in the date!

Jaya wanted her mom to come to the party.

Sure, why not? I could use a friend there too. Welcome, Mel!

Shoot, we couldn’t have just 2/3 of the Parsons gals over. So, Sasha came too!

After they were all here, I just sat at the table with Mel and drank coffee.

Play happened. Broken glass happened. Crying happened. Sibling fights happened. Lots of laughing happened.

It was pretty much the same as any other afternoon at the Westover abode, just louder.

Wondering where Finn is?

He was hiding under the train table in the basement.