B and O Railroad Museum Christmas 2009

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Why When Things Get Better, I Make Them Worse...




















Here are three examples:

1. Paul and I are finally both working, saving money, and stable in our relationship. At this point, we have been dating a little over a year. On my first "lady-only" camping trip, I take and ruin that by bringing home a puppy that was in a cardboard box.

My defense: The puppy was only five weeks old, at a yard sale for free, and was being fed hot dogs by children. I couldn't just leave her there. Enter Seneca into our lives.

Result: Much added tension to our relationship as we puppy train a dog and take on pet owner fees. (Bonus: Paul and I decide at this point that we are a family:)

2. We finally get Seneca potty trained and loved by the block we live on in the city. She is off leash most of the time and will stay on the sidewalks. We love her and she loves everyone else. We decide to get a second dog.

My defense: Seneca was awesome when we were home. She played and listened most of the time. She loved being with us. When we went to work, it was a whole different story. She HATED her crate. She would paw at it until her paws would bleed. She would cry and whine and whine and cry. It drove us crazy to think that our "baby" was all alone and missing us. Our solution was to get her a pet. Enter Ruby into our lives.

Result: More tension due to puppy training two dogs and vet bills. The rescue that we adopted our second dog from said she had a case of kennel cough. It ended up being a severe case of pneumonia and about 20 vet visits (CA-Ching!) Our little family is now complete for the time being. We have two beautiful coon hounds that love each other, we love and love us. There just isn't anymore room for love in our hearts. Until......

3. Fast-forward to 2007, a year after we get married. I am infected with baby fever. I see them everywhere! Pregnant ladies walking in the park. Strollers in all colors rolling down the sidewalks. All of them glowed!! Baby and mother looked deliriously happy. Paul and I had just recovered from paying off our wedding and were starting to put money aside for a house.

My defense: I really didn't think I would get pregnant THAT fast. And I really thought we would be buying a house in the near future...Enter Will into our lives.

Result: I was POAS (peeing on a stick) two weeks later and saw the two pink lines. I was ecstatic! The bad news: The housing market plummeted and my husband got laid off from his job as a real estate appraiser. The house would have to wait as I endured my first pregnancy living with my in-laws and my husband went back to school to become a respiratory therapist.

You would think after these three events in our lives that I would learn my lesson. But NO, we decide that during the last blizzard (there were three the winter of 2o10) to throw caution to the wind.

Result: Three weeks later POAS - Here comes baby #2 somewhere near November 8th!!

Thankfully, Paul graduated in May 2010 and quickly got hired by University of Maryland Medical Center.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Why???

Why am I doing this now?

I have talked about starting a blog for a long time. I am terrible at keeping up with all the firsts in motherhood and raising children. A lot of friends have started them to keep track of all the little and big events in their familis' lives. I just want to keep track of Will's and this next baby's childhoods and about our scrapes and bumps as parents along the way.

Speaking of...

Last night, Paul decided to put the dog food away upstairs in the bathroom (which is where we have to keep it since Will decided that it is his favorite toy) which he has done dozens of times. Instead of just dumping the bag in the container and carrying on with his day, he decided to fight with the towel rack. In his words, he fought the towel rack and the towel rack won. He ended up in Mercy's ER with two stitches. At least it is never boring around here....