The abridged story of our dog ownership, start to finish

How it came to pass that we got a dog:
On December 8, I got an email from Andrew that said, "Tell me you don't want this dog." Attached was this irresistible picture.

I wrote back and said, "I DO want that dog!" Hello - those eyes? You can't deny that is the cutest dog you've ever seen.

So he submitted an application to the adoption lady, Shelly. (Actually, I'm pretty certain he did that before we ever talked about it.) Later that night I spoke with her on the phone.

The next day, Dec. 9, Shelly called and we sent up a time for a home visit the next day.

The morning of Dec. 10, I took the kids to Petsmart to get the dog essentials to prepare for Angel's arrival that afternoon. Angel arrived at about 1:30pm, and when I opened the door I thought I would die with the cuteness of that little dog. I fell in love with her. We spent the rest of that day getting used to her and she to us. I went to bed that night happy and peaceful knowing I had someone there with me.

Dec. 11 dawned (not bright and early, because we have been seriously sleeping in since daylight savings), and I noticed that Leighton might be allergic to Angel. He was rubbing his eyes, getting red splotches all over his face, sneezing, and acting miserable. Benadryl fixed him right up, but I started to wonder about the realisticness (is that word?) of keeping Angel.

Dec. 12 the same thing happened. I talked to Andrew about maybe not keeping Angel.

Dec. 13, yesterday, Leighton was fine. We weren't around the dog a ton what with church and all, but I thought maybe I had been exaggerating his reaction. But my heart told me that keeping Angel was not the best thing for our family. So I sent Shelly an email telling her we would have to give Angel back.

Dec. 14, today. We made the hour drive to meet Shelly and give Angel back. I was a little sad to see her go and I will miss some things about having her. I'll admit that I cried for about 30 seconds. But I feel so relieved and peaceful now - better than I have felt since getting her. The stress of worrying about whether or not to keep her was really getting to me, and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

In summary: We got a dog, kept her for 4 days, and then gave her back. We no longer have a dog. Everything is back to normal.

The end.

Putting it off a little longer.

So I've just not been in the writing mood to tell the whole story about the dog. I will, I promise. Soon. But for now, I wanted to show you the picture that has made my day and turned my frown upside down.

I love that girl.

Munch. Munch. Chew. Chew. Swallow.

That is the sound of me, eating my words. Not only those words, but alot of spoken words as well.

We got a dog today.

Her name is Angel, she is a dachsund whippet mix, she's 2 years old, and I am completely in love with her.

Whole story to come tomorrow.

Crayon cookies

Yesterday for our advent activity we did something fun that I thought I'd post on here for all to see. I found the idea on Kiddley, which is the cutest blog that unfortunately doesn't currently post things. Great archives, though.

Anyway, crayon cookies are a great way to use up broken crayons. We have LOTS of broken crayons, as my kids seem to like peeling and breaking them more than coloring with them.
So gather up all your crayon pieces. Dig in all your junk drawers, search the bottom of your purse and diaper bag, and check in all the pen cups throghout the house. Peel off the paper, if any remains, and break them into about 1 or 2 inch pieces. Fill the cups of a mini-muffin tin with contrasting colors. They turn out prettier that way. I read that you should try to use just one brand of crayon melted together, as different brands have different water contents and meltiness. We used all Crayola, because I'm a loyal Crayola lover.

Pop into a 300 degree oven for 5 minutes or until nice and melty. Take them out of the oven to cool for a few minutes, and then put the tin into the freezer for about 30 minutes. After that time, they will be solid and ready to color with.












Eva loves her crayon cookies; she stacked them up and knocked them over for a long time last night, and after a while she was calling them her friends. "Mommy, I dropped my friend on the floor! I like my friends." They get a nice dip in the middle that makes them perfect for stacking, and they color cool thick, soft lines.

My Holidays in Hand pages 1-6, not including 2

I had a request from my cousin Lise to put up some of my digital pages, so here they are. I took another Jessica Sprague class called Holidays in Hand, so that's her template on all the pages. I bought the most adorable kit from Designer Digitals called Colorful Christmas by Mindy Terasawa, and that's where all the patterned paper came from. The pages are really simple - all I do every night is drop the pictures in, list everything we did that day, and add it to the book that I'll print out through Blurb. Simple, but awesome. I really seem to go in spurts with digital scrapbooking. Sometimes I hate it, sometimes I love it. Right now I love it, so there it is. :)

My brush with baldness

It was the night of Nov. 30. I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed and was bent over pulling on some sweatpants. Andrew was standing in the doorway talking to me, and said suddenly, "You have a bald spot on the top of your head." Hmm. My hair must be parted weird. After I walked over for him to inspect it, he declared it was a real bald spot. With panic setting in, I looked in the mirror. Sure enough, on the tip top of my head, there was a round, smooth bald spot the size of a dime. We went through the options of what it could be. I hadn't hit my head recently. It wasn't particularly itchy, so I didn't think it was a rash. Freaking out more every second, we decided to google it.

If you google "bald spot on female head," you'll see why I spent that night in tears. I was sure I was going to lose all my hair from alopecia areata. I was starting to picture my future as a wig-wearer and imagining how I would look balding. My hair is my best feature, next to my feet, and losing it would be a tragedy to me.

After a night of strange, depressing dreams brought on by my anxiety, I called the doctor first thing the next morning to schedule an appointment. Early afternoon I met Andrew on base so he could take the kids and then marched to the doctor to hear my certain diagnosis of premature and irreversible baldness.

The first question she asked upon seeing my spot was, "Do you go to a gym?" Well, you know I do. Instantly she diagnosed the spot not as alopecia areata, but...get ready for it...

FUNGUS.

What?

There's a fungus among us.

I know. Bizarre doesn't even begin to describe it. Sure, I go to a gym to work out, but it's not like I spend my time there rubbing my head on the locker room floor. How in the world could it be a fungus? No idea. Still, almost a week later, I'm scratching my head over the whole thing. Not only from confusion, but the idea of a fungus on my scalp just makes me itchy thinking about it. She prescribed me with a cream to use twice a day and a special shampoo for fungus-carriers like me.

Every time I lose a hair (and I've always been a big shedder), I silently panic wondering if it will ever grow back. Thankfully I have really thick hair, so there's lots to lose. I hope that means it will take a really long time for it to all fall out.

I've learned to part my hair so that even I have a hard time finding the bald spot sometimes. I'm prepared to start coloring my spot brown with eyeliner if I have to, to camouflage it more. And Andrew promised if I have to wear a wig, I can get one for every day of the week with all different styles.

So let me stand as a voice of warning to all you gym-goers. Beware of fungus, because you never know where it will attack you.

Oh, and let me throw in this randomness: the church has a really awesome Christmas website up right now. There are some great things on there. But my favorite, probably my favorite Christmas talk of all time, is one I found by Elder Holland called "Maybe Christmas Doesn't Come from a Store." I've read it at least 5 times and cried every time. Go check it out.

Our December so far

I am doing a December advent where each day we make something and do something to celebrate Christmas. I have a digital scrapbook layout for each day of the month - already made - so each night I just drop my pictures in and journal about what we did. It's been really fun, as it's forced me to a) be proactive about doing fun activities with the kids, and b) take lots of pictures everyday.

Now that Andrew is gone, I suppose I should start blogging again. I have a really strange story about fungus to tell you when I have more time to write. Believe me, you won't want to miss it.