Dog Status

The way I feel about DOGS is complicated.

When I was little, I adored our faithful hound, Sunny. I fed him and played with him and petted him and brushed him and hugged him. A lot. Without a single thought to his dog-ly odor or doggy hairs. I considered myself a dog lover.

Fast forward 10 or 15 years. I moved to this town where everyone has some sort of canine, and most of them are roaming free. They chase and bark at innocent pedestrians. My parents-in-law here have two big, friendly, hairy, indoor dogs. I have struggled with those creatures. Their hair gets everywhere. They smell doggy. They bark. They lay on the couches. They sniff and nose and lick everywhere.

I have been kind of conflicted for the past 4 years about my dog status: do I like dogs? Am I still a so-called dog lover? If I don’t love dogs does that automatically make me a cat lover? But I’m allergic to cats! My identity is at stake! I can’t figure it out! How could I adore these hairy slobbery creatures as a child and then do a 180 and just be disgusted by them as an adult?

Zeke

It all started the first time Jeff and I lived with the Whites, back when Zeke the dog ruled the roost as the sole canine of the house (since then, Toby has joined the family too). Zeke is no ordinary beast that will slaver you with love if you drop him a crust of bread. In my experience, that’s what dogs do: they wriggle around with irresistible joyous energy at the very sight of a crumb or leftover snack. Well, 4 years ago I thought I’d bond with Zeke by tossing him an old, cold pancake. He caught it deftly enough in his chops, but then with a look of utmost disdain, he laid it down and walked away. I was deeply offended.

A few days later, I learned that Dan normally makes Zeke his own special fresh, hot pancake with BUTTER and SYRUP on it. Apparently I had offended Zeke with my offering as much as he had offended me. Since then, I have had a raging internal battle about my dog status. I haven’t petted Zeke once in 4 years. [Petty and childish, I know, but really, most of my reason for shunning Zeke wasn’t the pancake, it was just the dog dander/hair and my slight dog allergy. I didn’t want to get that stuff on my hand. Honestly]

Where is she going with this?

Tonight I think Zeke and I forgave each other! I was sitting on the floor after dinner, and Zeke walked up to me and looked straight into my eyes with his intelligent brown eyes. His gaze reminded me so much of Sunny that I involuntarily reached out and PETTED him! And I liked it! I was shocked. I thought my doglove days were over. But I guess I had just been denying my internal dog or something.

I still don’t by any means like dog hair or dog dander or dogbreath or dogs indoors, but tonight I did discover that deep, deeeeep down, I am still a dog lover.

Shaina’s Dog Status: closet dog-lover

Normalcy

January is behind us. February is upon us. I noticed that I have a small collection of cute pictures that didn’t get posted in January, so how about now? This post has no subject or story to tell. It’s just full of normal stuff.

I kind of want some striped tights too.

We stopped at the teapot gas station in Zillah for fun one day. Jeff and Rose opted to stay in the car. [tea]Party poopers!

Probably not allowed…

Obviously, the teapot gas station is not currently doing business, but it was fun to stop for pictures anyway, since we do only live 20 minutes away.

Rose randomly decided to flop. HA!

So glad I had my camera in my pocket.

All bundled up to go on a run with Mommy

Me too! Can I just say that I LOVE having that little face peering up at me while I run?

It was SO WINDY that day—my hair was way worse than this picture shows. I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with hair in my eyes any more! It still gets messed up and poofed up by wind, but at least it’s too short to get in my eyes.

Jay and Rose love to attack Daddy. Jay puts on these cute blue tickle monster mitts that he got for Christmas and goes for the kill.

There’s something about The Dad that is just so FUN.

These two kids LOVE watching home videos of themselves.

When Jay really wants attention, he gets right up close and talks right into our mouths. It is hilariously endearing. In this video, Jay is asking to “watch a Jay-video.”

Speaking of videos, Jay really got into Sesame Street this month. This is is face during the song at the beginning. Enchanted. I let him watch an episode while I shower after running. It’s kind of like his reward for sitting in the cold jolty stroller for 35 minutes. It’s impressive how much he actually remembers from that show!

All smiles…

…all the time! (ok, all the time except between 3:30pm-5pm. And when Jay clobbers her).

Haaar-Rose had on a huge diaper under her skort one day and it made her look rather…scandalous!

Speaking of scandalous…I have recently acquired some leggings and loose, short dresses/long shirts. They are ultracomfy. Now I can be comfortable around the house in something cuter than sweats and a t-shirt. It’s a nice change. I said it was scandalous only because it feels like cheating to wear leggings with such a short dress. So I’ll call it a tunic instead. Hey, next time I’m with child I can use these for my belly!

Another mamamasterpiece. This model is called Gumby’s Palace. We used every single block in the house (except the ones that are lost and shoved far under the couch/fridge/bed, of course).

Bare kids at lunch. Love.

Steph made some amazing peanut butter-filled cookies this week. She shared some with me. I didn’t manage to share them with Jeff…

And last but not least, I love Amy Grant’s classic album, Heart in Motion. It’s one of the few things that makes cleaning FUN. I think Rose likes it too.

I love all my NORMAL daily treasures.

My Hair.

It has been chopped.

Not quite sure if I love it yet…

Last time I had hair this short, I was TWO.

Last time I had bangs, I was 13.

So this hairchop is a big change for me.

I’ve been wanting to try SHORT hair for a few years, but every time I went under the knife, (or shears, as the case may be), I chickened out big time. After all, I like long, flowing, shiny red hair. It’s pretty. And feminine. And a ton of work.

So on Friday afternoon, I left Jay and Rose with the Whites and power-walked 23 minutes from their house to a salon in downtown Grandview. When the first long lock fell to the floor, I was thinking ohmygoodness ohmygoodness ahhh ahhhh over and over. But it got easier with each snip. Then the girl started applying the sticky stuff.

This is what I looked like with 5 different gels, mousses, and sprays caked on right after I got home from the salon. I was kind of freaking out. Believe it or not, this hair was much taller and puffier before this picture, but I mashed it down a lot on the way home. When I ran my fingers through my hair, it stood straight up from all that goop that was in it, like prom hair. Yikes, if there’s one thing I don’t want to relive, it’s prom. Things were not looking good.

I took a shower and blow-dried my hair and straightened it. This was the result. NOT comforting. What had I done?? My cowlick forced my bangs over and made me look manly.

It was even worse in the morning—poofy bedhead! eek.

So I tamed it as best I could and went on a run. Running helps me relax and calms my nerves like nothing else. By the time I finished 6 miles, I felt like I could handle ANY crazy haircut. Plus, it was really nice running without a floppy ponytail.

So I came home, showered, donned my new purple coat, and drove to Target to find some hair STUFF to help. Mousse in moderation is magic! My confidence was restored once I put some of that white foamy stuff in my hair. It helps my bangs hang where they’re supposed to, more or less. Whew.

I hope I don’t look too OLD for a 25 year old in this new hair. But it is SO easy and comfy that I don’t really care if I do look “too old for my age.” All I have to do is towel it dry, apply a little magic (mousse) and vamoosh, all done! I don’t even have to blow it dry. Ah-mazing. I could get used to this.

What an emotional rollercoaster all because of HAIR.

Now I can have the convenience of short hair and live vicariously through my daughter. Isn’t that what parenthood is all about? At least one of us can wear ponytails!

A little more white stuff

Well, the snow has melted. There are still some squishy piles of dirty slush on the roadsides and on the less-traveled streets, but most of the snow is reduced to large, murky puddles. It’s very wet here now. Instead of a sled, we almost need a boat now when I take my kids out a run. But I have faith that the power of the stroller will return again soon. I do have one more snow adventure to relate before I can officially let the snow go.

On Saturday, we went over to the White house to play in the snow  with our fun family. The snow had started softening in the sun, so it was conveniently compactable. We built some super sculptures.

This is the snow fort that the missionaries built in the front yard. It was quite spacious inside, but for some reason snow creations really awaken a claustrophobic side in me that I wasn’t aware existed. So I crawled out and went out back to build…

First we had a snow fight. Not really a snowball fight—Jeff was armed with a SHOVEL.

Beware flying snowchunks! Jeff enjoyed being the only one with a shovel FAR too much. We pelted him with wimpy little snowballs, but he heaved snowhunks at us, and we were defeated.

Then I built a snow elephant.

He was pretty cute.

Meanwhile, Jeff had dug up a 6+ foot tall pile of snow. Then he proceeded to dig a long, narrow tunnel through it.

Jay bravely slid down the steep heap.

 

Rose took a turn too.

Zooming out for a second—here’s The Scene. The Whites live right behind the high school, so there was a large, untouched field of snow for us to play in.

The tunnel progressed…

Finally, a breakthrough!

I love this guy.

Eeeek, I briefly conquered my snow-claustrophobia to wriggle through the tunnel once. I really don’t know why I feel so “eeek!” about going into snow forts/tunnels. I’m not really abnormally claustrophobic normally. Wow, I just used abnormal and normal in the same sentence. See if you can unravel that one.

 

If Rose could crawl in all of her bundles, she may have made it through the tunnel. Jay crawled through it so fast we didn’t get a picture of him.

Dan (Jeff’s padre) took all of these pictures—he did a nice job of getting the occasional zoom-out. Jasen decorated the outside of the tunnel with snow-blocks, and he even put a flight of stairs in on one side so Jay could climb up all by himself and slide down.

Wee! It really was too steep to make a good slide, but it was still fun.

Cute.

Cuter. [Rose’s windpants turned out NOT to be quite as waterproof as they looked, so we had to get creative to keep her from freezing.

When we were done with building, it was time for some sledding! Dan dug out his slick old Flexible Flyer sled and of course we also had to use our not-so-flexible roped box too. Jay and Rose loved it. Let the record show that the girls beat the boys in a small foot race. Once.

Goodbye, Snow! Thanks for visiting for a whole entire week. We’ll miss you…until it’s time to load up the stroller, that is…