Stress Club: Now accepting New Members

Anyone who knows me knows that I can take stressing out to a whole new level. As one of my talents, I’m pretty darn good at it. In fact, I’m such a good stress monger, I’ll even take on your stress. Bring it on!


My latest obsession, I mean stressor, is over bringing home Pru, our new boxer puppy, who just so happens to be all white. If you take a quick look into the history of the white boxer, you will see there is thought to be a link between white boxers and deafness. It has to do with the absence of pigment cells in the inner ear. The shortage or absence of these cells also is the cause of the white coat. Basically all white dogs (that are white due to the shortage of pigment cells) are at risk of being deaf, not just boxers.

But, here’s how the mind of a stress monger works. I have now fully convinced myself that this could be a huge issue and have worked myself up into a tizzy. What if Pru is deaf? In reality, what’s the big deal anyway? The percentages aren’t that bad really, but I never liked playing the odds and I ALWAYS assume the worst. Why am I even worried? She’s adorable and could be taught hand signals. Amos, our previous boxer, lost his hearing with old age and the hand signals were an awesome way to still communicate and connect with him. So, why am I worked up over this? It’s what I do and I’m damn good at it.

However, I think my stress over the white boxer runs a little deeper, in part, due to the fact that there are still breeders who put them down. How horrible is that? It wasn’t too long ago that white boxers were not even recognized by the AKC. They are now, but they cannot compete as “show” dogs. They can compete in agility competitions, etc. That bothers me too. Why shouldn’t they be able to compete as show dogs? It’s not like they are breed to be all white. Basically 1 in 4 boxers born are white. It’s straight up genetics. A roll of the dice, if you will. If the boxer carries the “white spotting gene”, a litter could have a white pup. I believe that flashy boxers all carry the white spotting gene, since to be considered “flashy” there has to be white covering at least 1/3 of the body. I could be wrong, but I believe flashy boxers are recognized and can be registered with the AKC.

The breeders that are still involved in the practice of euthanizing white boxer puppies, believe they wouldn’t be able to find a happy home for the puppies. It tears me to the core to think about the number of puppies that didn’t make it due to ignorance. Thankfully, there are breeders who display a “white boxer friendly” graphic, to let people know they are not involved in a stupid practice. (Yes Zoë, Mommy used the word “stupid”, sorry!)

So, for many many reasons, I am stressed over little Pru’s arrival at our home. We hope she isn’t unilaterally or bilaterally deaf, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter. We are extremely excited and can’t wait to bring her home.

     Meet Pru!

Famous Amos

Just for kicks, we gave Amos the registered AKC name of "Famous Amos Mocha Coffee Nut".  We lost him last week, he would have been 13 in October, which is pretty old for a large dog.  He was an awesome dog, and he touched many people's lives.  He was actually Dan's dog and we had a tough time in the beginning.  Amos wasn't all that fond of my coming around.  We went to obedience classes together and became fast friends.  He was so funny and friendly.  There's a reason boxers are called the "clowns of the dog world".  Never a dull moment.  He loved his toys and loved to do the "run of terror" around the house.  He really really loved kids.  He would spot a child and his whole body would start to wiggle with excitement.  He loved to play and he was always full of life and energy. 

The obedience training led to us training him to be a therapy dog.  He was a perfect fit for it.  With lots of practice, we passed the Canine Good Citizen test and also the Therapy Dog International test.  We visited lots of people & places in the past eight years, once or twice a week.  He was well loved.  Before he retired from his therapy work, we visited two facilities on a regular basis.  An Alzheimer's facility and an assisted living facility.  We met one of our favorite people at the assisted living facility, Mrs. Mosley.  She and Amos became great friends and when she moved in with her son, we went to visit her at her house.  Amos became such a huge part of her life that he and I both went to her memorial service when she passed away.  (He was kind of a shock to many of the guests!)  I picture Amos and Mrs. Mosley, together again, in Heaven.  I know they are taking good care of each other. 

When I was pregnant with Zoe, Amos and I developed a very strong bond.  Not sure why, but that bond stayed in place until the end.  He seemed to know when I was happy or sad, and when I just needed him to hang with me.  Since I go to bed before Dan almost always, every night (up until about a week before he died), Amos curled up beside me on the bed until Dan came to bed.  Then he would sleep on his dog bed in our bedroom.  Night times have been hard for me, I miss my furry baby so much.  RIP

Here are some of my favorite pictures of my buddy!

Super Dog for Halloween!

Relaxing with Ethan.

 Hanging out at the lake!

Loving (or hating) his Christmas sweater!

Yet another Christmas sweater!  Poor dog!

Changing work schedule

Today I started my new work schedule, which is really my old schedule, for the most part.  I don't know how full-time working mommies do it and keep sane.  I went back to work full-time in December, after a few years of 32 hours per week.  I just can't get it together!  Our company merged, so the new company policy is to work 35 hours per week to keep benefits, so that's what I'm going to do.  Since Dan works a contract, we get our benefits thru my job.  I know that doesn't seem like much, but being able to log some hours from home will be awesome. 

Well, the past few months, I've been a bitchy, stressed out mess at home and at work.  My house is a complete disaster. I can't keep up with laundry, can't volunteer for much at Zoe's school, can't even have lunch with her.  By the time I got home from work, I was physically and mentally exhausted.  I actually like to cook, but just didn't feel like doing that or much of anything.  I would get up very early and try to do house stuff before getting Zoe ready for school, then rush off to work.  After work, I would rush home to meet the school bus and take Zoe to whatever activity scheduled for that day.  It really felt like I was doing everything I did at home before, plus working 40 hours, with little or no help. 

So, I really hope I have made the right decision.  Tomorrow will be a "home" day, and I am actually looking forward to cleaning, straightening and getting my house in order.  I will log in remotely to work.  I was so much happier before, when I had this schedule.  I hope I can find that happiness again.  Of course, I'm totally stressed out now and have convinced myself that someone will complain.  I never had complaints in the past, but I still worry.  Jobs are scarce out there and I'd probably never find a job that allowed me to have a flexible schedule.  So, hopefully all the years I've put in and work I've done will keep things going smoothly.  Fingers & toes crossed.

Girly Day!!

Zoe dubbed yesterday “Girly Day”. It was fun. It’s nice to do something girly every once in a while and get pampered. She and Lizzie really seemed to have a good time at the nail spa. Something tells me we’ve created monsters. I have to hand it to My Nail Spa, they were awesome with the kids. I’m sure it could get frustrating, but they treated the girls like princesses. They got to pick colors for their fingernails and toenails, and tiny decorations to make them really fancy. They even got to soak their feet and sit under the nail dryer.

After that, we took the girls to lunch. They picked Burger King. Yuck, thankfully Ali and I ate something else since we were at the mall. Then we went to Gymboree and they picked out some clothes. Both of them picked out hats. Lizzie picked a fabulous floppy sun hat, while Zoe added another “secret agent” fedora to her hat collection.

We rounded out Girly Day with a trip to Build A Bear for Lizzie’s birthday party followed by cupcakes. On the way out of the mall, the girls stopped by the exhibit for the Broadway show "Wicked".  Can't have Girly Day without pink feather boas and tiaras!  (And a magic wand of course!)

All in all, I think the girls had great day getting pampered and having fun. Now I just need to make my appointment at My Nail Spa.

Spring Break 2010

My first official spring break with Zoe wasn’t too bad, all things considered. Next year, I think I will take the easy way out and just go visit family in Virginia for a week. I can pawn her off on grandparents, aunts, cousins, etc. Spring break kind of snuck up on me this year. We created a list of potential activities, so we could choose one “fun” activity a day.


Day 1 – Went to the Lego Store. Zoe made three Lego people, which was cute, but we have like a thousand of those tiny Lego people. Then we went to Claire’s to ask if they could pierce both ears at the same time. They said yes, want to do it now? So we did. Zoe did great. She is very happy about her earrings. Then we visited Game Stop and took a look around at the games on sale.

Day 2 – Met grandma for lunch at Bear Rock Café. I try to do lunch with my MIL and Zoe when we can. After that, we went to the 10th circle of hell, known as Chuck E Cheese. Ugh. Zoe had a great time, so I guess that is what counts.

Day 3 – Ate lunch at Burger King. (Zoe’s favorite, not mine.) Then went to a free golf clinic for kids. Zoe had a blast. It was neat to see all those kids out there playing in the sunshine. I got to read my Kindle for a couple of hours. Can’t beat that!

Day 4 – Daddy took today off, not one of Zoe’s better days. They went to the movies to see How to Train your Dragon. That was cool. Had a little quiet time at home. After the movie, she went back to being bad and pushing daddy’s buttons. She succeeded.

Day 5 – Zoe started the day off by pushing Daddy’s buttons some more. She managed to tick him off again. For our fun activity, we had breakfast at Denny’s and then headed to Build A Bear. We had a great time. Got home and Zoe took up her favorite activity called “How quickly can I tick Daddy off”. She may have scored her best time yet. Got to spend quite a bit of time in her room, screaming, throwing things, etc. Good times!

All in all, it wasn’t too bad. The last couple of days were a little shaky, but that’s it. I think we are all looking forward to her going to school on Monday.

We thought she was writing a nice note!

Boy were we wrong. We were way off! I remember when she wrote this one. She told us she was writing Jack a note. She got some paper, some crayons and sat down at the table. Then asked if she could go deliver it. My mistake was not looking at the note. I mean really, of course my little girl is writing something sweet and nice, right? Big fat WRONG!


Fast forward to a few minutes ago, the doorbell rings, it's one of my neighbors. She's holding a note. She asked if it was Zoe's handwriting, I said yes, that looks like the note she was writing the other day. She said it blew into her yard and thought I might want to see & read the note. I'm like, OK, sure. OMG! It was an "I hate you" note! I am so embarrassed! (Her penmanship has improved though, so I guess that's a positive.) The note said "Jack" on the front, with a red heart crossed out with an "X". On the inside it said (complete with backwards "J") "Jac I hat you becus you are men". Then she drew a picture with an arrow pointing to it with "Jack" written over the arrow. The picture even had blonde hair. Dan said, when she was writing the note, she had asked him what color Jack's hair was and he said blonde. She said "that's yellow, right"? Little did we know why she wanted that information.

Here's the kicker, my neighbor said she wanted to make sure I knew about the note because Zoe had written her son a similar note a few weeks ago. WTF? Now, don't get me wrong, we have gotten our share of "I hate you" notes from her in the past. We've even kept some, because they are freaking hilarious. We've gotten pictures with faces marked out with “mom or dad” written over them". She always seems to "hat" us about something, but I was totally caught off guard this time. I'm still in shock.

Much needed couple time

Sometimes, you go so long without having any couple time that you start to think that's the norm.  I'm not sure the last time we got to spend a nice evening alone.  We usually get at least once a month, when Zoe does her "sleepover" at Grandma's.  (She calls it her sleepover.  LOL!)  We had a nice evening tonight, out of the blue, totally unplanned.  It made us realize that we really do need to take time for each other and that it really takes an effort from both of us.  We've kind of been just co-existing I think.  Hanging as a family, as parents, but we need to work on getting the "couple" back.  I think we can do it. 

Our neighbor has two daughters that Zoe plays with.  The older one was having a birthday sleepover.  The younger sister asked if Zoe could sleepover as well.  It was like a much needed gift.  Dan & I had dinner, talked, played some Wii games, we had fun.  It's really been a long time. 

Wonder if we'll be getting a phone call at midnight saying Zoe wants to come home?  Should be interesting.  I guess technically it's not her first sleepover, if you count Grandma's house or when her friend Lizzie stayed over.  My baby is growing up so fast!