Austin's First School Party

Here's pictures from Austin's first school party.  Too cute!

They went door to door throughout the district building (which is connected to the preschool) and everyone gave out fun little prizes.

 Then Goose and her shared their snacks or should I say Princess Anna and Princess Sofia.

 There was craft time making pumpkins and ghosts, or like my children think...playing with glue time.

 A little bit of Goose being a goose.

Playing Catch Up

It seems that all I do is play catch up these days.  Austin's school is a 25 minute drive one way from our home and when I first thought about it, it didn't seem that bad.  But now that we are almost through week two I can say that some days I am at a dead sprint all day and never catch up.  I am trying to harness my inner super powers and not get frustrated but it sure is hard.  I have raised the girls since birth at home without much of a schedule and have worked from home for over 7 years with the same flexibility, but now twice a day I have to be somewhere early waiting outside the door...a very different world indeed.  Austin sure does love it though which brings the sane part of my brain back off the ledge.

The cats managed to catch this specimen and leave it for us on the garage stairs, of course as fate would have it they didn't kill it so Joe got to walk it around the house and let the girls play with it.  I ran in sheer terror and begged Joe not to throw it at me, who then exasperatedly stated again and again that he wouldn't "throw" it at me.

We went to our friend's Halloween party this last weekend, we have managed to never miss one of their parties even though we leave much earlier now with the girls.  Here's a snap of some of the people at the party and the girls in their witch costumes.

We bought pumpkins for carving over a week ago but as stated previously have run out of time.  I finally sat down last night and carved all four so they didn't go to waste while Joe had to work late.  Aren't those "Hello Meow's" cute?  And as it turns out, carving your name in a pumpkin is much harder than I had anticipated.

Proud moment...

I totally forgot to post about the proud moment that we had as parents.  So Austin was officially accepted into school on Monday with a start day of Tuesday, didn't give us much time but Joe and I wanted to make it extra special for her.  We were planning a fancy lunch out and then a shopping trip.  Well I got paged from my new team (I'll get into that in a minute) so I had to head home with the girls but we agreed to go back out for the shopping trip.  You know, new clothes, back pack...the whole nine.  When we told Austin about this idea, she looked at us like we were from outer space.  Shrugged her shoulders and said "Well I already have clothes, so why would I need more?"  And then Joe followed up with, yeah but let's get you a back pack and stuff?  She shrugged again and said I have a couple back packs in the playroom, I can just use one of those.  She ran off playing with her sister and didn't think a second mind to it.  Joe and I both agreed this is exactly what we would have wanted to teach her and if we pushed it this time we would end up being the parents that have to throw the elaborate sweet sixteen parties in the future.  It made us pretty proud in the midst of the turmoil that was yesterday.

My new team - We got reorganized at work, which happens a lot.  I was originally moved from one director to another but kept the same boss.  And then was moved again last week from my boss, who I have worked with/trained for seven years.  She knows pretty much nothing of what I do but can assign anything to me and I get it done.  She was there when I was pregnant, knows that I work from home (though I am not "supposed" to), knows that I have two little girls at home with me at all times.  And completely leaves me alone other than the yearly review where she praises me for being amazing.  That's my kind of boss.  Well I got transferred to a guy that I used to work with years ago and in the first day I was involved in several calls that lasted hours while I threatened the girls, dogs and fish to be quiet.  When we went to get off the phone his last words were, Crystal we are super excited to work with you again and look forward to hearing your voice everyday.  Blink...blink...blink.  You guys talk on the phone everyday?!?!?!  Hmmm, a little different than my old boss that I NEVER spoke to.  My world became slightly more stressful.  And then three days into working for said team, I was approached about upcoming layoffs and asked if I wanted to volunteer or roll the dice to see if I get picked.  I have never been exempt from layoffs, but I also knew that my boss had my back...which is why I was safe for so long.  It was the first time that I actually debated on taking the layoff package and just being done with it, but instead with a giant smile I told them no thank you.  Now when I moved teams, like I said my boss knows nothing of what I do...which is kept her servers, databases and websites up and running...so what did I do?  I took ownership of all of those items to my new team and am now getting the...and lets not sugar coat this, because I was transferred to a team of people that do exactly what I do...shit jobs from the new team too.  My work load will be at least double, I haven't left the house since I was transferred without being paged asking where I am and if I can hurry back, my pay stays the same and last but certainly not least I am now the low man on the totem pole to be laid off.  Again...sigh.

We had a tropical vacation in the planning stages for just after Thanksgiving and then of course Indiana for Christmas.  All of which have been canceled since I may or may not be job hunting. :-(  What a bummer.

Austin's First day of Preschool

So we got a call from the school district late last week that stated that there was a spot open in one of their preschools.  Unfortunately it is not the preschool that is one mile up the road but rather a 25 minute drive one way.  Blah.  For someone that works from home, taking two hours off everyday to drive back and forth really stinks, luckily and hopefully Joe will be able to pitch in and help out with picking her up on some days.

With a very sour attitude (just ask Joe, he's been in trouble for days now...for absolutely nothing), I dropped her off today at Preschool.  She will go Monday through Thursday, 12:15 to 3:15...which means we moved lunch to 11 and moved up Little Goose's nap to fit in between those times.  Goose and I dropped her off and both cried the whole way home (luckily she couldn't see me thanks to my sunglasses) and then we both continued to cry while Tyler was trying to take a nap and I was trying to repair a web server.

Just the thought of someone else teaching her and exploring with her is heart wrenching.  I suppose this is one of the side effects of being an at home mom.  Sigh.  This too shall pass.  But for now I remain excited though it is fake and Austin is ecstatic.

 

Dog People

There are many different types of dog people out there, from the ones that treat them like a child to the ones that throw them in dog fighting rings...and everything in between.  I LOVE my dogs and use them for 20% companionship and 80% protection...as in...you must deal with my dogs first while I get my kids out of the house, with that said I would never own a dog or a breed of dogs that I didn't think would hold the front line while I got out.  Obviously, no matter what type of dog you have there will be a significant amount of training that goes into them.  What I think I may have underestimated what the amount of training that would go into my little hairless dogs.  To a 4 year old and a 2 year old a puppy, one that is still learning there is no licking or chewing, is both terrifying and exciting.  They spend their ENTIRE time yelling "No", for no apparent reason and backing up while doing so only to when the puppy goes to walk off, running towards him shaking a toy madly in his face and yelling his name.  He must think he lives in the loony bin.

I think he is already getting bigger in just four days.

One of the benefits for him to be raised in a house with little girls is that they use their mother's brush to comb him after dinner. ;-)

Picking on BD

So the new puppy was picking on BD (who is Adam's dog) last night and I couldn't help but laugh.  Little fluff ball.  And to announce that we FINALLY picked a name...his name is Kuma, which is the Japanese word for Bear.

Guess what day it is?!?!?!?!?!

IT'S PUPPY DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joe is in Albuquerque New Mexico getting ready to meet with the breeder and pickup Moonlight's Fudo (Moonlight is the kennel is he coming from and Fudo is the Japanese God of fire and wisdom).  His technical color is "Red" in the Akita world which is where we got the fire name from.

He was passed over by all of the show homes because he has too much white on his face, which means that we get the pick of the litter! :-D  Holy crap, I can hardly sit still and feel as though I am going to cry...kind of like giving birth without the pain and the fancy underwear. ;-)

Old Girl Just Wandered Up....

This old girl just wandered up to our garage and even though Adam tried to walk around finding her home, he couldn't.  So she has been staying with us for three nights or so, of course the girls love her and we can't just throw her out in the cold.

Tyler's Mr. Stinky and Austin's brown blanket were used to warm her up yesterday.

The Snake

I am beyond terrified of snakes, it is the only fear that trumps my fear of heights.  But as a parent I am confronted daily with attempting to make my children better people than I am.  With that being said I feel as though my fear is one of my greatest weaknesses, so yesterday when we were "hiking" which is just walking the property and I saw something move in front of me - I knew I had several choices to make.  Obviously I wanted to take off the other way and shutter in fear and disgust, but I was holding on to Tyler's hand because she refuses to wear her shoes on the correct feet so she trips even more than my already clumsy kids do.  So if I jumped and moved in the other direction especially quickly I would have to explain why.  Instead I took the high road, swallowed the vomit in my mouth and called Austin over to see what I had found, held onto both of their hands and walked slowly behind God's abomination following it around the yard.  Then we simply HAD to look it up online and see what kind it was, once we found Garter Snakes we had to find the right color.  Then we had to look up the poisonous ones so we could see how different they look.  I spent 20 minutes at the computer trying not to brush my legs frantically thinking that the snake had followed us in the house.  Needless to say I didn't sleep well last night.

Dog Show

Oh my word...we went to an Akita Nationals dog show yesterday to meet with the breeder that we are getting the puppies from.  The girls, my Mom and I walked in surrounded by the most beautiful dogs you have ever seen and simply could not wipe the smile off our faces.  Here are some pictures from the day...oh yeah and then we ate lunch at the aquarium, what a fantastic day.


Here's the generation class, which means you have to have the Grandma dog, Mom/Dad and then child dog.

We took the opportunity on a very nice warm day (before the snow came today) to wear our princess dresses.

So my Mom looked at this picture and said "Goose you closed your eyes".

And then "Girls, both of you closed your eyes...keep them open for the picture."

Now they're open but they both look very surprised.

And I just have to love Goose and all her personality.

Here's one of the big males from Black Forest Akitas.

Isn't he just stunning?!?!?